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ARCANUM SANGUINIS: OCCULT BLOOD
Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood was an exhibition of provocative historical artifacts and symbolic objects, presented in dialogue with Hunter’s laboratory-based biological artworks and pieces by renowned contemporary artists including Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Simon Costin. Open to the public from April 4 to November 1, 2024 (with the installation continuing into 2025 for private viewings), the exhibition marked the culmination of archival and artistic research conducted by Hunter onsite at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in 2022 and 2024.
The show wove together a visual chronicle of intersections between folk magic, alchemy, and its modern inheritor—biotechnology. Through a feminist and queer lens, it traced how the gendered persecution of witches and the medicalized (mis)treatment of bodies have long been entwined. This perspective foregrounded not only women’s experiences but also those of anyone living outside normative social structures—structures that, within Western biomedicine, have remained strikingly consistent over the past four centuries.
The exhibition explored how such bodies have historically been cast as cultural materia magica—their fluids and functions subjected to taboo and surveillance, yet persistently central to the construction of cultural meaning. These tensions were made viscerally present through the artworks and archival materials alike.
This research was supported by a Friends of the Museum artist bursary in 2022, with full exhibition development funded by the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.
A limited-edition guidebook—based on Hunter’s archival research during the residency—accompanied the exhibition. Printed in an edition of five and hand-bound by museum administrator Fergus Moffat, it is also available as a downloadable PDF from the Museum’s website here.
PALIMPSEST, 2022
Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood featured Palimpsest, a work produced, performed, and first exhibited during WhiteFeather’s initial residency at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Presented as a work-in-progress on October 31, 2022, Palimpsest was also featured on the Blue Lotus Project Space here.
Palimpsest draws from historical accounts of witchcraft accusations and convictions found in the Museum’s rare books collection. These early 17th-century texts, typically inaccessible due to their fragility, are reanimated through textile and video. In both the sculptural textile piece and accompanying video performance, select pages from these texts are transferred—either onto translucent silk, forming tactile "ghost pages," or layered into the video itself as ephemeral overlays.
The silk cloth is stitched and shaped into a dress-like form using chaotic, unravelling smocking—a decorative bunched-stitch technique developed in medieval England. This invocation of dress symbolically inscribes the legacy of witchcraft persecution onto (predominantly) female bodies.
Video segments document the performative making of the work in and around Boscastle, revealing the embodied labour behind the piece. Additional digital collages and performance videos, developed in tandem as part of the research process, are included as artifacts of making and method.
