A pioneer in the field of new media from the early 1990s, Suzanne Treister works across the permeable boundary separating the frontiers of scientific inquiry from mystical revelation. Often spanning several years, her projects interrogate the relationship between emerging technologies and alternative belief systems to suggest the unseen forces that shape our present reality and have implications for the future that we are only beginning to understand.
HEXEN 5.0 comprises 78 watercolors based on the tarot (also published as a deck of cards). Based on ancient alchemical drawings, they extend a tradition in which science, art, and spirituality are inseparable from one another. Collectively they present an holistic approach to the systemic crises that are threatening life on earth and that cannot adequately be addressed by any branch of knowledge that excludes all others.
Treister’s update of the tarot recognizes that every divinatory system depends upon an accurate diagnosis of the present. By making connections between new forms of communication and the changing organization of corporate and state power, environmental adaptation and innovations in science-fiction, and countless other fields of inquiry, the artist encourages her audience to reflect upon the factors shaping the world today and speculate on the means by which we might secure an ethical, sustainable future for our species.
