2022, year of Dionysus.
I'm filled with gratitude as I think back on my year of 2022. So many desires and wishes sprouted and grew into concrete, beautiful experiences. New friendships and community. 2021 was a year of hard earned lessons, many important mistakes were made which paved the way for better things. And all the hard, hard work I've put into "healing" myself is now creating very noticeable changes for me. It's not about fixing something that's broken, but about being able to show up in life without being grotesquely distorted by old patterns and crippling anxieties. To just be human, complex. Freeing my voice, and using it.
Like how one earnest question sparked a whole event. In the beginning of this year I yearned so desperately for community, for belonging, for conversation. And now my cup is full and overflowing. The PsychArtCult conference, Visonary Medium, in Copenhagen was one of two absolute highlights of my year. I met so many incredible, brilliant people there. Leading up to it I worked tirelessly on my passion project Caligula '79 as a Dionysian Affirmation of Life and performing it live at the conference was a spell in itself. 2022 was the year of Caligula, one of my best obsessions ever, resulting in a multitude of artworks and personal magical rituals. The essay, which I like to call anti-academic, will be included in the upcoming Fenris Wolf anthology, edited by the illustrious Carl Abrahamsson. Whose Swedish novel Codex Nordica I also created the cover art for. Carl together with the amazing artist, author and psychoanalyst Dr. Vanessa Sinclair are the creators and hosts of the PsychArtCult conferences and getting to know them and their work (and their adorable puppy) has been such a blessing this year. Do check out their incredible work, there's so much to explore! And of course don’t miss that you can buy some of my prints through Trapart!
The conference in Copenhagen was extremely special. An intimate, magical, inspiring and nourishing event where new friendships and connections flourished. So full to the brink of things I loved, to just name a small few: Wolkenschatten by OJOBOCA, Scorpio Poems by Katy Bohinc and On Cinematic Sorcery and Psychogeological Conflicts by Gast Bouschet. It was also my first ever solo art show! And the cinema, Husets Biograf, was hands down one of the best places I’ve ever been. It made me want to live in Copenhagen just so I could go there all the time.
Straight out of that experience I flew off to the states for the IX Art Show in Reading, Pennsylvania. An honour to be included, but it was a slow year… Well, I was still extremely glad to be in the states again and getting the chance to meet old and new friends as I travelled around Pennsylvania and New York. Special shout out to Tom Banger who drove all the way from another state to come meet up in Reading and see the show! Part of my heart is always in the US, I have so many people there near and dear to me. My most treasured memory from that trip was the most enchanted, perfect day when I went together with the brilliant Billie Stiegerwald, also a part of Visionary Medium, to the beautiful city graveyard and then the Pittsburgh Zoo.
Coming home from that adventure left me a bit depressed and directionless despite feeling extremely inspired. But it was just like what happens in psychoanalysis before a big breakthrough, the severe unease and discomfort which heralds a major, positive change, the unconscious knows... Because I was preparing myself to fly off to Bali to attend an art and magic retreat with complete strangers. Messy, yes. Problematic, yes. And also, absolutely wonderful and exactly what i needed then. I met so many amazing people at that retreat, and it was so good for my soul to get away for a bit from the intellectual sphere of magic and esotericism into the completely embodied.
2022 was my year of Dionysus, of life affirmation and tumultuous growth!
Love to my partner for his endless support. Gratitude to my beloved ancestors for everything.
