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Small Things That Keep Evil at Bay presents an unended exploration of the esoteric techniques of magick and their potential for psychic autonomy and defense in a time where such things would come in handy. The exhibition compares historical and contemporary occult practices to the artists own uninitiated and spontaneous attraction to the subject. The latter represented primarily by a selection of volcanic rocks, gathered and in some cases refined, for various magical purposes.

It begins with the existential ultimatum that there must be magic in the world, or else it –the world as experienced- succumbs to the unfathomable suffering that occurs in it. Acting from this insistence, we chase a white rabbit to the archaic techniques of shamanism, on through the Hermetic tradition, in between science and religion, off the beaten path, looking for a backdoor in the subconscious to who knows where.

Informed and inspired by Jungian psychology, alchemy, white magic, apotropaic (evil-averting) magic, geomancy, the work of Austin Osman Spare, Hilma af Klint and Brion Gysin as well as psychedelic adventures, dreams and day to day experiences, the artist’s quest finally converges and mysteriously aligns with the relatively young practice of Chaos Magick: A postmodern view on magick that regards all symbolic systems as arbitrary and given power only by the practitioners belief in them. Furthermore the way of the chaos magician echoes the Dao-like notion of soft intent, gestures without lust for result, that the exhibition title refers to. Or in the mythopoeic words of Gandalf the Gray:

”It is the small things. Everyday deeds of
ordinary folks that keeps the darkness
at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.”

Upper Hand begins this autumn by pulling down the curtains. Inside, there are six luminous 16:9 squares and their combined ambient lights, forming a changing gradient mood-lighting throughout the gallery room. It’s a show of different forms of animation. Bodies and shapes made of light, clay, crayon and polygons in dream sequences on loop. A suggestive haze, a colorful fog and among the images and sound: flora, fauna and synthesizers, lofty self-help and revenge, sweet revenge.

(I was part of this exhibition, together with Jonne Hansson, Jane LaFarge Hamill, Otto Mogren, Jack O’Flynn and Lea Sautin).

A selection of my space ship concepts have found their way to DriveThruRpg under the Free League Workshop program.

I couldn’t resist sending a contribution to this artzine and I can’t wait to see what else is in there.

Sci-fi is For Real is put together by Niklas Wallenborg, if you want to check out previous issues of the zine click here.