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LA - GO TO BRIAN BUTLER'S OPENING TONIGHT


All images from The Dove and the Serpent

Speaking of cults and Satan and junk, there's an art opening in LA tonight that deals with all of that stuff. Brian Butler is an artist and the Director/Producer at Kenneth Anger Studios. His new exhibition, Images and Oracles, will feature cult-inspired installations and a screening of his new film, The Dove and the Serpent, with a live score provided by Butler and Anger (we've seen a Butler/Anger collab before, and it's NOT something you want to miss), among others. Because we've been thinking about cults and mystic stuff all day, we decided to ask him a bit about tonight's show.

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VICE: What can you tell me about the show?
Brian: The show is called Images and Oracles. It consists of a looped projection of my new film, The Dove and the Serpent, which I shot in Normandy, France. It is a non-narrative surreal interpretation of alchemy or the occult. A live performance will accompany the film, with Kenneth Anger playing the theremin, Michael Wincot on drums, Neil Shu on the keyboard, and myself playing guitar. It’s going to be a spontaneous avant-garde performance.

Sounds trippy. So the film is silent aside from the live score?
Tonight, yes. But another soundtrack was composed that goes with the film. That's what will play with the film as the show continues over the next few weeks.

What else is happening?
I’ve also designed a few sculptures, which are sort of magic cubes with various symbols on them that transmit certain energies into the space. That will be a magical ritual in itself.

Magic cubes, huh? Can you tell me a bit more about them?
OK, there are four cubes—two white ones and two black ones. They are almost like puzzles or machines, in that you can turn them in different ways to access different energies or different astral realms based on the symbols and the way the color patterns are displayed.

Wait, what?
It's sort of like the tarot, where there are different cards that allow you to access different levels of consciousness. The cubes are the same principle, but allow different combinations. You have six sides on each cube, so, depending on the way they are turned, they create a different combination of chemical, elemental, and planetary energies.

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Let's pretend like I'm some chump who has no idea what you mean by "chemical, elemental, and planetary energies." How would you describe them to a philistine like myself?
They could be demons or non-human intelligences. They open a portal or a door into the astral world or magical plane, which is sort of a higher realm of consciousness.

Alright. Will the audience be able to touch them?
I don’t know if they will be able to touch them, because they are rather large. But during the exhibition they will be turned and placed in different areas of the stage, and later on there will be a ritual performance on the stage.

What is the ritual going to be?
It will be an interaction with the devices within the space. It will be a sort of demonstration utilizing these cubes within a magical ritual, with an audience there to experience it.

A lot of your work deals with the occult. How did you get involved with cults and what interests you about them?
I originally discovered a book by Aleister Crowley called Magick in Theory and Practice. I found it very interesting, mysterious, and powerful. I think it really complements creative work. It deals with accessing different parts of the mind or spiritual realms. It is a map to access those creative energies.

How do you see the relationship between art and cults?
I think they’re almost the same. Magic is an art in itself. It is the art of living in a creative and free way.

We put up a post today that explores the difference between cults that ritualistically abuse their members and cults that are little more than a group of people who like to wear black makeup and talk about the devil. Both groups, however, call themselves Satanists. Do you agree that a distinction should be made between “real” Satanists and people who just act like Satanists?
Yeah, I suppose there is a difference. Personally, I’d stay clear of any organized group or religion. I feel like it almost always ends in some kind of disaster. It just doesn’t seem to work. In any religion power seems to be abused—it's just human nature. Trying to bring a spiritual thing into a social organization just doesn't work.

Have you ever been in a cult?
I guess it depends on what you consider a cult. I was initiated into a group called the Golden Dawn that is based on Western magic, and a few other groups related to Aleister Crowley’s teachings. So if your definition of a cult is an organized group of people with a spiritual or religious ideal, then I guess, yes, I have been in a cult.

Images and Oracles
Space 15 Twenty
1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd
Hollywood, CA
7 PM (Performance starts at 8 PM)
[RSVP](mailto: SAMARA@LAXART.ORG)