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HOMUNCULARIUM BASILISCUS, 2024
Homuncularium Basiliscus is the first in the Homuncularium series, initially activated at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, UK. This short film documents the ritual im-plant-ation of queer reproductive body fluids donated by four anonymous participants. The act draws on a hybridised protocol—part medieval alchemical instruction, part contemporary occult archive—merging the writings of 15th-century alchemist, Paracelsus with esoteric texts from the Museum’s Richel Collection.
The resulting procedure is an experiment in techno-alchemical transgression, invoking the speculative creation of a basilisk–human hybrid through the disruptive potency of fluids that refuse reproductive normativity. These are not fluids of futurity, but of refusal—resisting heteropatriarchal structures embedded in both historical magic and contemporary biotechnoscience.
The activation was performed under the lunar eclipse of March 2024 and remained installed in situ until December 31, 2024, as part of Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood, a year-long solo/curated exhibition by WhiteFeather. Donor identities are withheld in accordance with confidentiality agreements and in recognition of the intimate, politicized nature of the offering.
Private screenings of Homuncularium Basiliscus have taken place in Crete and the UK: at TTTlabs, Spring 2024 (Crete, GR); Occult Blood: An Artist Conversation, featuring Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter and Dr. Amy Hale, hosted by Treadwell’s Books London; and for the Inaugural Jake Stratton-Kent Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in partnership with Scarlet Imprint. Also, included as part of Conjuring Creativity: Inhabiting Esoteric Ecologies cuated by Geraldine Hudson and Ben Jeans Houghton at MKII, London.
MOONCALF HOMUNCULARIUM, 2024 with Elizabeth Littlejohn
Red string, like an umbilical cord, magically entwines fates. We wind strings around an incubation hut where body fluids have been poured together to create an alchemical in vitro baby, once called a ‘homunculus.’ Our string symbolizes “Ariadne’s thread,” the ball of yarn used as a way-finder out of the Cretan minotaur’s labyrinth, now a metaphor for unravelling ethical dilemmas.
The Mooncalf Homonculariam is permanently installed as an activated textile sculpture at Athens School of Fine Arts’ Annex of Rethymno in Crete.
A film by Elizabeth Littlejohn and ritual performance by WhiteFeather Hunter
A collaborative project by WhiteFeather Hunter and Elizabeth Littlejohn
TTTlabs BioFeral.BeachCamp 2024
Link to full video available upon request to Elizabeth Littlejohn (@elizlit_art on IG).
Ritual participants:
Marko Markovic, Kim Doan Quoc, Wave (Weeratouch) Pongruengkiat, Natalie Jeremijenko, Prathima Muniyappa, Anastasia Mandel, Shih Wei Chieh (Abao), Elli Leventeri, Viktoria Koniaeva, Serafim Parsaloglou Marathias, Adam Zaretsky, Dalila Honorato, Elizabeth Littlejohn, Uroš Veber, Blue Zaretsky, WhiteFeather Hunter.
This film has been presented at FEMeeting 2024 in Canada; as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA 2024) in Western Australia; and as part of CASTING A SPELL IN COMPUTATIONAL REGIMES: Ritual Practices for a Trans-Feminist Counter-Apocalypse curated by Arianna Forte for SomoS in Berlin.