ART & CULTURE - LEVEL

This is a series of workshops designed by Azumi Uchitani to explore Japanese culture through the art of calligraphy and language. We will meet bi-weekly, slowly moving from season to season and uncovering new characters, rituals, concepts and beliefs deeply rooted in Japanese lifestyle. Each event we will centre around a new symbol: we will learn its meaning, discuss a poem about it, meditate and experience the power of the concept through calligraphy practice.

### Advance Celebration: 予祝

We are excited to announce our upcoming Japanese Calligraphy workshop, where participants will not only learn the art of brush and ink but also explore the concept of Yoshuku (予祝), or ‘advance celebration.’ Rooted in the idea of celebrating success before it happens, Yoshuku is a powerful mindset that fosters positive outcomes through visualisation and joyful anticipation. In this workshop, you will experience how each stroke of the brush becomes an expression of your inner celebration and intention for the future. Whether you’re new to calligraphy or more experienced, this session offers a unique opportunity to blend artistic practice with a meaningful ritual of celebrating future achievements in advance.

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Imagine a witch. What does she look like? Is she a hag with sagging breasts and a wart on her chin? Is she a seductive siren with glowing eyes? Does she fly through the air on a broom or dance with the devil by a fire? Each culture has their own conception of a witch, the untameable, powerful woman. Witches were not always evil, many were seen as essential gateways to the spirit world; many times they were idealized women, their bodies were socially beautiful, both creative and destructive. This talk uses the term ‘witch’ broadly, looking at art a wide range of witches’ bodies to explore the idea of the powerful woman in world history from Japanese fox spirits to ancient Mycenaean priestesses, European witches and Mayan queens. We think about how their power is formed in relation to a culture’s ideals of beauty.

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There is a unique relationship between comic books and Tarot, as they both embody sequential storytelling using symbolic art and natural language. Referencing several comic book series, including sequences from instructor B. Earl’s Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Daredevil and Echo, and Werewolf by Night, we will explore how the two seemingly disconnected art forms actually flow from the same fountain.
Superhero comics in particular entered the mainstream in the mid-1900s and really found their stride in the 1960s with series such as The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and of course Spider-Man. This was also around the same time that Tarot began to enter into the popular mainstream with counter-culture communities engaging “new age” ideas. Humans have always needed stories, but as science began to more deeply explore the psyche with luminaries such as Carl Jung, science and stories began to emerge with archetypes that helped people better understand themselves. Comic books, especially superhero comics, have always explored these archetypes that are ever-present in Tarot’s Major Arcana.
The obvious difference between the two is that a comic book is a curated series of panels telling a specific story through the lens of the author and artist, while a Tarot spread is a seemingly random series of panels that becomes a mirror for the querent. This modular storytelling system allows for the Self to more deeply intuit meaning through the cards’ random articulation. Unlike comic books, it is up to the reader to interpret the story through the spread of the panels.
In this lecture we will take sequences from specific comic books and peel back the layers to better understand the intention of the creative team. By understanding this form of sequential storytelling, we will then apply this same technique to different configurations of Tarot spreads. This unique method of storytelling will allow us to use the symbols and keys provided by Tarot to unlock stories not only in comic books, but also in our everyday lives.

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Join us as we delve into literary works and enjoy masterpieces read out loud by amazing actor – Matthew Peter-Carter!
Our November theme explores reflections on games and pastimes. These are the poems for the next session:

• Hide and Seek – Vernon Scannell
• Game – Laura Kasischke
• The Christmas Truce – Carol Ann Duffy
• Playthings – Rabindvanath Tagore
• Twice a week the winter through – A.E. Housman

Unlike other book clubs that expect participants to read in advance and prepare for the conversation, we welcome anyone to join the meeting without any preparation. You just have to be there and enjoy the finest works of poetry, read aloud by professional actor and English literature scholar. We will also allow sufficient time to discuss every poem in a group and reflect on how the ideas and emotions are emphasised by the power of language.

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