Arum Glogauer

VIRTUAL TOUR

ARTIST CATALOGUE

Coven

Coven is a stepping into the unknown – a rejection of boundaries, hierarchical thinking, capitalism and anthropocentrism – healing our connection to place though animism, liminal animality, and Witchcraft.

Magic is inherently anti-capitalist. The idea that the earth offers you something for nothing goes against entrenched capitalist hegemony. Through my inherited and political identity as a Witch, (with specific reference to European construction of Witches as an opposition to the development of patriarchal capitalism) and in choosing to become the other, art-making becomes this magic connection to earth, using forest gifts as materials, branches fallen in howling winds. 

Masks made from these materials are shown being worn in the forest by myself and the women of my family – choosing to don the monstrous visage – becoming the creature of the forest rather than trying desperately to escape reductive narratives of womanhood. Taking control of the image of feminine monstrosity.

In the exhibition space the masks have gained their own branching bodies – envoys of the other presenting their alternate humanity, asking us to reconnect, become things created from the land and in reciprocity with it. 

The act of spinning, an inherited traditional craft associated with femininity, becomes a revolutionary act. The twisting together of the human, animal, and narrative – creating unsellable wool, emphasising the act of craft over the product. Videos of creatures spinning are projected over the masked figures, becoming part of their bodies and bringing the memory of the forest with them. 

Distant sounds of a group of singers celebrating the Winter Solstice echoes through the space. The Winter Solstice celebrates the darkest night of the year – of the communal carrying of light as we celebrate the tangible world. These songs are an inherent part of the annual celebration – ritual closeness to place and magic.

Coven is a reweaving of the feminine and human identity - becoming a creature, an animal, a Witch, who knows themself as part of the whole.