A group exhibition drawn from our annual artist submissions, with artists examining issues of transformation, interpretation, reclamation and the super-natural.
Participating artists: Chris Lawrence, David Hamlow, Jess Hirsch, Amy Reckley, Meredith Foster, Peter Goché, Keith Lemley
Listen to an exhibition overview for Hedge Magic on The Soapcast
The Soap Factory has always been a nexus of transformation between the various states of matter. The ancient woodlands of pre-Columbian Minnesota were felled to provide the columns that support our building; clay was dug from the banks of the Mississippi to make the bricks that provide our walls; the National Purity Soap Company rendered animal fat in vast cauldrons to make the soap that gives our building and organization its name. Whereas the factory changed states of matter, artists working in our building work their transformations on both matter and states of being.
In old Europe, the hedge priest was an itinerant preacher, a free agent regarded with suspicion by authority and reverence by his flock. Hedge Magic is a practice without a regard for the mediation of a higher power, a non-hermetic magic based on intuition rather than dogma. It is inspired by found materials: the refuse, rubbish and discarded ingredients of the hedgerows and the waste grounds. It is a belief system both smaller and more intimate, as well as wider and more encompassing, recognizing the importance of the chaotic detail that creates the whole. Selected as part of The Soap Factory’s annual submissions program, the artists in Hedge Magic all look at the processes of transformation and interpretation through the super-natural lens of art; the artist as the interrogator of the secret process of nature and culture.
Join The Soap Factory on the night of June 9th for Northern Spark:
David Hamlow will be making bricks out of recycled cardboard and plastic packaging: bring cardboard to contribute, or use David's stockpile to help create bricks. David will also be displaying a lighted geodesic dome created from conical food packaging and plastic shopping bags.
Jess Hirsch will be hosting a good old fashioned tent revival in front of The Soap Factory, exorcising the demons out of abandoned furniture through the powers of pop music, labyrinths, and ritualistic offerings. Jess’s white tent will be full of sage, smoke,karaoke, tarot cards, and mystical sound performance.
Talking Image Connection for Hedge Magic on August 4th, 8pm
Talking Image Connection brings together writers, contemporary art and new audiences in art galleries around the Twin Cities.