Helena Hunter, SPILL tarot card
SPILL was an experimental performance festival celebrated in London, at the Barbican centre, 18th-24th April 2011. The creation of a limited edition series of tarot cards was part of the 2009 edition of the festival, where photographer Manuel Vason collaborated with performance artists like Franko B, Ron Athey, Marisa Carnesky, Raimund Hoghe, Robert Pacitti, Lois Keidan, Lee Adams, Carla Esperanza Tommasini, Sheila Ghelani, Oreet Ashery, Rajni Shah, Noblesse Oblige, Vaginal Davis, Grace Ellen Barkey, Harminder Singh Judge, Kira O'Reilly, Helena Hunter, Empress Stah, Dominic Johnson, Julia Bardsley and Yann Marussich.
The Mountebank, Marseilles deck, 1701-1715
The figure of the Magician specially bridges tarot and performance, it is the first trump, the first card of the superior set (suit) that constitute the Major Arcana. He is the mountebank-a person who deceives others for money, also the seller of patent (quack) medicines in public spaces; the 'sleight of hand artist', it would correspond to the Jungian archetype of the trickster. He can be the stage magician or the artisan, he who creates artifice.
In some cards he appears playing with cups and balls, or items that represent the suits of the Minor Arcana: Cups, Coins, Swords (knives) and Clubs (baton)-this last he holds in his hand and later becomes the wand of the magician, in the esoteric reading.
This figure is close to the performer in that he creates artifice and deceives infront of an audience, what he shows is not real. He tricks, plays, appeals and engages, and what he deals with are symbols. Objects on a table that are not only what they seem, he transforms, creates or makes disappear.
The Magician, Rider-Waite deck
