“Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.” tour for Foundation Members

Date/Time
Date(s) - 9th Nov 2024
11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Location
USC Fisher Museum of Art

Categories

• Exhibitions - Other Artists
• Foundation Events

 

 

Join Tom of Finland Foundation for a private tour of the new exhibition Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation now on view at the Fisher Museum of Art at USC.

As part of Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A. reveals the fascinating and surprising connections within the LGBTQ+ history of Los Angeles, science fiction fandom, and the occult.

Ritual paintings, salacious pulps, the earliest cosplay in recorded history, avant-garde film – this is the story of how midcentury science fiction and occult communities helped pave the way for the LGBTQ+ movement in Los Angeles. Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation explores the overlapping history and visual culture of these three seemingly distinct communities that emerged in Los Angeles between 1930 and 1960. The science-fiction and occult underground provided spaces for people to meet, imagine, and create lives that were less restricted by societal norms. The exhibition shares how the capacity and potential of imagination within these spaces became a central tool for both individual and communal queer identity formation and activism.

Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A. looks both forward and backward to follow the lives of writers, publishers, and early sci-fi enthusiasts, including progressive communities such as the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, the Ordo Templi Orientis at the Agape Lodge, and ONE, Inc. Spanning fandom, aerospace research, queer history, and the occult, the exhibition reveals how artists, scientists, and visionary thinkers like Jim Kepner, Lisa Ben, Margaret Brundage, Morris Scott Dollens, Cameron, Renate Druks, Curtis Harrington, and Kenneth Anger worked together to envision and create a world of their own making through films, photographs, music, illustrations, costumes, and writing.

Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A. is the first major collaboration between ONE Archives at the USC Libraries and the USC Fisher Museum of Art, presented as part of Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide. The exhibition features 70+ objects from ONE’s collection, including paintings, lithographs, fanzines, audio recordings, and ephemera. It will also feature works from the Korshak collection, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Cameron Parsons Foundation, and the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy at University of California, Riverside, among others. With support from the Warburg Institute at the University of London, three of the original Thoth Tarot paintings by Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris will be on view in the United States for the very first time. Alongside them, freemason ephemera from Los Angeles Scottish Rite Temple will be on view from Marciano Art Foundation for the first time ever.

This exhibition enriches the broader history of Los Angeles and reflects the critical importance of making the histories of marginalized people visible and legible to the wider public.

Bookings