Small Things That Keep Evil at Bay October 29 – December 3 Opening: Saturday October 29, 12-2 PM

Small Things That Keep Evil at Bay presents an unended exploration of the esoteric techniques of magick and their potential for psychic autonomy and defense in a time where such things would come in handy. The exhibition compares historical and contemporary occult practices to the artists own uninitiated and spontaneous attraction to the subject. The latter represented primarily by a selection of volcanic rocks, gathered and in some cases refined, for various magical purposes.

It begins with the existential ultimatum that there must be magic in the world, or else it –the world as experienced- succumbs to the unfathomable suffering that occurs in it. Acting from this insistence, we chase a white rabbit to the archaic techniques of shamanism, on through the Hermetic tradition, in between science and religion, off the beaten path, looking for a backdoor in the subconscious to who knows where.

Informed and inspired by Jungian psychology, alchemy, white magic, apotropaic (evil-averting) magic, geomancy, the work of Austin Osman Spare, Hilma af Klint and Brion Gysin as well as psychedelic adventures, dreams and day to day experiences, the artist’s quest finally converges and mysteriously aligns with the relatively young practice of Chaos Magick: A postmodern view on magick that regards all symbolic systems as arbitrary and given power only by the practitioners belief in them. Furthermore the way of the chaos magician echoes the Dao-like notion of soft intent, gestures without lust for result, that the exhibition title refers to. Or in the mythopoeic words of Gandalf the Gray:

”It is the small things. Everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.”

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John Salquist, multimedia artist Born 1986 in Götene, lives and works in Gothenburg. Salquist has a Bachelor of Fine Art from Valand Academy and a degree in Computer Graphics Design from YRGO, Gothenburg. Salquists tools and methods may vary between projects but the theme is always rooted in one way or another in the most basic questions regarding consciousness, ontology, language and mythology.

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Opening: Saturday October 29, 12-2 PM After that, open November 3rd – December 3rd: Thursday 3-6 PM Friday 3-6 PM Saturday 11 AM – 2 PM