anonymous gallery and Alumnos 47 are pleased to present Artificios, a performance and film installation by Brian Butler. Mexico City has a rich history as a destination for the adventurous in visual arts as well as the occult sciences. There is also a long tradition of local practitioners of these arts dating back the Mayan temples. The late British occultist Aleister Crowley traveled to Mexico in 1900 where he was initiated as a 33° Mason and experimented with rituals of invisibility. His rocket scientist protégée Jack Parsons intended to relocate from Los Angeles to Mexico to pursue mystical research but was killed in an explosion on the day of his planned departure. Much of the cast of Kenneth Anger’s avant-garde film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, including Marjorie Cameron, spent time at an artists colony in San Miguel De Allende. Artists in Mexico such as Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo have also represented these mystical workings. Butler’s interest and practices draw from this history, recombining these elements in a new way.
In Artificios, a live performance evolves from a multimedia installation in which the artist and his collaborators execute an occult ritual inspired by the rites of Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons. In this incantation, Butler explores ideas of Brujería and the power of symbols and gesture. The work will feature a spontaneous electronic soundtrack consisting of sound frequencies and rhythmic chanting designed to alter the mental state and induce an out of body experience. Butler’s interest in expanded cinema folds the space into the work itself as he views film, performance and musical accompaniment as a singular entity. The performers expand from two to three dimensional existence as themes of astral projection and projective geometry interplay with the auditory and visual stimuli.
Butler, who has communed and consulted with occultists and magicians from Europe to South America, explains that, “Magick is an art unto itself. It is an art of living in a creative and free manner.” Influenced by the work of British arch-occultist Aleister Crowley, Butler believes that magick is conducive to and complements all manner of creativity, helping practitioners access different parts of the mind as well as spiritual realms. Butler explains, “The occult is defined as the hidden levels of the mind or the hidden information about how things work. A true ritual is like hypnosis. You go to a certain state of mind and your presence brings those around you to the same place.”
Brian Butler is a Los Angeles based artist, filmmaker and musician. His work has been included in Projections at Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles; Bright Morning Star curated by Natxo Checa at Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal; and the Athens Biennale. His films have screened at the Tate Modern and the Cannes Film Festival. He recently mounted solo exhibitions in Los Angeles at LA>Book of Lies as well as working on numerous documentaries and experimental films exploring the subject.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Brian Butler .