'Occulture: The Dark Arts' at City Gallery Wellington

Last weekend I flew down to Wellington for the day so that I could attend the opening of 'Occulture' at the City Gallery. I have never been at such a busy opening day with so many packed-out floor talks! It was seriously heartening for me to see so much interest in work with this kind of content as it is so close to my own heart and art practice. The success of this show is testament to the work of both curators Aaron Lister of the City Gallery and Robert Buratti of Buratti Gallery, Perth.Robert showed some of my video work at his gallery last year so it was lovely to finally meet him in person. He is an erudite and well-considered speaker who brought the works of Aleister Crowley and Rosaleen Norton to life for the crowd, while orientating them in both a magickal and art historical context. Unfortunately I wasn't able to properly hear the floor talks by all the artists due to the rather large crowds, meaning I was sometimes only partially in the gallery space or around a corner!I had a good spot during Dane Mitchell's talk so I was able to take a lot of notes which I can share here. The process involved in the works is very interesting: There are 3 different works within the larger grouping he has chosen to show; 'Non Verbal Gestures 1, 2, 3 & 4' a set of hanging silk banners, 'Celestial Fields' a series of metal stanchions and a set of 7 glass globes and 'Ceramic Fields' a series of 12 ceramic objects.