A Year in the Shadow of a Master: Exploring the Magickal World of Philip James de Loutherbourg
In this post, I delve into my fascinating journey as an artist and researcher who spent a year immersed in the world of Philip James de Loutherbourg. Through a unique blend of academic research and artistic experimentation, I managed to bring to life a mesmerizing Eidophusikon, a revolutionary 18th-century optical theatre.
Inspired by de Loutherbourg’s mystical practices and Swedenborg’s visionary beliefs, this project explores the thin veil between the living world and the afterlife. Let me uncover the secrets behind this extraordinary artistic endeavor and discover the magic that lies within.
One year working on Philip James de Loutherbourg, as a researcher and an artist. I know practice-based research is a thing, but I’d never done it before. I did spend the first part of the time doing quite academic research, but then I got into the studio and designed my own Eidophsusikon (with the invaluable help of Robert Poluter and Mark Fairhurst). I then had to work out exactly how to implement the art I had requested from my chosen artists. they sent me image sets, and I printed them and turned them into scenography, incorporating different media – paper, found materials, wood, textile, acrylic – and then trying them out in the Eidophusikon. Some things worked, some didn’t. Eventually, I found my show.
Then i had to wrtie a text to narrate and pull it all together.
I was inspired by de Loutherbourg’s belief that his art resulted from his magickal practices. He was an alchemist, ceremonial magician, diviner and faith healer. He seems to have been highly committed to his magickal work – even giving up painting (he was a Royal Academician) to join his friend Count Cagliostro and then spent the better part of a year as a faith healer, holding a clinic in his house in Hammersmith.
Combining art, magick and theatre seemed the way to go with my Loutherbourgian Eidophusikon.
The show I created as the presentation for the residency was intended to explore some ideas taken from Emanuel Swedenborg about the veil between the living world and the afterlife being thin. Swedenborg believed he could talk to the dead and visit Heaven – much as Loutherbourg’s friend Cagliostro also maintained. In my show, the viewer starts at Stanton Moor in Derbyshire, where the nine huge standing stones act as a portal into the Otherworld. journeying through the Afterlife, Heaven and hell, we eventually have a vision of the Divine – which is pure Love.
I’d like to thank Swedenborg House for inviting me to be an Artist and Researcher in Residence to produce this project. My collaborating artists and friends, who joined me in the creative endeavour. Everyone who came to see it.
Going Forward
The Eidophusikon is in my studio now, awaiting full-scale documentation; then, I intend to take it out on show again in the new year. Watch this space.