Witch Ones : Altered Altar
October 24 - Nov 30th

Opening Night Reception
Thursday October 24th
7pm - 11pm

Witch Ones : Altered Altar
When an experience alters your entire reality and from that moment onwards, life is never the same again.

With contributions from:
Amanda Smart, Amanda Bullick, Caitlin Ffrench, Alison Lilly, Abby Normal, Heather Glasgow, Violet Patrich, Jen Pea of X41, Bobby Mathieson, Annie Gallows, Alisha Leveque, Natasha Broad, Eden Cooke, Nikki Artivism, Paul Gardiner, Ronan Boyle, Ana Krunić, Robyn Hamel, Sovka Design, Jennifer Chernecki and @Yen Den Hartogh of Karma Correction
** Opening Night free tarot card reading by Paige from @ritualandrosehip


Witch Ones : Altered Altar

When an adverse experience alters your entire reality it can be densely traumatic. A person you considered sacred shifts into a dark figure in your life. A space you felt most safe, you avoid as if it’s contaminated.
We understand… We run from this darkness, from these people who wronged us, from these spaces… but no matter how fast we run, the pain catches up.
In Witch Ones : Altered Altar, artists are invited to explore this moment of change, where life all at once isn’t the same anymore and Betamax curator Rachel Zottenberg has picked work to suit this theme.

What does the word Witch mean to us? We don’t want to offend as it’s deeply personal to everyone.
We mean Witch as an immediate nod to the policy of empathy. As mirrors of society, Witches have always reflected truth, even the more distressing parts of it. As conduits of energy, Witches can transform even the most pernicious and systematic evils with boundless gifts of empathy and fierce loyalties to the earth and all her beings. The world of the Witch gives us space to react to injustice. Not shy away in fear. We are not evil, no… But we are angry. And so we create. Rituals can be as much about anger as about healing. Rachel and her team have built a spiralling altar-like structure in the middle of the gallery to symbolize both the adversity and the healing of trauma. The act of building, creating, painting.. all rituals that provide an outlet and a cathartic way to symbolically affect the consequences that life and society don’t often offer.
We imagine a better world where those who do intentional harm are destroyed and people are protected from them ever harming again. And lies are laid to rest forever.
Witch One: Altered Altar

‘I will take these stones you’ve thrown at me and build myself an empire.’