For this episode my guest is art historian Emily Leon. Emily’s research focuses on modernism and the esoteric interests of late-19th and early-20th century western artists, with a particular concentration on abstraction and the links between art, science, and religion. Since 2017, much of her scholarship has focused on the social, spiritual, and theoretical implications of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint’s work. Most recently, in 2023 she presented “Past-Future, Present-Future, Future-Future: Hilma af Klint in Three Temporal Dimensions” for the Modernist Futures conference, hosted by Modernist Studies in Asia.
Emily is also the founder of the transdisciplinary working group 'In the Eggshell', a five-part lecture series that seeks to redress modern art by turning to how the sciences, religious beliefs, and occult traditions provide a better articulation of the subject.
In the interview I begin by talking with her about the origins of the relationship between esotericism and modern, abstract art. From there our conversation moves on to Hilma af Klint, specifically the occult ideas that influenced her art as well as the unusual methods she used such as spirit channeling that were a vital aspect of her craft. We also discuss the deeper meaning of Af Klint’s artwork and the vision she had for how it was meant be displayed, before concluding by talking about Emily’s own efforts to encourage a better understanding of the relationship between modern art, science and esotericism with the 'In the Eggshell' lecture series.
Emily can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DisincarnateEVL and more details on 'In the Eggshell' are available at https://desertsuprematism.com/.
If you would like to support the upkeep of the podcast you can do so via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
The Some Other Sphere theme is from Purple Planet Music - ' Hubbub' by Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn.
Episode 116 - Laura Lewis-Barr - Psyche's Cinema
Episode 115 - Sharon Hewitt Rawlette - Coincidence, Synchronicity and Life after Death
Episode 114 - Dr Josh Bullock - Weekday Worldviews
Episode 113 - Gary Opit - An Introduction to Australian Cryptozoology
Episode 112 - Dr Richard Sugg - Ghosts, Fairies and Wonder Dogs
Episode 111 - Charis Cotter - Ghost Stories from Newfoundland
Episode 110 - Natalie Doig - Weird in the Wade
Episode 109 - Sue Terry - Esoteric Fiction and the work of Alan Garner
Episode 108 - Dr Diana Walsh Pasulka - Experiences with Non-human Intelligences
Episode 107 - Victoria Jaye - The Demon Folklorist
Episode 106 - Claire Casely - The Faery Whisperer
Episode 105 - Fred Andersson - High Strangeness in Sweden
Episode 104 - Simon Miles - The Map and the Manuscript
Episode 103 - AP Strange - Master of Mystical Flapdoodle
Episode 102 - Lionel Fanthorpe - Renaissance Man of the Paranormal
Episode 100 - Shannon Taggart - Séance: Spiritualist Ritual and the Search for Ectoplasm
Episode 99 - Emma Kathryn - Wild Witchcraft
Episode 98 - Emma Heard - Weird Wiltshire
Episode 97 - Gregory Forth - Between Ape and Human
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL