March 2024

'The Hierophant'

Whilst researching tarots I realised that there were so many adaptations and different interpretations of the traditional deck. When I was gifted the Autonomic Tarot deck by David Keenan & Sophy Hollington I started to take inspiration from some of their interpretations, One of them being the hierophant. In the Autonomic deck I’d recently obtained this card was illustrated with two mirrored figures side by side. I quite liked this composition and referenced this alongside a photo I had stumbled upon which was taken in the 80s by a Latin American photographer who had staged two men sitting side by side holding hands in front of a set which looks almost reminiscent of the studio sets often seen in photographs from the 60’s/70’s by a lot of African photographers such as Seydou Keita and Malik Sidibe. Their hearts are painted exposed and tubes connecting the two figures with their features exaggerated with face paint to pay ode to Friday Kahlo. When reading on the inspiration behind this photo I learnt that the artists had been inspired by a Fridah kahlo piece where she has painted herself with tubes of blood connecting her to her doppelgänger. They used this painting as a reference but instead used two male figures and used the symbolism to signify the plight of homosexuals and their devastating battle against aids as well as the controversy and taboo that the epidemic created. 

I liked the idea of using such contrasting imagery and symbolism to reinterpret this card as it’s often used to represent healing through spirituality/religion, sacredness, hierarchical order, orthodoxy, and moral righteousness. Which, if, you are following in the more traditional sense would make my re-adaptation slightly conflicting. As within most religious realms homosexuality is often not welcomed. But I liked the idea of challenging this more traditional idea of the hierophant figure and creating a new one not so limited by the outdated beliefs of the original deck and I liked the connection between the Fridah Kahlo reference as she was someone who spent a huge part of her life bound by the restraints of her health ailments, yet did not let that limit her achievements within art but instead used it as a vessel to inspire the subject of her works.