Long Lost Friend installed at The Print Center in Philadelphia, PA, 2019.
Long Lost Friend is a totemic archive of folk magic-inspired matter. Approximated and inauthentic, various images and 3D scans of talismans and charms suggest a world of superstition removed from tradition; an aestheticized staging situated between boutique and library with references to both the past and future. The exhibition title comes from the Nineteenth Century book of spells and home remedies, Pow-wows or Long Lost Friend, by John George Hohman. Utilizing a series of texts and other historical sources, Urban and Mutchler have interwoven symbols and runes to arrive at something both of the rational world and outside it.
Long Lost Friend is a totemic archive of folk magic-inspired matter. Approximated and inauthentic, various images and 3D scans of talismans and charms suggest a world of superstition removed from tradition; an aestheticized staging situated between boutique and library with references to both the past and future. The exhibition title comes from the Nineteenth Century book of spells and home remedies, Pow-wows or Long Lost Friend, by John George Hohman. Utilizing a series of texts and other historical sources, Urban and Mutchler have interwoven symbols and runes to arrive at something both of the rational world and outside it.