Jesse Bransford: Building the Fourth Pyramid, an Occult Art Installation at Galveston

Date: Thursday, July 11th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $10
Presented by: Phantasmaphile

In 2012, the artist and mage, Jesse Bransford, was invited to create an installation for the respected Galveston Artist Residency in Texas. The result was his room of visual spellcraft, which he named “THE FOURTH PYRAMID.”  In GAR’s words:

“For our first exhibition of 2013, marking our one-year anniversary on this island, GAR has teamed up with artist Jesse Bransford to bring about the existence of THE FOURTH PYRAMID. If ever there were an artist who could make transformative magic a reality it would be Bransford. Building off of nearly ten years of research, Bransford’s drawings and numerical symbols transform the GAR gallery into a space charged with possibility, a three dimensional spell, an incantation you can move through. The artist invokes many magical traditions to create his work, but especially focuses on the European Renaissance magical tradition. The symbols feel at once familiar and incredibly alien. Like a language forgotten, or a past life only glimpsed through dreams. They are universal and yet illegible. Phenomenal and noumenal.”

In this presentation Jesse shares with us the process of casting the spells – and spills – of the project.  He has lectured at Observatory before about the Thoth tarot and magic squares, but this will be the first time he offers a rare glimpse of the magick that goes into the creation of his own fine artworks.

Jesse Bransford is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work is exhibited internationally. He holds degrees from the New School for Social Research (BA), Parsons School of Design (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA). An associate professor at New York University, Bransford’s work has been involved with belief and the visual systems it creates since the 1990s. Research into colour meaning and cultural syncretism led to the occult traditions in general and the work of John Dee and Henry Cornelius Agrippa specifically. His work is represented by Feature Inc. in New York and can be seen extensively documented on the website www.sevenseven.com, a site he has operated and maintained since 1997.

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