Andy Messerschmidt

(Ely,MN)

Many of the outpouring channels of a once earnest mystical effort eventually

find themselves as nothing more than a worn out cliche. Witchcraft is reduced to black cats, pointy hats and broom sticks. Drug-culture is exemplified through swirls of Day-Glo and frenetic pattern. Any design or pattern bearing severe ornamental complexity used for trance or worship in Sufi or Yogic meditation ie. the mihrab or the bindu (symmetry seed) found in eastern weaving, has been patted down to nothing more than hippie-dippie garb and 60's rock poster design beckoning the smell of pachouli and the ignition of the bong.

Any object may at anytime become psychotropic. The sense-lulling properties of any mundane or boring object (kasinas) can unexpectedly transport a devotee from a state of boredom to livid trance. Playing shaman-trickster, I pose kitschy craft as a medium of transport. Household ornaments and decor such as fabrics (sheers, valances, lace, doilies, tablecloths, plastic florals) have been appropriated and layered against the grain of the condition of horror vacui until an influx of nausea is allowed to ensue.

  Andy Messerschmidt

P-factory