HECATE
with:
Katherine Bradford, Julie Curtiss, Jessie Homer French, Cy Gavin, Anna Glantz, Sanam Khatibi, Rainen Knecht, Lazaros, Nicky Lesser, Ana Mendieta, Walter Price, Anna Sew Hoy, Marianne Vitale
Curated by Sara Hantman
November 11 - December 16, 2017
VARIOUS SMALL FIRES
812 NORTH HIGHLAND
LOS ANGELES 90038
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Julie Curtiss
Second Thought, 2017
Acrylic and oil on canvas
18 x 16 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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| Anna Glantz Traveling Horse, 2017 Oil on canvas 74 x 80 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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| Cy Gavin Woman, Yawning (Sally Bassett), 2017 Acrylic, blood, chalk and oil on denim 73 x 54 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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| Jessie Homer French 1st Presbyterian, 1994 Oil on canvas 10 x 7.50 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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| Katherine Bradford Broom Saddle, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 30 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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Marianne Vitale
Jupiter, 2013
Reclaimed lumber and steel
55.13 x 311 x 256 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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| Rainen Knecht Ants, 2017 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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| Sanam Khatibi The hollow in the ferns, 2016 Handwoven wool tapestry 90 x 100 in
Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles
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Hecate
Installation view
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2017
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Hecate
Installation view
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2017
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Hecate
Installation view
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2017
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Hecate
Installation view
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2017
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Hecate
Installation view
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2017
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“W.I.T.C.H. is an all-women Everything. It’s theater, revolution, magic, terror, joy, garlic owers, spells.
It’s an awareness that witches and gypsies were the original guerrillas and resistance ghters against oppression — particularly the oppression of women — down through the ages. Witches have always been women who dared to be: groovy, courageous, aggressive, intelligent, nonconformist, explorative, curious, independent, sexually liberated, revolutionary (This possibly explains why nine million of them have been burned.) Witches were the rst Friendly Heads and Dealers, the rst birth-control practitioners and abortionists, the rst alchemists. They bowed to no man, being the living remnants of the oldest culture of all — one in which men and women were equal sharers in a truly cooperative society, before the death-dealing sexual, economic, and spiritual repression of the Imperialist Phallic Society took over and began to destroy nature and human society.”
– Excerpt from the W.I.T.C.H.* manifesto written in 1968
* Brazenly anarchist, anti-hierarchal, and wildly playful, W.I.T.C.H. was a female-led collective (including members of all genders) that engaged in political and surrealist protest actions in the late 1960s – 70s. Although poorly documented and understudied, the group was principally associated with the Women’s Liberation Movement and its acronym would change according to the group’s needs. It was also one
of the rst collectives to link the international history of witchcraft (worldwide traditions include Vodun of West Africa, Vodou of the Caribbean, Santería of Cuba, Santa Muerte of Mexico, Hoodoo of the Southern U.S., Shamanism of Asia, Stregheria of Italy, Wicca of England and much more) to political activism and the relentless ght for civil rights. This history, powered by female leadership, craft, and medicine, can be traced as far back as 2nd Century writings on Hecate: the Hellenic goddess of light, entrance-ways, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, magic and moons.
* All images are courtesy of the artists and VSF