Carl Abrahamsson's Blog, page 48
January 23, 2019
Rewriting the future – A great new conference!
Welcome to Re-writing the Future: 100 Years of Esoteric Modernism & Psychoanalysis
Registration is now OPEN!
Events will take place over 3 days: Thursday – Saturday, May 30 – June 1, 2019. The first two days proceedings will be held at Schloß Pienzenau & the third and final day will be at Brunnenburg Castle once the home of Ezra Pound, whose grandson Siegfried de Rachewiltz will be joining us.
The castles are located in the beautiful mountains of Merano, Italy. Due to the location and venue for this conference, there are a very LIMITED number of tickets (weekend passes only). Get your ticket by paypaling 150 euro to sinclairvanessa AT gmail DOT com
Presentations include:
Ezra Pound & the Avant-garde
The Life and Poetry of H.D.
Greek Mythology and Ritual
Futurism and Social Consciousness
Psychoanalysis as Modernist Sonic Occultism
The Fin de Siècle Zeitgeist
Austin Osman Spare & Automatic Drawing
The Divinatory Paintings of Ithell Colquhoun
Poetry as Magic
Ezra Pound’s Occultism
From Cosmism to Cosmic Consciousness
True to the Earth and a Pagan Conception of the Self
The Weaving and Forging of a Magical Tradition in Folk and Fairy Tales
Geomancy and the Earthly Zeitgeist
The Roots of Modern Satanism
Re-Membering the Weird
Reading Emptiness as the Royal Road to the Self
Secret Committees, Collective Beings and the Revolutionary Egregore
Runes, Chant, and Trauma
Spiritual Evolution: For the Masses or for the Few?
The Crusade Against Magical Thinking
Spirituality as a Response to Fighting Social Inequality
How Our Denied Selves & Unresolved Ancestors Hold Keys to Our Collective Liberation
& more!
Join us for this incredible experience!
Re-writing the Future:
100 years of Esoteric Modernism & Psychoanalysis
A Multi-disciplinary Conference
30 May – 1 June, 2019
Brunnenburg Castle & Schloß Pienzenau, Merano, Italy
In recent times, it has come to light that many revered artists, writers, poets, philosophers and performers have held esoteric world views or underpinnings. Several recent art exhibitions worldwide have highlighted this: Black Light in Barcelona, retrospectives of Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington in New York and Mexico City, respectively, Mystical Symbolism and the visionary works of Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim, all in just the past year.
The field of psychoanalysis itself first began as an esoteric discipline – exploring previously uncharted territory with relatively few individuals meeting weekly at the home of Sigmund Freud. Some of Freud’s occult explorations were quite overt, as he conducted thought experiments with his daughter Anna Freud and close colleague Sandor Ferenczi late into his life. Though Freud intentionally steered the public persona of psychoanalysis away from any occult leanings, his personal work with the esoteric went on well into his twilight years. Carl Jung also explored his own psyche in secret for decades as he created his masterpiece The Red Book, which was only discovered after his death and released publicly in recent years.
The Zeitgeist of the time is reflected in a myriad of ways: the innovative writing of T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway; poetry of H.D.; automatic drawings of Austin Osman Spare; spirit drawings of Georgiana Houghton; accidental poems of Tristan Tzara; noise concerts of Luigi Russolo; collages of Hannah Höch; montages of Man Ray; the expressionism of Wassily Kandinsky; and early experimentation with film and photography. W.B. Yeats taught a young Ezra Pound theosophy. Piet Mondrian studied theosophy as well. The surrealists touted the theories of psychoanalysis, exploring dreamwork, automatic writing, synchronicity and chance.
It is notable that so many cultural heavyweights, who are held in such high regard, deemed it necessary to keep their esoteric views and occult explorations hidden from the world. Clearly they felt these ideas would not be acceptable at that time. And they were probably right, as many of those figures who were more open about their views, were often shunned, denied or had aspects of their work ignored outright. It begs the question: why does society accept some aspects of the mind, but not others?
At our current moment of cultural crisis, it makes sense to look back over the past 100 years; to reflect on the cultural Zeitgeist before the First World War – the very same time period and cultural and intellectual epicentres that birthed the field of psychoanalysis, the Dada movement and Der Blaue Reiter. Much like our times, upheaval and change were in the air. The arts and sciences were booming, as was philosophy, media and technology. Interest in theosophy, Eastern philosophies, occult and esoteric belief systems was on the rise. Society’s accepted values and consensus worldview were put into question; the status-quo challenged, refined and reformulated for a modern era.
December 31, 2018
Happy Endings, Season’s Greetings & Future Meetings
This year has been another rollercoaster experience, and both Vanessa and I are very happy to end the year at home in Stockholm with no major travels planned any time soon. The entire year of 2018 has been one of major fluxus (the swinging, not the art movement) and it does take its toll eventually. Now we’re finally well situated, and this holiday season is a very nice time to just snuggle up in the library and reminisce about what actually happened. A lot happened.
One of the best experiences on a personal level was that my book Occulture – The Unseen Forces That Drive Culture Forward was published by Inner Traditions. I’m very pleased with that collection of essays and lectures, and to have it published by a great publishing company like Inner Traditions was indeed a source of great joy. This also led to an increasing amount of podcasts and other interviews, and I didn’t (and don’t) mind that at all.
The main writing task this year has been my second novel. I’m almost finished with the first draft, and it’s been quite a magical experience to see how plot and characters have bloomed during the process. Nothing beats fast-paced absurdist fiction! (Well, perhaps American politics did this year…)
On the occultural note, I also taught at some very interesting places. The year began at Stockholm University of the Arts, where a new class in the “Black Mirrors” course got some heavy infusion of cut-ups and magical thinking. Food for thought and techniques for work.
In the spring I presented more of the same at the excellent Prosjektskolen in Oslo, Norway. And in the summer, both Vanessa and I taught classes in Cali, Colombia, at the wonderful Escuela Incierta. This school offered an entire summer course called “Oculturas,” and who could be better suited to teach there than Vanessa and I? It was an amazing experience at the height of a beautiful Colombian summer. We didn’t get to see as much of the rest of Colombia as we wanted, but seeing a great deal of Cali was interesting and definitely inspiring. We hope to return soon.
If Colombia was the great teaching trip of the year, our autumnal excursion to Egypt was definitely the learning experience of the year. We traveled on the Nile, passed through Kairo, Luxor, Aswan and many other places and sites. A perfectly mind-blowing trip through history and timeless magic. I also broke my personal record in terms of experiencing heat: 45° C. It was quite intense, and, needless to say, much water was drunk.
As usual, we divided our overall time between the US and Sweden. Working on many projects at the same time took us to Florida, California, New York, Vermont, Washington DC, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. It was a proverbial whirlwind, as usual, when we met with dear old and new friends. I worked with Little Annie on my film about her (and Vanessa worked on an album with her!), and also interviewed a lot of interesting people for the documentary about Anton LaVey I’m making together with Alf Wahlgren.
More on film stuff: I made great progress on my film about Kenneth Anger, which is scheduled to be released in the early spring. I also re-edited my first feature film (“Silent Lips,” 2016) by cutting away some 35 minutes (!), as well as making brand new music for it. It’s now considerably more than a “redux” version – it’s like a whole new film (and will be released again as such)!
As for music proper, I have to say that 2018 was a phenomenal year. My solo album, “The larval stage of a bookworm,” was well received and then remixed in its entirety by some amazing artists. This remix opus was also released by Highbrow Lowlife. The same label also released my collaboration with UK’s finest sound ensemble, Akoustik Timbre Frekuency: “Heated Wanderlust and then some.” As well as Vanessa’s and my first album together: “Cut to fit the mouth.”
I made the music for a collaboration with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and it was an interesting process. The album in question, “Loyalty does not end with death,” (due out early 2019 on Ideal Recordings) is our third collaboration musically. In 1990, the White Stains & Psychick TV album “At Stockholm” was released. In 2004, there was “Wordship” by Cotton Ferox & Thee Majesty. And now, a further 14 years down the line, there will be “Loyalty does not end with death.” The difference this time is that there are no umbrellas or monikers. It’s just Gen and me seeing what can be done in a blissful third-mind-frame.
Publishing-wise, it was a tremendous year. Trapart’s distribution network got better, which basically means less risk now that I’m diligently expanding the bouquet of books. In March there was Gen’s excellent “Brion Gysin – His name was Master,” which has been doing really well. Just now in December, the spring season’s babies arrived: Lars Sundestrand’s “To become who you are” and Ruby Ray’s “Kalifornia Kool.” They are both logical progressions and audacious steps on my way to the future. Trapart has some fantastic titles lined up for 2019, and these two heavy new tomes will usher in the new year very elegantly – and hopefully successfully too!
So, what’s in stall for the new year? Well, we are currently so exhausted that we’ll wait with spilling all the beans… Let’s just say that it’s going to be a great year with a MASSIVE amount of new products and projects. By the way… Thank you for being part of our 2018. See you on the other side!
PS. The main place to stay in touch and keep yourself updated is our Patreon site. All the news, all the time! Not only is it our central place; it’s also where there’s more material from us than on any other social media platform: photos, rarities, music, film clips, cut-ups, poetry, excerpts, discounts and shameless eruptions of narcissism. If you like what Vanessa and I are doing, then we hope to see you over at Patreon: www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl
Other important links for the new year:
December 30, 2018
Another year seen through the lens of others
Every year is basically a good film year. Why? Because there will always be more films than you’ll ever have the time to watch (one of the best reasons to believe in/ascribe to reincarnation theories). If there’s not enough stimulation in the contemporary spheres, just backtrack to film history.
That said, I found 2018 an unusually good year. This probably just means that I was more attentive and curious. My own revitalized pathology/neurosis vis-à-vis film in general and documentary film in particular simply contributed to a stronger hunger. And to me watching a lot of good stuff.
What follows here is not necessarily a best-of-the-year list but just an un-ranked group of films I’ve watched pretty recently this year and that I can highly recommend. All films are either streaming or available on DVD/BluRay (or both). Enjoy!
Fahrenheit 11/9 (Michael Moore, USA, 2018)
Somewhat predictable but highly entertaining sweep of the post-election American trauma. How a vulgar cretin like Donald Trump could become president is no longer a mystery but still highly mystifying. Michael Moore, ever the emotional demagog, does a great job exposing not only this American Antichrist but also the lies, confusion and deceit within the Democratic Party environment that paradoxically helped this distinctly un-American force take charge. The American political system now seems utterly defunct, and because of that a diagnosis cluster with a way too long necktie can grab even more media attention and thereby daily make an entire world laugh in disbelief and dread. Unfortunately, the future doesn’t look so bright for the US, and this film will definitely be a key to understanding how a once great nation could fail and fall so quickly. House of Cards, indeed.
Scotty and the secret history of Hollywood (Matt Tyrnauer, USA, 2017)
Meet Scotty Bowers, sexual matchmaker extraordinaire. Never a pimp, but always there to make people feel good together. This film is the unlikely story of a good looking ex-soldier who came back after WW2 to become Hollywood’s best kept secret. You think the heyday stars had weird sexual appetites and tastes? You’re absolutely right. And Scotty Bowers was right in the middle of it (and them) all.
More here on this fascinating character…
PS. Tyrnauer’s most recent documentary, Studio 54 (2018), is also worth watching. Great New York decadence/madness and cocaine-fuelled tax evasions!
They’ll love me when I’m dead (Morgan Neville, USA, 2018)
A remarkable and intelligent documentary about Orson Welles’s final film project, The other side of the wind. The project as such was never finished and became somewhat of a ball and chain for Welles in his autumn years. Plenty of accolades but no funding, and especially not from Hollywood proper. The documentary displays a wealth of interviews, material and lots of clips from the original footage. Amazing stuff, and perhaps the final piece of the puzzle that is spelled G-E-N-I-U-S.
The other side of the wind (Orson Welles et al, USA, 2018)
And here it actually is… Orson Welles’s final masterpiece! To market the documentary about the film, or vice versa? This film has been edited together by people who worked closely with Welles on the shooting of a bizarre epic about an old and disgruntled director trying to finish his final film, and that certainly seems meta-Wellesean enough (thematically as well as stylistically). If you take Welles’s preceding film F for Fake into then recent account, the full frontal assault of chaotic, psychedelic editing and the rapid dialogues of The other side of the wind make perfect sense. Well, perhaps not sense, but it certainly makes for an intriguing mosaic and insight into a creative mind that was going super strong right up to the very end. Perhaps Welles would have made the final film differently on some levels, but that we will never know for sure. I fully respect the people who finished this film for him though. It’s a respectful, audacious, chaotic, and cinematically celebratory kicking against some Hollywood pricks, while still a declaration of love for the medium itself. Welles wouldn’t have had it any other way.
The sunshine makers (Cosmo Feilding-Mellen, USA, 2015)
A great film about the early days of LSD-making. As LSD was made illegal in the US in the mid 1960s, some truly courageous cookers stepped forth. Owsley Stanley, Tim Scully, and Nick Sand, aided by the distribution network/hippie mafia The Brotherhood of Eternal Love all changed people’s minds and lives to a degree that America (or the rest of the world) hadn’t experienced before. As much of the official LSD lore focuses on the cultural manifestations (Leary, the Beats, hippies, acid rock, experimental movies, etc) The Sunshine Makers offers something else. This film is about the larger than life destinies of the people who made all of that possible on a chemical level.
Wild wild country (Chapman & Maclain Way, USA, 2018)
An Indian meditation guru/cult leader, a scheming second in charge, a huge compound in Oregon with its own armed police force, thousands of cult members involved in free love and meditation while the leaders showed more and more draconian sides in petty power struggles… And then, the money… Yes, it’s a classic cult story, but one of massive proportions. And it’s all true! This excellent seven hour documentary about Bhagwan and the Osho movement is positively mind boggling. One is left wondering: why did these people shoot so much weird and incriminating material on video? Hubris and naiveté in an amazing mix that makes us jump with joy. Sexual orgies, power struggles and weird, alternative therapies… You just can’t beat that!
Quincy (Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones, USA, 2018)
A straightforward film about an absolute giant of American culture. Quincy Jones’s work as composer, arranger, producer and artist throughout more than half a century is totally without parallel. Sui Generis par excellence. This film makes that uniqueness very clear, and takes us deep into Jones’s creative worlds from the 1940s and onwards, as well as into intimate and family-related twists and turns. What a great life, and what an impressive contribution to (American) musical history!
Struggle (Irineusz Dobrowolski, USA, 2018)
This film tells the story of American-Polish sculptor/artist Stanislav Szukalski (1893-1987). His sternly majestic sculptures, weird psychedelic paintings and drawings, and strange concepts of Easter Island origins and Yetis must have been a treasure trove for art collector Glenn Bray and his cronies (like Robert Williams) when they discovered the Pole living amidst them in Los Angeles in the 1970s… As they dug deeper and systematically interviewed this oddball outsider artist, they unearthed slightly more than they bargained for. The man’s ardent Polish nationalism contained streaks of “idealistic” anti-semitism in the 1930s, but it seemed to have calmed down after most of his art was destroyed in Poland during WW2. Had his great friend and super-Sionist Ben Hecht known about this anti-semitism when they hung out in Chicago and Los Angeles, it would probably have been the end of that friendship. Szukalski retracted into a weird but undoubtedly creative kind of autism which eventually led to his rediscovery via a new generation of artists and art lovers. A fascinating story and a great film about a truly unique mind.
December 8, 2018
I’m author of the month in Graham Hancock’s empire!
For the month of December, I’m ”author of the month” at Graham Hancock’s site. Very soon I’ll be active on their forum / message board too, to answer questions and chat etc. You can find the relevant links at the bottom of this post. But for now, here’s what it’s all about:
Occulture and beyond
It was undoubtedly an interesting process putting my book, Occulture – The Unseen Forces That Drive Culture Forward together. Not only did it give me a chance to look back at lectures and essays from recent years, but it also presented me with a unique opportunity to (re)evaluate my own thinking about this most fascinating subject at a time when the very concept of “occulture” seems to be expanding quaquaversally all over the world; in academia, major exhibitions and popular culture. I was wholly immersed in all things occultural, inside my own sphere and outside of it, and I could finally put it all together in a book.
I quickly found some red threads or unexpected consistencies. Though I had written about historical phenomena and people, I had allowed myself the creative slack to speculate under the umbrella of something that could be called “magical philosophy.” I realized that this was very much my background; a formulation of my own identity, if you will. I looked at people like Crowley, Steiner, Jung and even unexpected people like the American author Paul Bowles, and merged that historical perspective with one that asks questions like, “Why are people attracted to phenomena like magic and occultism?” and, “Is there more than meets the historical eye to these phenomena?” There certainly is; because whatever humans do, there is a magical thought or desire that drives it forward.
What happened then was a result of decades’ worth of pondering and thinking. I realized that my youthful, early 1990s creation of the term “magico-anthropology” contained much more than youth- and zestful hubris. Magico-anthropology actually contains everything! Putting the book Occulture together made me see that all of human history can – and perhaps even should – be looked at through magico-anthropological goggles. Without them, only fragments or facets of history can be seen; without a full understanding of the “magical” perspective, one cannot scrape the surface of anything in human culture. To actively negate or distance oneself from it is to consciously not see the big picture.
Regardless of whether we choose the natural sciences, arts and letters, or any other aspect of human endeavour, the creative spark always stems from a magical place. Even the fairly recent phenomenon of “empiricism” is rooted in creative speculation and desire. That’s one piece of this fascinating puzzle: wherever we look, we see a distinctly metaphysical origin. Chemistry has roots in alchemy; astronomy in astrology; clinical medicine in herbal, “natural” medicine; theatre in ritual; art in talismanic manufacture; writing in spell-work; psychology in healing; religion in magic etc., etc. This made me think that perhaps we should subordinate all these disciplines (perhaps even all academic disciplines) under the banner of Magico-Anthropology.
Everything we do in life has motivations that are usually far deeper than the expressed, rational version of it. The further into ourselves we backtrack, the clearer we see that there are deep-rooted issues relating to “survival” and “power” at hand; the instinctual morphs into the intuitive, which in turn morphs into the rational. It is on these same deep-rooted, instinctual levels that the “magic” exists. I choose to put the word in quotation marks; not to denigrate or diminish its value – quite the contrary; for it’s a phenomenon so ingrained in the human psyche that our contemporary, colloquial use of the term (so often imbued with banality or even ridicule) simply can’t do it justice. When we talk about magic today, people associate it freely with fairytales and movie franchises. “Mentalism” sounds like a disease, but it’s essentially a clever appropriation and development of the rabbit in the hat; magic proper lies much deeper than that.
Magic is a perceptive mind frame, a multifaceted filtering of information, and an expressed, intuitive will churned through an optimized and quite often estheticized understanding of the importance of the irrational, emotional psyche. That magic is so dear to all human individuals has to do with the fact that just like breathing and eating, this mind frame is essential in the true sense of the word; it is needed for survival.
What do we need for survival? On a strictly individual level, we need to satisfy our biological needs. But we also need to temper the panic of handling the threatening chaos outside of our corporeal sphere. This requires rational action but also a constant evaluation based on both sensual and mental impressions; these can’t be distanced from continual wishes for things, as well as safety and survival. Desire is always integrated in survival scenarios. On a group level, it’s basically the same but with an endlessly fascinating factor added: group dynamics. We absolutely realize that we can survive better together, but one’s own power within this dynamic or structure is even more important than the group’s. From this perspective, we have not evolved much at all since the early cave days. The King of the Hill rules supreme and gets the Foxiest Ladies; that is, until there’s a new king. All of the dramatis personae – the king, the ladies and the new king – use aspects of magic to enforce whatever is best for them: staged manipulation, sensuality, sexuality, and violence are just blunt euphemisms for ritual, perception, seduction and catharsis. At the same time, the players integrate an active use of intuition and reliance on “cosmic proxies” (such as calling on gods, forces, spirits, ancestors, etc.). Whether it’s reflected in fire, on a cave wall filled with primordial paintings, or in a steady flow of social media posts on a “smart” phone, the messages all convey the same: the struggle to be in the best position for one’s own survival and, in extension, for those one sides with (usually those that help you survive).
The primordial dog-eat-dog scenarios didn’t really improve when humans banded together, got the agricultural train rolling and created BIG religions to alleviate the daily grind by simplified, moral(istic) proxy. In fact, that distancing from the uniquely individual or tribal perspective (which some would call “gnostic”) may have been very detrimental to holistic health—because one should never assume that those who claim good are good. They are as involved in their own magical thinking and power dynamics as you are, or as you wish to be. That this power-proxy developed in parallel with feudalism and its integration of serfdom is not a coincidence.
These days, the occultural waves that splash our impoverished shores do so because we need them. These important reminders of deeper layers within ourselves, preferably untainted by religious layers of control, are necessary for us to re-evaluate what’s happening. Did someone miss that the planet we’re inhabiting is in dire straits? We could fix so many of its life-threatening problems, but with the further distancing of ourselves from the primordial appreciation of life, this won’t happen. What we need is an active reintegration of that deeper understanding that we are all connected. Holistic bliss. An empirical scientist can claim that it’s beneficial to breathe on a plant because it gets stimulated by our carbon dioxide and through the overall process of photosynthesis gives us oxygen back. A magical scientist would go further (and often does) by saying that it’s not just the breath but also what’s said that makes the plant say something back. Magico-anthropology always takes a deeper look at any facet of human life and culture, and it’s in that depth that we find the magic we need now more than ever.
On a recent trip to Egypt, many of these perspectives literally came alive for me. While traveling down/up the Nile and seeing all the beautiful temples and sites (some of which have survived for five thousand years!), I was struck (again) by the need for a magico-anthropological filter. The Egyptian pharaonic culture was one steeped in magical sensibilities, credibilities and abilities, and we know this because of the occultural enlargement of the historical scenario. By constructing majestic edifices filled with statues, inscriptions and carvings they not only catered to their own immediate religious and magical needs; they also cater to us through these estheticized edifices.
Their system allowed the pharaohs to become God-like travellers in-between life and death. That is, until they were taken out of their Sleeping Mummified Beauty scenarios and put on display in museums. The curses that originally protected them had an effect on those who literally unearthed the sleepers. Whether humorous and disrespectful or not, the curses are real enough to spawn an endless array of bad movies and other cheap fictional thrills. However, the pharaonic culture lives on because it was a culture, and a very well-developed one.
The same could be said for many sites and buildings, including those of the spiritually more impoverished monotheistic religions, even. Beautiful thousand-year-old cathedrals and mosques still radiate human ingenuity and inspiration, and with an occultural sensibility for sure. But the present-day representatives of these faiths would never accept such an analysis or association, even though it’s the simplest thing to fathom. They are too immersed in their earthly power to go beyond any mechanical, physical limits. Their ancestors understood considerably more when they erected these edifices. They were aware of and, to an extent, also respectful of previous powers. Holy sites were very holy for the local people, and for the new imposed symbols to also become holy, they needed to be placed literally on top of the previous pagan ones. One example close to my home is Uppsala Högar (the Uppsala mounds) just outside university town Uppsala in Sweden. It used to be the (epi)center of Scandinavian paganism for hundreds of years (and was even “portrayed” – with massive doses of fictional licence – in the successful TV series “Vikings,” complete with human sacrifice and all). Today a Christian church stands right on the spot where the old temple used to be.
This ultra-magical phenomenon of “constructive desecration” is also clear to see in Egypt. In many temples and tombs, early Coptic Christians had sought refuge from an assortment of enemies. But they just couldn’t remain grateful and respectful of the magical surroundings that kept them safe and alive. These early Christians had to ritually desecrate these places by graffiti and carvings of primitive crosses. Today, some Coptics try to pay penance by integrating Egyptian wisdom and symbolism in their monastic life and works, like the interesting and magico-anthropologically sensitive Bishop Thomas at the Anafora Monastery, just outside of Cairo. Today, as if by some strange twist of karmic fate (or pharaonic curse), the Coptics are more persecuted in Egypt than ever – although by Muslims, not by people of the old Egyptian religion. What goes around comes around in whatever shape, I suppose.
What I’m saying is that not even the major religions can eradicate the individual’s need to relate to the world magically. “Magical thinking” is usually looked at as something negative, but on a deeper level everyone knows that each empirical or tangible success stems from the same source or sphere as the child playing: the inner spheres of fantasy and desire; of empathy and imagination; of individual will and of creativity. How we actually deal with the findings of those processes is what constitutes our individual identities in life. When we are aware of what we desire beyond the most primordial state of yearning and apply our own creativity (no matter how primitive it may be) to it with a formulated will, we achieve a timeless formula for human greatness and success.
Which brings us back to my book, Occulture. I realize that the book is perhaps not just a smart overview of things and people past, albeit inspiring, with some attempts at philosophy thrown between the lines; it may actually be my own desperate attempt to make people realize that it’s time to wake up to a scenario that can no longer be avoided by primitive escapisms. The situation needs to be addressed by looking at the past, and at why some cultures and attitudes manage to live on while others are as fickle and fated to be forgotten as a tweet from last week. There are distinct keys to survival. Two of them are magic in itself and its integration in culture. Hence “occulture.” Hence Magico-anthropology. That said, I wish us all the best of luck.
Carl Abrahamsson
Photo by Vanessa Sinclair
LINKS:
https://www.innertraditions.com/occulture.html
https://scarletimprint.com/publications/reasonances
https://grahamhancock.com/abrahamssonc1/
https://grahamhancock.com/phorum/
http://anaforaegypt.com/our-anafora/
December 3, 2018
A teaser track from the new Gen & Carl album
From the album ”Loyalty Does Not End With Death” (Ideal Recordings, due out early 2019) Published by Interzone/Freibank. Words by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Music & production by Carl Abrahamsson.
November 20, 2018
Two new titles from Trapart Books
Two new titles are available from Trapart Books. I am overjoyed and so extremely proud to publish these remarkable books. Please check them out HERE and please also take a look at the wonderful photographic editions we have made available together with the artists.
LARS SUNDESTRAND: TO BECOME WHO YOU ARE
In the late 1970’s, in the midst of the ultra-creative punk era, Swedish photographer Lars Sundestrand created his now legendary fanzine Funtime from his home in Gothenburg. The idea was to share with others the bands and artists he himself was inspired by. One of these multifaceted artists was British agent provocateur Genesis P-Orridge. At the time, P-Orridge was leading the groundbreaking record label Industrial Records and the influential band/project Throbbing Gristle (TG). Sundestrand and P-Orridge quickly struck up a personal correspondence overflowing with information and artistic substance. When P-Orridge moved on to the new music/video project Psychic TV (PTV, and its radical, magical sister organisation Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, TOPY) in the early 80’s, Sundestrand was right there in the midst of it.
To Become Who You Are is a collection of Sundestrand’s beautiful and revealing photographic portraits of all the key people of the era, plus letters, postcards, Industrial Records newsletters, rare artwork, TOPY information and magical ”propaganda,” and much more. Interviews with Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Monte Cazazza, David Tibet and others reveal what was truly going on in this mind-bendingly influential era of experimental art and music.
For anyone interested in industrial music and sex-magical culture, this volume is a treasure trove of inspiring material. Read it and be challenged to finally become who you are!
Published 2019. 216 pages, size 210 x 250 mm. Hardcover with dust jacket.
Spanning music, art and literature, the industrial and punk scenes of San Francisco in the late 1970s and early 1980s were diverse but united by a DIY, anti-authoritarian attitude. Photographer Ruby Ray was there to capture it all in the same spirit. With her work appearing in the legendary punk zine Search & Destroy and its successor RE/Search, Ray was at the epicenter of, and a key participant in, a vital cultural moment vibrant with provocation and creativity. A local experimental music and art scene supported artists like Bruce Conner and William S. Burroughs, and attracted groundbreaking bands like Devo, the Mutants, Boyd Rice and the Dead Kennedys, as well as established international bands like Throbbing Gristle, the Clash and the Sex Pistols. Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool collects the photographer’s images from this time: live shots, backstage parties, apartments overflowing with youthful exuberance, elegant portraits of key people and photographic experiments. Her work captures a time and a place where West Coast open-mindedness, youth, art, music and electricity merged.
“Late 70s, early 80s… Ruby Ray and her camera, capturing the movers and shakers of the San Francisco punk and industrial scenes… And then some… Performance art, music, literature, photos, videos made with a “fuck you” and “do it yourself” attitude. Ruby sees and Ruby captures… Knowns and unknowns, winners and losers, sane and insane, constructive and destructive… William Burroughs with his gun, Bruce Conner being fueled by punk energy, Sex Pistols’ last ever gig in San Fran, Throbbing Gristle, The Cramps live at Napa Mental Hospital, Search and Destroy Magazine, and bands and gigs galore… Devo, Mutants, Slits, Bags, Dead Kennedys, Cabaret Voltaire, Roky Erickson, Nico, DOA, Chrome, Factrix, Boyd Rice, Z’EV, Flipper… You name’em and there was Ruby Ray: the spectacularly talented lens of Kalifornia Kool. We should be grateful for her work. It’s invaluable, evocative, loud, sexy and more inspiring now than ever before… Ruby’s images open up a portal to a mythic and frenzied scene and show that it’s true: all mythologies are real… Turn up the volume and dive into this one.” – Carl Abrahamsson, from the Introduction
Published 2019. 216 pages, size 240 x 240 mm. Hardcover with dust jacket.
A new conference is in the works
Re-writing the Future:
100 years of Esoteric Modernism & Psychoanalysis
A Multi-disciplinary Conference
30 May – 1 June, 2019
Brunnenburg Castle & Schloß Pinzenau, Meran, Italy
In recent times, it has come to light that many revered artists, writers, poets, philosophers and performers have held esoteric world views or underpinnings. Several recent art exhibitions worldwide have highlighted this: Black Light in Barcelona, retrospectives of Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington in New York and Mexico City, respectively, Mystical Symbolism and the visionary works of Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim, all in just the past year.
The field of psychoanalysis itself first began as an esoteric discipline – exploring previously uncharted territory with relatively few individuals meeting weekly at the home of Sigmund Freud. Some of Freud’s occult explorations were quite overt, as he conducted thought experiments with his daughter Anna Freud and close colleague Sandor Ferenczi late into his life. Though Freud intentionally steered the public persona of psychoanalysis away from any occult leanings, his personal work with the esoteric went on well into his twilight years. Carl Jung also explored his own psyche in secret for decades as he created his masterpiece The Red Book, which was only discovered after his death and released publicly in recent years.
The Zeitgeist of the time is reflected in a myriad of ways: the innovative writing of T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway; poetry of H.D.; automatic drawings of Austin Osman Spare; spirit drawings of Georgiana Houghton; accidental poems of Tristan Tzara; noise concerts of Luigi Russolo; collages of Hannah Höch; montages of Man Ray; the expressionism of Wassily Kandinsky; and early experimentation with film and photography. W.B. Yeats taught a young Ezra Pound theosophy. Piet Mondrian studied theosophy as well. The surrealists touted the theories of psychoanalysis, exploring dreamwork, automatic writing, synchronicity and chance.
It is notable that so many cultural heavyweights, who are held in such high regard, deemed it necessary to keep their esoteric views and occult explorations hidden from the world. Clearly they felt these ideas would not be acceptable at that time. And they were probably right, as many of those figures who were more open about their views, were often shunned, denied or had aspects of their work ignored outright. It begs the question: why does society accept some aspects of the mind, but not others?
At our current moment of cultural crisis, it makes sense to look back over the past 100 years; to reflect on the cultural Zeitgeist before the First World War – the very same time period and cultural and intellectual epicentres that birthed the field of psychoanalysis, the Dada movement and Der Blaue Reiter. Much like our times, upheaval and change were in the air. The arts and sciences were booming, as was philosophy, media and technology. Interest in theosophy, Eastern philosophies, occult and esoteric belief systems was on the rise. Society’s accepted values and consensus worldview were put into question; the status-quo challenged, refined and reformulated for a modern era.
Keynote speaker: Siegfried de Rachewiltz, grandson of Ezra Pound.
Submissions: please send an abstract of 500 words or less and a brief bio to sinclairvanessa@gmail.com by December 31, 2018.
To be updated, please sign up for the newsletter. Thank you.
November 18, 2018
A new successful crowdfunder
I just launched an Indiegogo campaign for the new An Art Apart film, about Kenneth Anger: Leaving No Traces Behind.
https://igg.me/at/angerdocu/x/18702014
As an expansion of my work as a journalist (specialising in the arts and culture), in 2013 I started making documentary films about artists in a series I call “An Art Apart.” What inspires the people who inspire? What drives and motivates them?
So far, I’ve shot 15 films in this series, of which five are ready and released (please check out www.trapartfilm.com for more information). But ever since we met for the first time in Hollywood in 1989, Kenneth Anger has always been very special to me, and I’m overjoyed to work on this film now. With your help, I can wrap this film up exactly as I want it, and in that way also honor an artist who has never ever compromised!
I am in the process of acquiring some interesting archival material and am also beginning the post-production work (as all of my own material has already been shot): editing, sound-cleaning/mixing and grading. This is a costly affair unfortunately but it’s going to be worth every penny… Recent acquisitions (of rights to use clips from Anger’s films, for instance) have made the original budget explode (actually, several times over). I hope this crowdfunding campaign will set both past and future investments into balance. With your support, it will.
Kenneth Anger (b 1928) is a legendary filmmaker who has inspired several generations of artists within many different disciplines. With his extraordinarily beautiful films, Anger has woven a spell that continues to exert influence to this day. Often touching upon spheres of myth, magic and dreams, Anger’s cinematic expressions become myths, magic and dreams in themselves. This capacity for radiating inspirational force is also evident in his writing. His bestselling books ”Hollywood Babylon 1 & 2” have spawned an entertaining, provocative and sardonic way of writing that today permeates a lot of social media and the ”blogosphere.” Overall, Kenneth Anger is an American icon whose relentless integrity and artistic vision have helped shape American culture and cinematic discourse since the 1940s.
Leaving No Traces Behind is a film in the An Art Apart series. Candid interviews with Anger from the past decade are woven into a tapestry of impressions and expressions of Anger’s work. The result is a unique insight into the mind of a multifaceted artist with an unparalleled capacity to influence the world around him.
LEAVING NO TRACES BEHIND: Crowdfunder trailer 2018 from Carl Abrahamsson on Vimeo.
November 15, 2018
Cut to fit the mouth prints + exhibition
We were supposed to have our exhibition in Sundsvall right now but the gallery space was flooded by a broken pipe. Well, that certainly won’t stop us! The space is now being fixed up again and we will have the show for three weeks in January instead. Sundsvall, Sweden… If you’re close by, do come see us!
Big news is also that we have just launched a set of six prints from the exhibition. They are prints of the original collages but in a smaller size. Here’s the info from Trapart:
”To coincide with the Vanessa Sinclair & Carl Abrahamsson exhibition Cut to fit the mouth at Galleri Granen we have made an edition of six signed and numbered copies of six images from the show. This is a great option for those of you who want to own one of their images but can’t buy an original collage from the show (if you do, however, please let us know via the contact page).
The prints are in size 210 x 297 mm (A4) and printed on archival photographic paper. The prints are numbered and signed by both artists on the backside.
As a bonus with each order, we’ll throw in a copy of the first Vanessa Sinclair & Carl Abrahamsson album (on cassette), Cut to fit the mouth.”
If you’re interested in seeing and buying these prints just click HERE!
October 27, 2018
On the road magics
Being on the road as much as we have been recently brings an interesting state of mind. A nomadic mind frame takes hold that accentuates two main things after a while: the life enhancement aspects of constantly experiencing new things in new places, and the life enhancement aspects of simply staying at home. Although this may seem paradoxical, to us it makes perfect sense. In Swedish, there’s a clever saying: ”Borta bra men hemma bäst.” (Approx: ”Being away is great but being at home is the best”) This sort of amplifies the relationship, doesn’t it? You can only really appreciate one or the other fully while integrating the other.
A long time ago, I wrote a poem for Cotton Ferox that opened with:
If I could travel anywhere
I would travel everywhere
One endless trip
Witch occasional stops
To assemble the documentation
And that’s basically become a mantra or even a way of life now. Although both options can be daunting and tiring at times, the awareness that there is balance just around the corner helps situate the basic human dilemma. Where can we survive the best? Where do we thrive the most? Being an admirer of Asian (specifically Daoist) thought, I would argue that ”it’s all good.” The basic mistake that humans do when they yearn for what they don’t have is that they ”exoticize” way too much. Being frustrated over that you can’t go to the end of the world immediately is an utter waste of energy. Unknown territories are much closer than they appear in the rear view mirror!
We make art of what we experience, and as what we experience is interpreted by us as art, we have come to inhabit a zone that is creatively ultra-conducive to new ideas and experiences. And then we make art of those too. We have enough material to last us many lifetimes, but it’s still not enough. We are always greedy for new experience and new pleasure. Give us more, and we’ll give plenty more back; regardless if we’re at home in our magical library, or in the desert, or in the urban jungle, or at sea, or just plain nowhere. After all, it’s essentially all the same.
Join us for more adventures at: www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl
