Occult Circuit: more on interiors + performance

1. drawing of Kenneth Anger by artist TomSelleck69 on DeviantART

Occult Circuit (interiors)

As described in the previous entry, the 'interiors' aspect of my new studio work will revolve around supernatural occurrences colliding with the natural world. Unlike the 'Exterior' work that is more of an ode to the natural world and will be a more softer, romantic arrangement of the following themes, The 'Interior' paintings will investigate the given atmosphere of an environment by a remaining spirit(s) or the trapped energy from an action, outburst or emotive moment that's created a loop in time; which in present day can welcome prestigious, historical or even religious significance to a contemporary audience/dwellers or infamously can revolt with hauntings, poltergeists or just a disdainful uninviting atmosphere. It will be my task to arrange these interiors on paper/canvas into provoking those feelings.

This year i'm preparing for a series of new performances; a single piece over three acts to coincide with this new studio practice. In the past, performances allow me to resolve aspects of my work that l can't express through my studio practice. These ideas generally seem to undergo an 'exorcism' via some dramatic feat of courage/improvised assault that despite the true artistic purpose involved, in my younger years was probably more used as a rite of passage into adulthood..

2. still from Kenneth Anger's 'Invocation of my Demon Brother' 1969

Lately in my research i've took on an interest in the Occult to help clarify what is happening both to the audience and myself during these outbursts (to be uploaded soon!) and especially to better understand, with what l'm discovering in the studio is the repercussions of a highly emotional eruption within a space and the possibilities of distorting the make-up of that environment and installing a time loop, perhaps even creating a poltergeist!

3. still from 'Knightstale' performance by Jim Shirlaw 2007

A film director i've been researching on this topic is Kenneth Anger. Anger believes his work serves as a gateway for the powers of Lucifer and common perceptions of evil to inflict on an audience and that using film is the best medium to do so. An essay on Anger titled 'Myth and Symbolism: Blue Velvet' by Carel Rowe explains 'For Anger, making a movie is casting a spell. He claims "Magick" as his life-work and the "cinematograph" for his magical weapon.. (Anger) sees his films to be a search for light and enlightenment and sees Lucifer not as the devil but as Venus - The Morning Star. To date, all of his films have been evocations or invocations, attempting to conjure primal forces which, once visually released, are designed to have the effect of "casting a spell" on the audience. The Magick in the film is related to the Magickal effect of the film on the audience.'

Occult Circuit (previously untitled)

I
work in progress: the Coffs Harbour commission

II
work in progress: as above (study)

III
today's trip to the shops: Sphinx

IV
today's voltage control

Occult Circuit (previously untitled)

at the moment

I know it's impossible to read in the entry above, but the Mind Map at the top of the first entry illustrates how this new body of work (Occult Circuit) will be split between 'Studio Practice' (SP) and 'Performance and Installation' (PI) further more the SP will then be split between paintings/drawings of 'interiors' and 'exteriors'. The two environments consisting of the SP will be executed quite differently from one another and will investigate a divided outlook into the spiritual impressions that human action/expression instill in an environment, that we (as people there after) come to associate with the atmosphere of a given place; in terms of presenting ghosts and poltergeists etc there will be some crossover with Occult phenomenon especially when addressing the 'interior' works in the series.

The two images above (I & II) show the early stages of two 'exterior' works. Formulated with oil pastel drawing over a hot red ground, these two images show the initial results of the ground which also roughly describes the detail in the work in preparation for the oil pastel drawing on top.

Jim S

currently untitled 1/3

1.
A diagram of ideas for the new series, indicating both a studio-based and performance aspect to the work. The listings are combined with technical descriptions applying to the work as well as discussion of their subject matter.

2.
Homemade

currently untitled (part 1/3)

before now

Previous in my studio-based practice, the self-coined term ‘urban casualties’ characterised a city-driven search for the familiar and discarded (often in the one image plane) for an urban audience. These paintings and drawings often focused on objects that stood as a disguised language of the underworld; rumours that shoes hanging from powerlines indicating the presence of a drug-dealer in close proximity were frequent subjects as well as many other coded-responses l interpreted as being abstractly linked to some unpleasant, exciting. hidden urban entity. The possibility of my own miscalculations and the probability of paranoia (the later rolled up in the excitement of embarking on the series) in selecting and exploring the dark properties of these subjects created an ambiguity about the truth of what l was producing, linked quickly as a daring to portray the world as the artist sees, an undercurrent in how i've always interpreted art practice.

Jim S