Chain of being, 2024

etching, printed in black ink on paper

 ‘Printmaking was my entry point into magic and esotericism,’ says Emily Hunt. Contemporary Australian artist Mike Parr first introduced Hunt to printmaking in a workshop at the Sydney College of the Arts in the early 2000s. This led Hunt to discover the print works of German Renaissance artists Albrecht Dürer, Daniel Hopfer and Hans Baldung Grien, which sparked her interest in the grotesque and ornamentation. She later produced works that addressed Dürer’s and Grien’s complicity in shaping the popular image of witches as ‘wicked crones’ from the 15th century.

Hunt layers art historical, architectural and literary references in this suite of etchings, which were printed at the Kunstquartier-Bethanien workshop in Berlin, Germany. Each print depicts locations in Sydney that are ‘psychically charged’ and haunted by memories of the past, including Callan Park Hospital for the Insane (also the site of the Sydney College of the Arts from 1992 to 2019), the Star Amphitheatre at Balmoral Beach and the Sirius building at The Rocks. These sites continue to hold significance for Hunt, despite them being redeveloped or demolished in recent years.

Text by Nick Yelverton

The spirit alphabet 2021–22

synthetic polymer paint, watercolour and glitter gel pen on paper.

The decorative lettering in The spirit alphabet recalls illuminated manuscripts illustrated by monks in medieval Europe. Painstakingly painted by Hunt using a squirrel hair brush, the miniscule imagery in this work also reflects the influence of Indian miniature painter Ajay Sharma, with whom Hunt trained in Jaipur in 2016.

The amoebic forms and fecund patterning within each letter resemble psychedelic organisms seen underneath a scientist’s microscope. Indeed, Hunt is deeply interested in microcosms and the idea that unseen forces and particles constitute the world around us.

The artist extends her exploration of invisible phenomena further by composing the letters into a ouija board on the wall, entertaining the possibility of channelling the afterlife through her work. She follows in the footsteps of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) and English artist Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956), who both claimed to communicate with the spirit world through their text-based works.

Photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales