Part of the Ultra-terrestrial group show at Elevator ARI with FILTH.

filth-collective.com

(ex)Magicka uses textiles, sculptural costume, painting and roving performance to tell the story of an ex-magician. Magic once inspired this foolish character. He saw his awesomeness, his regal talent, in the professed smiles of incredulity and self-spruiking claims that he possessed a sleight-of-hand like no other. But people weren’t coming to his shows; even the super geeky pre-teens couldn’t pry their faces from TikTok and bear witness to the spectacle, he ruminated. He feared he’d lost his edge. Had he washed-up? Obsessed with shrunken audiences, fading youth and arthritic hands, he began a strict regimen of Thalassotherapy. A heady diet of kelp and spirulina gave his skin a greenish tinge. As the relentless steamy seawater baths and marine collagen injections began to take effect, he felt himself becoming something else, something strange. And yet, the urge to magic never left him.

Photos by Sarah Walker, Fabian Pertzel and Andrea Meacham.