Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-nation
Edited with text by Alexis Bard Johnson, Kelly Filreis. Foreword by Bethany Montagano. Text by Joseph Hawkins, Joan Lubin, Ben Miller, Judith Noble, Susan Aberth.
Considering the overlooked importance of science-fiction fandom and the occult to queer history in the US
Science fiction and occult communities helped pave the way for the LGBTQ+ movement by providing a place for individuals to meet, imagine and create a life less restricted by societal norms. Focusing on Los Angeles from the late 1930s through the 1960s, this catalog follows the lives of artists, writers, publishers, early sci-fi enthusiasts and progressive communities such as the L.A. Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), the Ordo Templi Orientis at the Agape Lodge (O.T.O.) and ONE, Inc. Spanning sci-fi fandom, aerospace research, queer history and the occult, Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation reveals how artists, scientists and visionary thinkers such as Kenneth Anger, Lisa Ben, Margaret Brundage, Morris Scott Dollens, Renate Druks, Curtis Harrington and Jim Kepner worked together to envision and create a world of their own making through films, photographs, music, illustrations, costumes and writing. Featuring seven original essays on topics drawn from its accompanying PST ART exhibition, authors Joseph Hawkins, Joan Lubin, Alexis Bard Johnson, Ben Miller, Judith Noble, Kelly Filreis and Susan Aberth illuminate this unique historical moment alongside a generous selection of illustrations from salacious pulps, ritual paintings and archival materials. It will appeal to amateurs and enthusiasts alike, introducing rarely discussed artists such as Morris Scott Dollens, Renate Druks and Wallace Smith. Widely known figures including Cameron, Lisa Ben and Kenneth Anger are also given renewed consideration within these new contexts.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Frieze
Jonathan Griffin
Sumptuously designed.
The New York Times: Critic's Notebook
Holland Cutter
Bringing together elements of homophile culture, niche spiritualities and Space Age futurism, [this local underground] generated a 'secret society' vibe that offered a sense of safety for certain societal nonconformists in a repressive time, and paved the way for the liberation movements, gay and otherwise, of the 1960s.
Artnet
Min Chen
The show explores how the occult, queer, and science fiction scenes mixed, mingled, and shaped visual culture in the metropolis between the 1930s and ’60s.
Hyperallergic
Natalie Haddad
[This] visually enthralling show lays bare the links between science fiction and the occult, realms where being begins from a place of transgression.
Hyperallergic
Jasmine Weber
Wrapped in luxe maroon cloth and stamped golden cover art, 'Sci-fi, Magick, Queer LA: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation' as an object is as sumptuous and sensual as its contents.
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From time to time we get a book that has it all. All! Published to accompany the pleasingly incendiary PST ART exhibition on view now at USC Fisher Museum of Art, hardcover with gold stamping, gilded edges, a pull-out poster, and exquisitely produced with black-and-white, duotone and tritone printing, Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-nation is such a book. Not only because it’s an object of fascinating materials, and not only because the design—by Omnivore, Inc. and publishers Inventory Press and ONE Archives at the USC Libraries—is so right, but because the subject matter is so perfectly of this moment. The poster alone is a treasure, folding out to index the range of Southern California’s weird-heyday queer, occult and science-fiction communities of the 1930s through the 1960s—from the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Freemasonry to artists, writers, occultists and filmmakers including Cameron, Forrest J. Ackerman, Jack Parsons and Kenneth Anger. Editor, author, fantasy-fiction fan and lesbian publisher and musician Tigrina (aka Edythe D. Eyde / Lisa Ben) is quoted, from 1946: Weary of our dreary world and bored with life, our fancies call us
To imaginary realms. ‘Tis then we turn to you for solace,
You, who with artful skill construct us alien worlds in distant spaces,
Transporting us by space ships and by rockets to weird, wondrous places.
New concepts, customs and traditions styled for life on other spheres
Make us question those that we have followed blindly through the years.
Your skillful pens paint future scenes, or glimpses of a bygone age.
Cold words are changed to living entities across a printed page.
What mighty citadels you build with pen and ink your only tools,
Creating havens for the dreamers, making refuges for fools.
Atomic power, robots, rockets, futuristic innovations,
All these fabulous ideas evolved from your imaginations
May be ridiculed and mocked and deemed impossible by some,
And yet they may be fact, not fiction, in progressive years to come. continue to blog
Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-nation
Published by Inventory Press/ONE Archive. Edited with text by Alexis Bard Johnson, Kelly Filreis. Foreword by Bethany Montagano. Text by Joseph Hawkins, Joan Lubin, Ben Miller, Judith Noble, Susan Aberth.
Considering the overlooked importance of science-fiction fandom and the occult to queer history in the US
Science fiction and occult communities helped pave the way for the LGBTQ+ movement by providing a place for individuals to meet, imagine and create a life less restricted by societal norms. Focusing on Los Angeles from the late 1930s through the 1960s, this catalog follows the lives of artists, writers, publishers, early sci-fi enthusiasts and progressive communities such as the L.A. Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), the Ordo Templi Orientis at the Agape Lodge (O.T.O.) and ONE, Inc. Spanning sci-fi fandom, aerospace research, queer history and the occult, Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation reveals how artists, scientists and visionary thinkers such as Kenneth Anger, Lisa Ben, Margaret Brundage, Morris Scott Dollens, Renate Druks, Curtis Harrington and Jim Kepner worked together to envision and create a world of their own making through films, photographs, music, illustrations, costumes and writing.
Featuring seven original essays on topics drawn from its accompanying PST ART exhibition, authors Joseph Hawkins, Joan Lubin, Alexis Bard Johnson, Ben Miller, Judith Noble, Kelly Filreis and Susan Aberth illuminate this unique historical moment alongside a generous selection of illustrations from salacious pulps, ritual paintings and archival materials. It will appeal to amateurs and enthusiasts alike, introducing rarely discussed artists such as Morris Scott Dollens, Renate Druks and Wallace Smith. Widely known figures including Cameron, Lisa Ben and Kenneth Anger are also given renewed consideration within these new contexts.
