Occult art
Why Magnetic Fields?
Spring 1919, André Breton and Philippe Soupault wrote the book ‘Les Champs magnétiques’ (the Magnetic fields) which was published the year after. For many this was a pivotal moment in art history, as it is considered the actual birth of the Surrealist movement.
The Magnetic fields was written in one frenzied week in a hotel room. As an experiment in writing, without revising and agreed by the authors to just write. Through the use of automatic writing they suppressed their conscious control over the process and tapped directly into their subconscious. The result was a dreamlike text, full of disjoined prose and poetic imagery. A genuine exploration of the subconscious mind.
Automatic writing is also seen as a way to tap into the spirit world. A means of communicating with spirits and deities that was particularly popular in the Western world of the late nineteen and early twentieth century. This occult practice of automatic writing has a long history. In China there is a extensive history of ‘Spirit writing’, known as Fuij. Spanish Kabbalists engaged in automatic writing, as a method that may have been used to produce the ‘Zohar’. And in the sixteenh century John Dee and Edward Kelley received the Enochian language through automatic writing.
The practice was always present and the Surrealist movement was drenched in spiritualism, magic and the occult. Being a surrealist was more then tapping into dream states. It was being in touch with the spirit world and the occult. The place where our subconscious meets dreams of the Gods.
And this site, Magnetic fields is the dream-state of Arjan Winkelaar. Where is his subconscious comes to fruition in art and spiritualism.
Who is Arjan Winkelaar?
Born between shards of glass and dusty relics, Arjan Winkelaar encountered the world with a fresh pair of eyes. For him, it was filled with magical things, monsters, ghosts and everything his mind could conjure. He grew up in a small village, but for him it was a forest filled with wonder and adventures.
From the moment he could hold a pencil he started drawing. Like most children do he drew without conscious thought. Letting his hands be guided by the lines and not trying to make sense of what it became. This practice never left him and as soon as he discovered the world of the Surreal all things magical found a permanent home. It was from that moment that he knew, the world around us, is also what’s within us.
Occultism and magick soon followed. First through the writings of Aleister Crowley and the drawings of Austin Osman Spare. And later through the practice of Chaos Magick and deeper dives in the world of occult writings.
In his art, magick and spiritism were always present. Sometimes as a tiny speck, a flicker, other times clear and present as daylight. These days his art is more then just ‘art’. They are portals to the spirit world. Windows to the unseen and occult. Spiritually infused representations of the universal energy. Arjan Winkelaar has gone back to the true spirit of the original Surrealists, making visions of dreams and our subconscious.
Autonomous draftsman
I started as a self-taught artist and from this practice came the main focus on drawing. On the paper, the lines, pencil and ink. This medium conveys magick better than paint. Drawing is a state of being. My state of being.
Surrealistic thinker
From a young age I am fascinated by surrealism. To convey your dreams and subconscious in art. And later I learned the original Surrealist movement was laced with spiritualism and the ideas of magick. Its esoteric secrets are still a place of wonder. A place I like to be.
Animistic magician
Magick is more than casting spells and performing rituals. It is a way of seeing the world and realizing that beyond the veil a whole other world resides. In my practice I like to bring the world behind the veil into ours. Let you see what is out there.
Spiritual artist
Delving into the world behind the veil and speaking with the souls of other beings is what I do, as they say it's what we need. For me it is a journey in art and esotericism. On this journey I convey the words and things I see into my art, into things for you to see, hold and touch.
Just call me Arjan
An Intuitive draftsman & Surrealist – On Chaos magick & Spiritual art
Just call me Arjan
An Intuitive draftsman & Surrealist – On Chaos magick & Spiritual art
A
man living in Alkmaar, one of the more beautiful cities of Noord-Holland, with my talented wife (trained in shamanism and traditional witchcraft), a child, our three cats and the numerous spiritual beings blowing in the wind. All meandering between the metaphysical trees. You could say my mind is like a forest, a place where trees are plentiful and keep unwanted attention at bay. Sometimes the wind brings in guests, but always invited and at times even welcome in the deeper regions.
Besides residing in my forest of thoughts and spirits, together with my wife we run a household filled with love, intellectual meetings, spiritual magick and meaningful peace. The both of us love art, being spiritual and creating things. All to serve a higher purpose of being more than the sum of our parts.
There is a word in Dutch “wederkerigheid.” Reciprocity in English, that I have always found one of beauty in my native language. For me it points to something that I keep returning to in my work: the idea that what flows out must also flow back. That nothing exists in isolation. That the visible world is in constant conversation with the deeper, hidden regions beneath it.
My artistic practice lives at the meeting point between art, magic and the subconscious. Working primarily on paper, drawings in ink and pencil, I create art that explores the hidden structures beneath our visible reality. The archetypes, Gods, deities, forces and spiritual presences that shape human experience without ever fully showing themselves to our conscious mind.
My work evolves completely intuitively. Forms and symbols emerge before they are fully understood. And I follow what reveals itself through the process, rather than imposing meaning from my conscious mind or even the outside world. Seen from this sense, my work is as much about discovery as it is about creation. The subconscious is not simply a theme, it is one of my primary forces or methods.
The occult and mystical are not decorative references in my practice. They are active frameworks through which I approach images, symbols and transformation. I am drawn to the power of symbols. By their ability to act on the psyche and alter the conscious mind through subconscious thought. To create art as a threshold between inner and outer worlds and to the possibility that an image can function as more than representation of reality. That it can be used as invocation, portal or talismanic presence.
Nature runs through all of it. Long before the gods became abstract and metaphysical beings, humans painted the walls of caves at Lascaux and understood themselves enough to be part of something alive and reciprocal. Nature was not backdrop; It was the sacred, the divine, the essence that looked back. This is the relationship that I want to find (again) in my work: not nature as subject, but nature as presence. Living, psychologically charged and full of what we have forgotten. The essence behind the veil.
It is not my aim to make artworks with one meaning, one closed interpretation. For me the work must open itself through encounter. Its meaning takes shape in the space between the artwork and the viewer. In the space where memory, projection and the subconscious become entangled. Each piece is an inner space where the mysterious can briefly take form. And where, if you are willing, something in you finds its shape alongside it.
In brief this is what I aim for, what my wish from me to you is. No doubt you still have question and for that reason I have answers. Don’t hold back and: