“Cameron: Cinderella of the Wastelands” is an exhibit of the art of Marjorie Cameron Parson Kimmel mounted at the two Jeffrey Deitch galleries in NYC running thru October 17, 2015. These are the same pieces displayed at MOCA in Los Angeles late last year into the beginning of 2015. Known to occultists mainly as wife of Jack Parsons, rocket/scientist, erstwhile head of Agape Lodge in Pasadena – and as his partner in a series of sex magick workings to bring the Goddess Babalon into physical manifestation – Cameron was a powerful and original artist who became a mentor and inspiration to a generation of radical artists, poets and filmmakers in Los Angeles in the 1950’s including Wallace Berman, George Herms and Kenneth Anger.
The works in the current exhibit were one in a variety of media: casein on paper, cut paper on board, oil on fiberboard, oil on canvas, ink on paper, graphite, ink and gold paint on paper, et cetera. The styles employed run the gamut of seemingly swiftly done line drawings, to collages, to sumptuous, minutely detailed paintings, to mind-boggling mixtures of wild splashes of multiple colors embracing enigmatic yet intensely focused figures. There are often odd dimensions to this work and one might well come away with the impression that Cameron was trying to convey – if not literally depict – visionary experiences she’d actually had. Several works – apparently the most offhand and somewhat messy clearly seem three dimensional. Some seem straightforwardly representational like the “Sphinx” but with puzzling features the eyes, nose and mouth being darkened with a score of angry, triangular lines. While owning several catalogs with images of this work, I can state that viewing the actual pieces is a very different, profound experience.
Also on display are select artifacts belonging to Jack Parsons including his ceremonial dagger.
The exhibition is being mounted at the Deitch galleries at 76 Grand Street and 18 Wooster Street in Soho. Last week OTO OHO Hymenaeus Beta was part of panel presentation given at the Deitch Gallery and a number of works on display come from the Ordo Templi Orientis Archives.
