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Witchcraft is the beating heart of Tremble Tremble (2017) by Jesse Jones. Rachel Rose’s video installation Wil-o-Wisp (2018) portrays land enclosure and the persecution of women in 16th-century England the recent paintings of Alejandra Hernández, such as Golden Portal (2018), reference Federici in paying tribute to female power Delaine Le Bas quotes Federici directly in her carefully chaotic solo show, ‘Untouchable Gypsy Witch’, at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (until 8 December) and Jesse Darling has cited Federici as one influence on the artist’s own view that ‘the rational doctrine of post-enlightenment secular modernity was just another form of theology’. These arguments have guided many contemporary artists.
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Courtesy: the artist and Philadelphia Museum of Art Rachel Rose, Wil-o-Wisp (Moiré Installation), 2018, video still.
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The same strategy was then employed across the world in the service of colonialism. Furthermore, Federici argues, ‘the witch-hunt deepened the divisions between women and men, teaching men to fear the power of women, and destroyed a universe of practices, beliefs, and social subjects whose existence was incompatible with the capitalist work discipline’. Constituting ‘a campaign of terror against women,’ the witch-hunts ‘weakened the resistance of the European peasantry to the assault launched against it by the gentry and the state’. In it, Federici argues that the witch-hunt of medieval Europe was ‘one of the most important events in the development of capitalist society and the formation of the modern proletariat’. Federici has a new book out this year – Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women (2018) – but Caliban and the Witch (1998) remains the seminal text. In this context, the witch has become an important motif for feminist, environmentalist, and post-colonial reinterpretations, with philosopher Silvia Federici the touchstone thinker. ‘It is naïve to simplify the politics of magic and overlook its use by fascists and white supremacists,’ says Peppe. Peppe makes an important distinction between two approaches to magic: ‘Witches’ magic is the wisdom and practice of oppressed peoples the occult is the organized keeping of secrets by those in power’. Witches’ magic is embodied knowledge occult magic is closer to black-box military technology.
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If agency and knowledge are withheld or obscured then you have to look for other ways to get them.’ ‘Many are experiencing context collapse caused by war, climate change, massive digital noise, spectacle and algorithmic control. In 2019, Penned in the Margins are publishing Witch, a new collection from poet Rebecca Tamás, one of the editors of Spells.īut why now? ‘The visibility of witchcraft today has its roots in long histories of oppression and instability,’ explains artist Hestia Peppe, currently researching for a practice-based PhD in divination as an expanded practice of reading at Sheffield Hallam. Newly launched independent publishers Ignota Books have just released Spells, a collection of ‘21 st century occult poetry’. Currently on show at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is ‘Spellbound’, an exhibition tracing a history of magic across eight centuries which also includes new work by artist-duo Ackroyd and Harvey, Annie Cattrell, and Katharine Dowson. In combining technology with diverse religious and magical practices, Okorafor’s writing and Obasi’s visually electric adaptation both point to a recent resurgence of interest in the complex figure of the witch among contemporary artists and writers, all approaching the subject from different contexts and perspectives. Oak calf-shed door marked with magical symbols to protect livestock, Laxfield, Suffolk, c. Both film and story form a warning: ‘Don’t ever mix juju with technology.’ The narrative begins with Rain attempting to destroy the wigs with a digital virus, defending herself with alligator pepper (used in Igbo naming ceremonies) and even praying to a God that she does not believe in. But, in giving two of them to her well-off friends, Coco and Philo, she quickly loses control. Rain, who is associated not only with technological expertise but also nature and spiritual knowledge, creates a trio of magical wigs, ‘to make things better’. Obasi, based on the story Hello, Moto (2011) by Nnedi Okorafor, a major name in the literary genre known to some as Afrofuturism. She is the central character in Hello, Rain (2018), a short film by director C.J. ‘There is a witchcraft to science and a science to witchcraft,’ declares Rain, resplendent in lipstick and eye-shadow the colour of agapanthus.