Let me first say that Tarot Cultures was fantastic. Jess, Helen, James, and Vana not only had the daunting task of wrangling an international conference of folks coming from all over the globe, but due to a strike action and a refusal to cross the picket line (solidarity!) they had to move the entire thing to a new location at the last minute. COLAB ended up being a wonderful location and I cannot recommend both the staff there and the BADS team for work above and beyond expectations. Welcoming, friendly, decisive, and everything so clearly labeled! I can’t say when I have had two back-to-back events so well run as this and The Fall: Futures & Pasts (more on that soon). I don’t mean to keep going on about it, but the clarity and thoughtfulness in planning was so wonderful.
At the door we were asked to draw a card and I got the Ace of Disks, which presaged a profitable event, which of course turned out to be the case. The art show was set up in the large room between the foyer and the larger meeting room (a warm wood panelled pub room). There was a real variety in the artists represented and their approaches, plus a number of ‘free samples’ whether biz cards, stickers or even some printer patches.
The welcome from the team was followed by a keynote from Giovanna Parmigiani about tarot as a technology of desire (you can see the program here and abstracts and bios here). She set the tone well for the conference, scholars as participants discovering rather than remote observers, but always questioning and examining our assumptions and prejudices. ‘Tarot becomes not an object of belief but a practice through which alternative temporalities-and alternative futures-can be sensed, inhabited, and collectively enacted.’
I was fortunate to be the first person on the first panel and have everything over and done with so I could enjoy the rest of the conference fully. I jam-packed a whole lot about Etteilla and ‘pataphysics into my 15 minutes, including about 2 slides per minute. Think I will turn it into several episodes of Irrevent Tarot, and give it room to breathe. I shared the panel with Jonathan Allen, whom you may know as the re-discoverer of Austin Osman Spare’s tarot, and we learned the essential role Sooty played in that discovery! Melanie Otto introduced us to the work of Irish artist Lorcan Walshe who created an amazing arcana series that really needs to be a big coffee table book. The paintings were quite astonishing. Jenny Zhou spoke about Suzanne Treister’s HEXEN series which was featured at the Warburg Tarot exhibit and coincidentally appeared at the Saatchi Sun and Moon exhibit (more on that soon). Zhou examined the construction of the images — many collaged from historic and alchemical illustrations — as positive political engagement with hope for the construction of possible futures.
There is far too much to cover in one write-up: suffice to say that people approached tarot from all kinds of directions — Jungian, political, theatrical, art and art history, and devised all manner of hermeneutic interpretations that made you see things anew and recalculate your own assumptions. The only drawback was the need for parallel sessions when you wanted to see everything and yet Jess told me they had only been able to accept about a quarter of the proposed sessions. What a rich world of tarot scholarship is out there right now. Due to my technological snafus I missed signing up for any of the workshops but I heard people rave about the experiences.
It helped bring together all these disparate threads by bringing everyone together for two final sessions: one on the pervasive influence of the Smith-Waite deck, especially Pamela Colman Smith’s theatrical-influenced art work; the other on the original question What Does Tarot Do for You? that kicked off the call in the first place. It was a great way to weave together all the new approaches and insights that were sparked over the weekend.
The final event was Meet the Deck, a free-for-all chance to chat and see the art work as well as speak with the artists–and support COLAB by ordering from the bar. I can’t praise all the folks involved enough. I had so many great conversations (yes, actually!) and filled my eyes with so much information, it’s going to take some time for it all to soak in. All I can say is MORE, PLEASE.
*I forgot we all had to do tarot biographies when submitting abstracts. Mine was from Ithell Colquhoun’s Tarot as Colour deck: Sun of the Morning, Chief Among the Mighty. Colquhoun’s surreal melange of bold red tones is often taken to represent the more familiar Emperor card but its Luciferian title hints at audacity and a willingness for bold experimentation beyond the mere authoritarian figure. While mild-mannered in my general interactions with people, I do aim to embody Flaubert’s advice, ‘soyez réglé dans votre vie et ordinaire comme un bourgeois, afin d’être violent et original dans vos oeuvres.’