‘Black & White footage of the Museum Of Witchcraft in the late 1960`s whilst it was under the ownership of Cecil Williamson‘.
The Alchemy of Things Unknown (and a Visual Meditation on Transformation) at Khastoo Gallery (7556 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046 / (323) 472 6498 )
June 10 – July 31, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 10th, 6pm – 8pm
With a film performance by Raha Raissnia, sound by Charles Curtis.
“After the cursing comes laughter, so that the soul is saved from the dead.”
– Carl Gustav Jung, The Red Book
This exhibition intends to examine and expose individual works of art in relation to theosophy, sacred tradition and devotional practice. From William Blake’s illuminated works of divine imagination to Carl Gustav Jung’s drawings of collective symbolic unconscious, the visual is undoubtedly an integral creative tool for reaching, exploring, animating and pervading the indefinable spaces beyond body and mind.
The artists in this exhibition, some more explicitly than others, sought after or seek spiritual truths through art making and employ an almost fervent and reverent experimentation to their practice, one that is both ritualistic and against the grain. This mystic behavior is what defines the show; the persistence on new and unorthodox visual experimentation reaches beyond the worldly sphere to heightened states of consciousness.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the generous contributions of William Breeze, Ordo Templi Orientis, Richard Metzger, John Contreras, Scott Hobbs, David Brafman, William Swofford Cameron, Hetty Maclise, and The Estate of Alfred Jensen.
More info : khastoo.com
Clip from Aleister Crowley: The Beast 666 a film by Donna Zuckerbrot, produced by Reel Time Images. More info here.
‘Aleister Crowley was an accomplished mountain climber, poet, chess player and writer. He is also the most well known and influential occult magician of modern times. His admirers saw him as the prophet of a new age, whose goal was a spiritual awakening for himself and all humanity. At times his unique message and unusual behavior led to misunderstandings and contempt. His detractors denounced him as a Satanist, a drug addict and a sex maniac. The tabloids labeled him a Black Magician, The Wickedest Man in the World and The Man We’d Like to Hang. The Great Beast, as he called himself, continues to be an influence on the spiritual world today’.
Directed by Galina Shakitskaya.
A fantasy based on Mussorgsky’s symphonic poem.
“Bald Mountain”. This name has survived among the people as an echo of ancient mythical notions. It is a mountain where witches and evil spirits gather to cook magical herbs and make spells. And this “mountain” is none other than the sky itself.
A classic of the psychedelic tendency, Peyote Queen directed by the film-maker Storm De Hirsch.
“An attempt to visually render the wealth of kaleidoscope visions of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus ritually used by the Indians of New Mexico. According to the film-maker, Peyote Queen is an exploration in the colour of ritual, in the colour of thought, a journey in the depths of sensorial disorder, of the inner vision, where mysteries are represented in the theatre of the soul.
Storm De Hirsch : Like many experimental filmmakers at the time, she did not begin her artistic career as a filmmaker. She had been a poet and published a number of works in the early 60s. She wanted to find a new mode of expression for her thoughts that went beyond words on the page, which is when she turned to filmmaking. Despite lack of recognition, she was very present in the underground film movement and socialized with every big name on the scene, filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke and others. She mentions Jack Smith, Ingmar Bergman, Gregory Markopoulos, Michaelangelo Antoniono, Vittorio De Seta, Ken Jacobs, Federico Fellini and Jonas and Adolphus Mekas as her favorite film-makers.”
Best of 2009 : Bobby Beausoleil ‘The Lucifer Rising Suite’ (4 x Vinyl LP Box Set released by Anja Offensive)
‘Remastered recordings spanning 11 years (from the ‘67 recordings to the Tracy Prison recordings of ‘78) in 4 full-length LPs worth of Lucifer Rising material with half being never-before-heard sessions personally selected by Bobby BeauSoleil + 9 new pieces of aft from Bobby (8 record sleeve panels and one 2′ x 3′ poster) + A much-extended version of the ‘Fallen Angel Blues’ piece by Bobby that originally appeared in the Kenneth Anger DVD set + more’ …
(+ Infos)
‘French‘ (Richard Sayer) : ‘I’ve made a full color 16 page zine to go with my Exhibition…. they’ll be on sale from Chapter One Gallery and also from my online store from Thursday’.