The Mythical Creatures of Scandinavian Folklore – Lena Heide-Brennand – LIVE

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe

Doors open at 6:30pm and lecture starts at 7pm

The Scandinavian Folklore consists of a large number of different creatures- good and evil. The trolls, the Nisse, Huldra and Nøkken all have fascinated and frightened the Scandinavian people throughout centuries and in tonight’s illustrated lecture, Norwegian born lecturer Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand will tell the stories that all Scandinavian children have grown up with since the beginning of time. Prepare yourself for a captivating journey through the deep Scandinavian forests where you will encounter the monstrous, dim-witted, man-eating Trolls, the sly and cheeky Nisse, the seductive, fairy-like Huldra and the most legendary creature of them all: Nøkken, the water spirit who plays enchanted songs on his violin, luring women and children to drowning in the hidden ponds on those magical Scandinavian summer nights.

Speaker Bio

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

Main Image “Huldra ved Matbrunnen” (Huldra at Matbrunnen) – Theodor Kittelsen, 1892

Voodoo in Benin – a Collecting Field Trip to West Africa with Anthropologist Dr.Louise Fenton

Voodoo in Benin – a Collecting Field Trip with Dr Louise Fenton

18-26^th February 2023 – £2000 per person

we will be running this trip in 2024 – email [email protected] for info

Join anthropologist and cultural historian, Dr Louise Fenton, and a small group on a trip to the West African Cradle of Voodoo – Benin. Take part in and watch ceremonies, masquerades & sacrifices, visit shrines, temples and meet priests and a tribal king. Shop in traditional and Fetish Markets.

email [email protected] for more information

Voodoo or Vodon is a State Religion in the West African Country of Benin and practiced in various forms across the region and in the New World where it was carried by the diaspora. It is very much a living religion with elaborate temples, priests, family and household shrines, ceremonies, masquerades, initiations, convents, extensive markets selling magical items and fetishes. The Voodoo Pantheon contains multiple Deities and spirits that are believed to be active on a daily basis and require regular offerings of food, alcohol and the fresh blood of animals such as Chickens or Goats. The object of this expedition is to meet with priests and to attend ceremonies. These tend not to be planned far in advance and we rely on our network of contacts in Benin to let us know – on our last two trips we were blessed and experienced extraordinary ceremonies. We will visit Priests, Temples, Kings and Shrines.

Dr Fenton writes “Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a magical country in West Africa. It is enchanting and has a rich historical and cultural legacy, it is known as the home of Voodoo. The shoreline includes what was known as the Slave Coast and was a departure point for enslaved people to be shipped across the Atlantic. The prominence of the slave trade permeates all areas of Benin, with echoes of the past everywhere. Elements of the culture of Benin, especially Voodoo, or more accurately Vodun, is reflected across the new world, especially in Haiti. Religion within Benin is a combination of Vodun, Christianity and Islam. This is a warm, friendly and welcoming country ready to be experienced. This trip will explore some of the key locations across the country”

Dr Louise Fenton will accompany as the group’s anthropologist and cultural historian. The expedition will start with a seminar giving an overview of the history and culture of Benin; from the Kingdom of Dahomey through to the culturally rich Republic it is today. There will be additional seminars on key locations during the expedition to provide a cultural and historical context to the locations visited. Dr Fenton will accompany the field trips to be on hand to explain aspects of Vodun and the echoes of slavery that are prevalent throughout the country. She will also be there to answer questions.

Dr Louise Fenton is a senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton. She has been studying and researching West African Vodun and Haitian Vodou for over 20 years. Dr Fenton holds a PhD from the University of Warwick in Caribbean history, the focus of her research was on the history and influence of Haitian Vodou, which originated in West Africa, our destination. She gives regular talks and lectures, featured on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Beyond Belief’ as a panellist on Vodou, and she is also an artist and writer.

Pre-Departure there will be a Zoom Seminar on Benin and Vodun lead by Dr. Louise Fenton

There will be an optional six day extension to The Sahel in The North of Benin for an additional £1200

Provisional Itinerary

Please note this is very much subject to change as we hope to find out about ceremonies once we arrive

Day 1 :

Saturday 18 February
Flight to Cotonou
-Arrive in Cotonou airport, meet the staff just outside the arrival area
-Transfer to Hotel du Lac or similar,

Day 2 :
Sunday 19 February
Cotonou
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Assistance for exchanging money and buy a local SIM card
-Visit of Ganvie stilt village by boat
-Lunch in a restaurant
-Afternoon visits in Cotonou (Yoruba king, Dantokpa market and fetish section)
-Night in double rooms Hotel du Lac or similar

-Welcome Fish Dinner on The Beach

Day 3 :
Monday 20 February
Cotonou/Abomey
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Departure to ABOMEY, visit the UNESCO heritage site of Dahomey palace
-Lunch in a restaurant
-Afternoon free time to attempt spontaneous Egungun ceremonies
-Check in at Hotel Chez Sabine or similar, night in double rooms

Day 4 :
Tuesday 21 February
Abomey
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Visits around ABOMEY: voodoo temples and shrines (chameleon temple and royal palace in front, voodoo priest in the bush, fetish market, …)
-Lunch in a restaurant
-Night in double rooms Hotel Chez Sabine or similar

Day 5 :
Wednesday 22 February
Abomey/Possotomé
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Finish the visits in Abomey and transfer to the lake Ahémé
-Lunch in a stilt restaurant in Possotomé
-Afternoon free time to attempt spontaneous ceremonies
-Check in at Hotel Chez Theo or similar, night in double rooms

Day 6 :
Thursday 23 February
Possotomé
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Boat tour of the lake
-Lunch in a restaurant
-Visit by foot of villages, markets, shrines, sacred forest, …
-Night in double rooms Hotel Chez Theo or similar

Day 7 :
Friday 24 February
Possotomé/Ouidah
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Transfer to Ouidah
-Visit the slave route and Door of no return
-Lunch in a restaurant
-Afternoon free time to attempt spontaneous ceremonies (fees not included) or enjoy the beach
-Check in at Hotel La Diaspora or similar, night in double rooms

Day 8 :
Saturday 25 February
Ouidah
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Visit Ouidah: the snake temple, the church, the sacred forest, ..
-Farewell lunch with seafood
-Afternoon free time to attempt spontaneous ceremonies (fees not included) or enjoy the beach
-Night in double rooms Hotel La Diaspora or similar

Day 9 :
Sunday 26 February
Ouidah/Cotonou
-Breakfast at the hotel
-Transfer to Cotonou through Route de Peche
-Lunch in a restaurant in Cotonou
-Afternoon visit of the artefact market
-Transfer to the airport, END OF SERVICES

Notes

1/Benin is a wonderful country – if you wish to arrive a day or two early and leave a few days later there are relaxing places to stay with good food along the coast – get in touch for advice

2/Food is generally excellent, and we do our best to accommodate dietary requirements

3/travel insurance in Mandatory

4/Hotels we will be staying in are in the main comfortable with AC or Fans

Included:

Dr Louise Fenton – anthropologist & cultural historian – tour leader

Local guide speaking English;
· Local guides speaking French where
necessary;
· Visits and excursions as in the program;
· All the transfers with minibus, including
driver, fuel and road tolls;
· Meals in half board (breakfast and lunch) as
specified in the program;
· Some Soft drinks
· 8 nights in hotel’s double (or twin) rooms (it may be possible to arrange a single room for a supplement of approx €290)

The fees don’t include :
· Visas for Benin;
· Insurances;
· International flights;
· PCR tests ;
· Drinks and water;
· Photographic permits and tips;
· Fees for spontaneous ceremonies;
· Tips and personal expenses ;
· All mentioned in “supplements”;
· All not mentioned in « The fees
includes

To Book – a 50% deposit is payable to secure your place, with the balance due three months before departure.

Full refunds are available up until the final confirmation of the trip, after which we can only refund if we can resell your place

please email [email protected] for more information

General Advice

1/It is very hot so please bring appropriate clothing

2/please drink lots of water every day

Magical Botany: Candle Workshop with Devil’s Botany

Devil’s Botany invites you to channel the powers of nature in a candle-making workshop at The Last Tuesday Society. Discover the secrets of magical botany and create your very own naturally and supernaturally botanical candle.

Learn the art of herbal astrology and candle-making while sipping on Devil’s Botany cocktails. Guests will be guided through the candle-making process from start to finish, harnessing the magical properties of botanicals in their own unique fragrance blend of essential oils and dried botanicals.

Tickets include a Devil’s Botany Absinthe cocktail upon arrival.

Guests will each take home their own candle.

Event suitable for ages 18+ only.

————————————

About the Host

Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett have always shared a passion for unearthing curious tales and rendering them in liquid form. The duo are co-owners of The Last Tuesday Society’s cocktail bar in East London, transforming Hackney’s best-kept secret into the city’s favourite Absinthe Parlour. In 2019, it was voted the Best Bar in London at the 7th annual Design My Night Awards by a public vote of over 180,000 Londoners, and in 2020, their absinthe menu was shortlisted for Imbibe’s Specialist List of the Year.

In December 2020, Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett launched London’s first Absinthe distillery: Devil’s Botany located in the city’s east end. They are also authors of Spirits of the Otherworld: A Grimoire of Occult Cocktails & Drinking Rituals, published by Prestel/RandomHouse (Sep 2021 | ISBN 9783791387147).

The Museum of Drugs: Under the Influence – a history of drug use from early evolution to criminalisation – Ben Curran

Under the Influence – a history of drug use from early evolution to criminalisation.

Archaeological and social anthropological evidence suggests that drug use played an important role in our early evolution as Homo sapiens; affording us the means of deeper introspection and wider connection within social groups and structures. Drugs have played an important role in the economic development of our civilisations, as valuable commodities to be traded across land and sea. They have been vital in our creative development, influencing art, literature, music, dance, and ritual.

Yet in modern times, drugs have become synonymous with crime and disorder; vilified in the media as the root cause of many of our social ills, and lambasted by politicians who are keen to demonstrate they are tough and uncompromising. Since 1971, we have been engaged in a War on Drugs, a war that has seen trillions of dollars of investment with little sign of it reaching an imminent conclusion, despite mounting calls for a paradigm shift.

How did we arrive at this point in our history?

Using a unique collection of antiques and artefacts, Under the Influence explores the historical events, the myths and moral panics, that have resulted in the criminalisation of the production, supply, and possession of drugs throughout the world.

The collection includes some artefacts that are of a challenging nature, including items depicting racial stereotypes. They are presented as part of the lecture for the purpose of adopting an anti-discriminatory position.

Bio

Ben Curran, (He/ Him), has worked in supported housing, drug rehabilitation, outreach services, and senior leadership positions, throughout the last 25 years. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of East Anglia and the University of Delaware, as well as a trainer in the field of drug use, legislation and policy. Ben Curran is the founder, CEO, and Curator of the Museum of Drugs, www.museumofdrugs.com, a charity established to provide public exhibitions and lectures on the history of drugs with the aim of challenging discrimination.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Adieu to Old England – Sverre Malling

Adieu to Old England

Sverre Malling

The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History

May -November 2022

Private view May 11^th 6pm-8pm – please RSVP

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Surreal, fairytale-esque landscapes and characters are rendered in exquisite detail in Norweigan artist Sverre Malling’s latest collection of drawings. Each image weaves together a multitude of sources, converging allusions to contemporary mass culture with figures and symbols from art history and literature to create a richly layered visual narrative that cuts through the currents of time. His forthcoming exhibition entitled Adieu to Old England at London’s Viktor Wynd Museum pays tribute to the diversity of England’s cultural and artistic heritage whilst also questioning the authority of conventional historic perspectives.

Malling has always been drawn to the illustrations and narratives from English folklore, taking a particular interest in ‘the eccentric, the lost heroes, the people who find themselves on the outskirts of the norm.’ This latest collection of drawings blends motifs from historic photography and art with the artist’s own fictional characters and landscapes, whilst the highly detailed aesthetic takes inspiration from Victorian illustrators and the fairytale tradition. In a similar way to fairytale narratives, many of Malling’s scenes appear innocent, playful and idyllic on the surface whilst the atmospheric charcoal shading and shadowy skies are suggestive of darker, macabre undertones. One drawing, for example, depicts an oversized floral plant surrounded by butterflies, but if we look more closely, the idyllic scene is complicated by a small skeleton (a traditional memento mori) at the plant’s base, and a group of small children brandishing long thorns with which they have speared the butterflies. Here, as in several of Malling’s artworks, brutality and innocence are not so much juxtaposed, but shown in coexistence to add a sense of mystery and depth to the narrative.

Amongst the most haunting of the drawings are six portraits, which reimagine eccentric characters from the recent and distant past such as the artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) and the musician, performance artist and provocateur Genesis P-Orridge (1950-2020). Spare appears seated at his desk, dressed in an elaborate robe with monstrous artworks hanging on the wall behind him. The contrast between the opulent domesticity of the scene and his challenging outward gaze creates a palpable tension that underlines the complicated nature of representation. This notion is further explored in the portrait of P-Orridge who appears holding her Pekingese dog Musty Dagger and a miniature doll of her dead partner and soulmate Lady Jaye, surrounded by clashing bucolic and urban imagery. In the overhanging flowers, the words ‘Short Circuit Control’ make reference to accusations of abusive behaviour whilst P-Orridge’s proud expression and pose imbues her with a sense of dignity. By memorialising these controversial figures through art, Malling calls into question the concept of cultural iconography and thus, invites the viewer to reconsider how our understanding of history and culture has been shaped by conventional narrative perspectives.

This is most obvious in the exhibition’s title work Adieu to Old England. Both the title and imagery are borrowed from an album by folk musician Shirley Collins, who, in a similar way to Malling, collected and reinterpreted forgotten folk music. In Malling’s drawing, the composition has been rearranged to alter the hierarchy of the image. Here, the porcupine is the protagonist whilst the grand country estate is only partially visible in the background. ‘It is the fringes of culture that are the interesting, the odd detail, not the grand and predetermined,’ says the artist. In this way, his drawings can be understood through photo-ethicist Ariella Azoulay’s terminology as archaeological excavations of ‘potential history’, but it is not just the past that Malling reimagines, it is also our present and future culture. He is asking his viewers to wonder: what would the world look like if these forgotten figures from England’s history had become more deeply rooted in our collective memory?

In the context of our increasingly uncertain and fragmented modern world, Malling’s drawings encourage us to embrace new ways of looking at the past so that we might imagine and enact a more hopeful and inclusive present and future.

Sverre Malling (b. 1977) has given the medium of drawing new relevance in Norwegian contemporary art and is regarded as one of the country’s most prominent visual artists. He creates work notable for its precision and intricacy, entwining references to classical art, botany, the occult, psychedelia, folk art and children’s illustrations. At the age of 17, Malling participated in the prestigious Norwegian Autumn Exhibition. He completed his studies at the Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts in 2004.

Solo exhibitions include a Retrospective Solo Exhibition at Haugar Vestfold Art Museum, Norway (2021); Adieu to Old England, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, England (2021); The blossoms we wear in our hats, Gallery Haaken, Norway (2017); Satellites and Pomegranates, Gallery Haaken, Norway (2014);Tegninger fra 22.julisaken, The Norwegian Philosphy, Kragerø, Norway (2013); Sverre Malling – Louis Moe, Grenland Kunsthall, Norway (2013); The season have no fear, Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden (2011); Sleeping in a hollow log, Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway (2010); The pipers call, Gallery Haaken, Oslo, Norway (2009); Spirit Caravan,Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, Norway (2009); and Gallery Haaken, Oslo, Norway (2007).

Make your Own Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Joanna Ebenstein

4 week online course

20, 27 November and 4, 11 December 2024 – 7:30- 9:30 pm GMT

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Taught interactively via Zoom to a small class by Morbid Anatomy Founder Joanna Ebenstein

Text Book: Death: A Graveside Companion (PDF to be provided)

Death is the great mystery of human life. Each of us – barring some medical miracle – will die. Foreknowledge of our own death is a defining characteristic of humanity; the ancient Greeks reserved the word mortal – meaning ‘subject to death’ – for humans alone. Some people believe that it is foreknowledge of our own death that drives all human culture, from religion and philosophy to mythology and art.

With the current global pandemic, our awareness of death is closer to us in the industrialized West than it’s been in over a century This historical moment will, for most of us, pass. This class seeks to use this moment to look death in the eyes, to get to know it, to create a closer, less fearful relationship with it. To make friends with it. And to create art from that encounter.

To do so, we will explore the ways in which death has been understood and represented in different times and places. There will be a special focus on imaginings of death manifested in time of plague—such as Memento Mori, Ars Moriendi (literally, The Art of Death) and the Danse Macabre, or dance of death—or when death is an unpredictable part of every day life, such as Mexico’s Santa Muerte, literally saint or holy death. A PDF of the book Death a Graveside Companion will be provided to each student as reference.

The class will consist of slide-illustrated lectures, readings and reading discussions, journal prompts, guided image collecting, meditations, and, if technology allows, special guests.

Students will draw on what they have learned for their final project: the creation of their own personal memento mori—an object intended to remind you of your own death to help you live your time on earth more fully. This can take the form of an image (painting, drawing), object (collage, mask, sculpture, talisman, icon, artist’s book, retablo, ex voto, graphic novel) short film, or even words (essay, creative writing). It will embody your unique vision of death, developed or clarified over the course of the class, be it a deity, a personal or impersonal force, a symbol, or something else entirely.

Students will leave this class not only with their own memento mori, but also with an enhanced understanding of the ways in which death has been understood and represented in different times and places, as well as a more nuanced and critical view of contemporary attitudes. It is also my hope that students will leave the class with less fear of death in these uncertain times.

Joanna Ebenstein is a Brooklyn-based writer, curator, photographer and graphic designer. She is the creator of the Morbid Anatomy blog, library and event series, and was cofounder (with Tracy Hurley Martin) and creative director of the recently shuttered Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn. Her books include Death: A Graveside Companion, The Anatomical Venus and The Morbid Anatomy Anthology (with Colin Dickey). Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and more. You can see her Tedx talk—Death as You’ve Never Seen it Before—here.

Matthew Holness and Edward Parnell’s Darkplaces – Zoom lecture

They’ll cover writers including M. R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Aickman, Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare, E. F. Benson and more, as well as hopefully finding time to discuss their own work.*

Matthew Holness is a writer, actor and director who wrote and starred alongside Richard Ayoade, Alice Lowe and Matt Berry in the 2004 haunted hospital-set Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. The six-part Channel 4 series remains a cult classic and probably the greatest – perhaps the only? – eighties spoof comedy-horror series ever made for TV. More recently Matthew has acted in a number of television comedies and films, as well as writing, directing and starring in A Gun for George, a short feature about a delusional fan of British 1970s pulp crime novels. In 2016, he wrote and directed Smutch, a Halloween Comedy Short for Sky Arts, in which he played an embittered author haunted by a ghost writer. His debut feature-length film as a director came in 2019 with Possum, a hugely atmospheric and disturbing psychological horror film set in Norfolk, the county where he now lives. Matthew also writes stories of the weird and eerie, including most recently for the anthology Beyond the Veil (published October 2021). He also contributed the introduction to Swan River Press’s 2019 edition of Le Fanu’s Green Tea.

Edward Parnell also lives beneath the brooding skies of Norfolk. He is the author of two books. The Listeners (2014), is an unsettling novel of family secrets set in the wilds of East Anglia at the start of WWII, and was the winner of the Rethink New Novels Prize. Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

* Please be warned that in this evening’s discussion there will (probably) be blood. Crimson copper-smelling blood… And bits of sick.

C.G. Jung, Lord of the Underworld – Gary Lachman – Zoom

A Short History of Modern Occultism in three lectures, each lecture will be sold separately, see below for details of the other lectures in the series (if missed, these will be available on demand)

1. Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society – 11 Jan 2022

2. Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Magician in the World – 8 Mar 2022

3. C.G. Jung, Lord of the Underworld – 27 Mar 2022

Crowley wasn’t the only mystical face on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s. Another figure with whom he shared space among “the people we like,” was the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, who died in 1961, just on the cusp of the 60s revolutions. With Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, Jung was one of the Big Three of modern psychology, and throughout his career Jung presented himself as a scientist and empiricist, mapping out the contours of the psyche. But Jung had the occult in his DNA. His mother spoke in tongues and held seances in which she communicated with her dead father, and Jung started his career with a study of the paranormal performances of his cousin. Jung broke with Freud because of his occult beliefs – at one point scaring the wits out of Freud by manifesting a poltergeist – and his “descent into the unconscious” following their split revealed to him the secrets of the “collective unconscious,” the reservoir of ancient symbols and images whose archetypes come alive each night in our dreams. As early as 1940, Jung was talking about a coming Age of Aquarius,and anyone who knows they are an introvert has Jung to thank for that. UFOs, out of the body experiences, Near Death Experiences, the I Ching and the “meaningful coincidences” he called synchronicities are only some of the unusual phenomena that the”sage of Kunsnacht” explored in his long life.

Gary Lachman is the author of many books about consciousness, culture, and the Western esoteric tradition, including The Return of Holy Russia, Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination, and Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson. He writes for several journals in the US, UK, and Europe, lectures around the world and his work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. In a former life he was a founding member of the pop group Blondie and in 2006 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Before moving to London in 1996 and becoming a full time writer, Lachman studied philosophy, managed a metaphysical book shop, taught English literature, and was Science Writer for UCLA. He is an adjunct professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He can be reached at www.garylachman.co.uk, www.facebook.com/GVLachman/ and twitter.com/GaryLachman

Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum

Village Witchcraft & Magic – Professor Ronald Hutton

Ronald Hutton’s topic this evening consists of beliefs in witchcraft and magic held by ordinary British people in the period between 1740 and 1940, that often lost, neglected and mysterious time between the end of the witch hunts and the appearance of modern Pagan witchcraft. These years have in fact left a huge treasure trove of evidence for the subject, which has recently at last become a focus for sustained study. Those studies reveal a complex and fascinating world rich in magical tradition, in which cunning folk and charmers flourished in every part of the land, overlapping with learned ceremonial magicians, and the fear of malevolent witchcraft still lay heavily over most communities. Ronald Hutton offers a tour of it, proposing answers to the questions of what sort of people became magicians and why; what practical techniques they used; whether they were pagans; how they took up their skills; whether they worked in groups; how much they were persecuted; and what eventually became of their traditions.

Leonora Carrington, My Mother – Gaby Weisz – Zoom Lecture

Since her death in 2011, the legendary Surrealist Leonora Carrington has been reconstructed and reinvented many times over. In his new book, Gabriel Weisz Carrington draws on remembered conversations and events to demythologise his mother, revealing the woman and the artist behind the iconic persona. He travels between Leonora’s native England and adopted homeland of Mexico, making stops in New York and Paris and meeting some of the remarkable figures she associated with, from Max Ernst and André Breton to Remedios Varo and Alejandro Jodorowsky. At the same time, he strives to depict a complex and very real Surrealist creator, exploring Leonora not simply in relation to her romantic partners or social milieus but as the artist she always was. A textured portrait emerges from conversations, memories, stories and Leonora’s engagement with the books that she read. Using the act of writing to process and understand the death of his mother, the author has produced a moving and fascinating account of life, art, love and loss.

Leonora Carrington is one of Viktor Wynd’s most enduring obsessions, her work is in his museum and surrounds him at home.

These are extraordinary times and the plague has hit some harder than others, tickets are by donation – if you possibly can £10 is much appreciated, but £2 is also much appreciated. Thank you for your support.

Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum