New in the Pharmakon Library: Kristen Alvanson's Spells

Poison-in/Poison-out are
Poison/Cure spells which push the idea of ambivalent middle-eastern
spells further as the artist uses western and middle-eastern, personal
and social, inventive artistic elements and vaguely familiar components
in her spells. Like all adventurous alchemists who are preoccupied with
inconclusive and indefinite chemical reactions and elements, Alvanson
takes up the calligraphic pen without any compunction with regard to
‘authenticity’. Since middle-eastern spells are already syncretic,
mongrelized entities, she allows herself a free hand in their
contemporary re-creation by mixing Farsi, Arabic, English and other
symbols to ‘see what happens’.