AT THE EDGE OF BEYOND: ALCHEMY, BIOPUNK & OCCULT BLOOD AT THE MUSEUM OF WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

(MENAFN- Pressat) The Museumof Witchcraft and Magic has invited Bioart Covenfounder WhiteFeather Hunter to curate its 2024 exhibition.

A Canadiantechnofeminist transdisciplinary artist and scholarworking in a multiplicity of media, which often operatewithout conventional notions of art, science and magicalpractice; Dr Hunter has recently completed a PhD in BiologicalArt at Symbiotica , The University of Western Australia.

Her doctoralresearch into developing a novel menstrual serum for tissueengineering experiments was spotlighted by Merck/ Sigma-Aldrich forInternational Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 as part oftheir #nextgreatimpossible campaign:her work has received many awards and accolades.

Severalof her works, which debuted last year at Art LaboratoryBerlin , were produced as part of Hunter's doctoral research intissue engineering and laboratory magic using human stem cellsderived from taboo body materials-all within the contextof contemporary feminist witchcraft.

Shereturns to the Museum to install an exhibition showcasingher recent works, along with selected objects from the museumand other prestigious collections including GenesisP's / Sigil for Derek Jarman, and mysterious materialfrom the hermetic Richel-Eldermans Collection.

Theexhibition, Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood willspan the downstairs gallery and upper floor display rooms and willalso include a video / textile piece she produced duringher previous residency in 2022. Worked as a complexcomposite combining digital and organicmatter, Palimpsest presages her later workvia its interrogation of MWM archival materialtransmitted to the audience as tactile ghost pages, representing herscholarly approach to research.

For ArcanumSanguinis, Hunter's curation of museum objects andartefacts that accompany her work speak to the symbolism, beliefs andpractices that have underpinned the development of the discipline of biomedicineover the centuries. Though 'magic' and 'science' are oftenimagined to be opposing realms, Hunter has arranged a visual thematicnarrative to show some of the subtle overlaps that exist betweenthem, purposing the coalescence of material in unexpected ways.

Hunter's machine embroidered and blood-stained lab coatcomplements a hand-embroidered ritual robe that features a caduceussymbol. The caduceus, a double-snake helical arrangement around astaff originates from ancient fertility goddess worship but is nowbest known for its association with medical institutions.

Considerableattention has been given to the proven parallels between art andmagical practice, to the extent that they may in factseem quite commonplace. Little attention has been awardedto the correspondences betwixt scientific practice and magic. Inthe instances that they exist, they are considered tobe taboo ...by The Academy.

In ArcanumSanguinis: Occult Blood, Hunter shows that from folk magicto alchemy to contemporary biotechnological advance, our culturalperceptions of health and the body have always been moderated throughritual and influenced by biopolitics.

ArcanumSanguinis: Occult Blood by WhiteFeather Hunter opens Monday,April 1, 2024 and will run the full season until October 31, 2024.

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