Carl Abrahamsson

An Art Apart leads into the future

May 21, 2018

I’ve been getting some e-mails recently about the An Art Apart documentary series. Basically, “Hey Carl! What happened?” As many of you know, I shot some thirteen documentaries over a period of two years for the An Art Apart series but only finished five. You can check these films out here: Giving a baby a chainsaw (The Hafler Trio/Andrew McKenzie) Nothing can turn into a void (People Like Us/Vicki Bennett) Once the toothpaste is out of the tube (Charles Gatewood) Change itself (Genesis Breyer P-Orridge) The mystery of life (Gustaf Broms) Then I ran out of steam (read: money) and I decided to turn it all into a book instead. To read the full story of that shift, please go HERE. But of course I still have that funky footage of all the unfinished films. And of course I want to somehow proceed in that magical medium too. I’m currently thinking of making a joint An Art Apart documentary when the book comes out, to complement and promote the book rather than compete with it. That...

A Garden of Books (for Adam Parfrey)

May 12, 2018

Now that it’s almost summer time again, the greenery is literally the scenery. I have been blessed with a terrace, and that terrace is filled with trees, bushes, flowers and just an assortment of Chi-enducing beings. The greenery surrounds me and my wife, and we spend as much time as possible in that surrounding. It is in many ways our equivalent to a garden or an oasis. On the inside, my wife has just finished alphabetising our bookshelves. Not an easy task! Where it used to be all my “intuitive” order (meaning more chaos than order, albeit one in which only I could find my way), now every book in our collection is meticulously and lovingly put in its proper place. The result of both these processes is a feeling of absolute well-being and harmony; safety even. You need to go no further than to Cicero, who already in the first century BC eloquently stated that all you basically need in life is a garden and a library: “Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil”. However...

Bits and bobs of dilly dally chit chat

May 3, 2018

Now that my most recent book Occulture – The unseen forces that drive culture forward is out and available via all the usual suspects, I realise that I can’t regurgitate chapters from that book in my recorded talks and lectures any longer. I have a few more finished recordings that will be posted online: “Splendor Solis – Lebensreform and sexual vitalism in Germany” and “What remains for the future? An attempt at a comparison between Aleister Crowley and Rudolf Steiner.” But after this it’ll be all new stuff! Which brings me to the following experimental question… “Is there something you’d like to hear me talk about?” I recently finished a piece on psychedelics and witchcraft that will be recorded and posted soon. But… what should follow after that? Now’s the time to step up and demand the (im)possible! What strangeness should I investigate, according to you? Which phenomenon? Which person? Think about it...

The uniting of minds is a short-circuiting of narrow-mindedness

April 30, 2018

As I recently took part of the two day “Conjuring Creativity” symposium/festival in Stockholm (organised by the dynamic duo of academic Dr Per Faxneld and artist Geraldine Hudson), I had the chance to ruminate and ponder about this kind of excellent opportunity to mix and match seemingly different worlds and approaches. I showed Lunacy, the film I made in 2017 together with my wife Vanessa Sinclair, and I gave a talk on the Mega Golem as a philosophical-magical art project. But most of the time I sat by the Trapart book table, sold books and talked to people who drifted by in-between talks (ranging from subjects like Kenneth Anger, Hilma af Klint, women surrealists, the Cloud of Unknowing, and Occulture, to August Strindberg, paranormality, and more). The venue, Fylkingen, is a classic place for experimental music and culture in Stockholm (and the world, actually) so that in some ways literally “set the stage” and the tone. Artists and curious creative people seemed to...