Hyperallergic has published its seasonal tarot reading for the fall art world, and the collective reading, titled “The Art Tarot Predicts a Fateful Fall,” forecasts a season of endings and major political change. The tarotscope comes from AX Mina, who reads the cards for the art world as the year winds down.
The Cards For The Season
Mina sees the fall equinox as a turning point. She writes that she senses major waves of change on the political front are on the horizon, and that by December, many of the conflicts and uncertainties we see today will have had a chance to play out on the world stage.
She adds a note of legal caution: “Note: Hyperallergic is not legally liable for any failure of the universe to deliver.”
The reading pairs with a visual spread from artist Johanna Hedva’s exhibition at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances. Hedva’s show opens with a giant vial dripping ink-black liquid onto the gallery floor, described as a dark hourglass marking the duration of the exhibition.
Pharr’s Multimedia Work At The Studio Museum
Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia reviews Derriann Pharr’s multimedia works at the Studio Museum. She writes that these variegated passages unfurl in sweeping motions, as in a flashback or a vision, rendering the cycles of trauma, metamorphosis, and rebirth as both transient and everlasting.
Pharr’s residency at the Studio Museum brings together works that trace girlhood and womanhood, with images that shift and change before the viewer’s eyes.
Watching John Yau Trace The Threads
Associate Editor Lisa Yin Zhang points readers toward John Yau’s review of a show featuring Brenda Goodman, Steve DiBenedetto, and Bendix Harms at the New York Studio School. She asks what will carry us through the dark nights of the world and the soul, and answers that watching John Yau trace the strange threads of an exhibition always helps her.
Yau’s review explores the connections between the three painters, pushing viewers out of their comfort zones.
The Reading’s Timing
The core prediction is political. Mina sees major waves of change on the horizon, with conflicts playing out on the world stage by December. That timing matches the season’s theme of cycles and endings.
The reading also touches on art history, with Mina noting a visit to the Morgan Library’s tarot show, which spans 500 years of perspective on the deck system.
Key Facts
- Season: Fall Equinox
- Predicted outcome: Conflicts and uncertainties will play out by December
- Artwork: Hedva’s vial dripping black liquid at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances
- Reviewers: Valentina Di Liscia on Pharr, John Yau on Goodman, DiBenedetto, and Harms
The hedging is notable. The disclaimer that Hyperallergic is not legally liable for the universe failing to deliver is a playful acknowledgment that tarotscopes are not weather reports.
The art world is full of readings, predictions, and manifestos, and this one joins that tradition. It is a reminder that the fall season brings endings, but also new beginnings.
The tarotscope is a mood piece dressed as a forecast. It is meant to amuse and orient, not to alarm. As Yin Zhang puts it, the reading helps carry us through the dark nights of the world and the soul.
Source material: “The Art Tarot Predicts a Fateful Fall,” Hyperallergic.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.