John Starks: Witchsploitation Paintings Event

John Starks’ Witchsploitation Paintings @ DIT. Vienna
invited by KOENIG2 by_robbygreif

A long time ago, when we were part of Mother Earth and a thing among things, God had a female face. Then, the written word came along and we became masters of our universe and all the things around us became known. Witches were the scapegoats, sacrificed in the name of a heavenly father for embracing nature rather than writing it all down. Now the tides are changing and everybody wants to be a witch. The current revival in the dark arts is embodied in centuries of oppression from the old ‘via negativa’ ways, which believes the way to god is in loving all the awkward and natural things around us as opposed to the ‘via positiva’ who sees mankind in the image of a perfect creator, whose face can only be seen by those who are really good. As Nietzsche famously proclaimed, ‘God is dead’ and I don’t think there is another guy coming around anytime soon! Mother Earth is pissed off, no one is coming to save us, so for now we just need to get on with being here. The Witchsploitation paintings self consciously act out the trauma of those found to be witches and are symptomatic of the changing tide as the male face of god descends over the horizon.