For CENTO, curated by Dani Neira
Open Space Victoria
Vida Beyer, Nour Bishouty, Hazel Meyer, Philip Leonard Ocampo, Dana Qaddah
Co-published with Moniker Press
A playground practice for young scryers, children used to pass the time through the use of paper fortune tellers. Emblematic of a certain youth, these paper toys purport to inform oneself of their own future: Will I be liked? Will my infatuation be reciprocated? Will I be rich? Yes, maybe, don’t count on it.
Working within on an ongoing interest in the ceremonial, divinatory potentials of games, Chatterbox, Whirlybird, Saltcellar, Fortuneteller is a risograph print that doubles as a functional paper fortune teller. Its title alluding to all its many names, this work celebrates a common childhood game as a minor magic: Obfuscating the breezy contents of a common fortune teller into an entanglement of seemingly miscellaneous symbols, snippets of personal photographs, and text.
This work uses imagery that alludes to the folklore of fate, hope, and aspiration:
- Blowing on a dandelion imbues every seed with wishful intent.
- The butterfly effect hypothesizes that even a flap from the wings of a small , insignificant creature are fatedly tethered to significant changes in time.
