Magic Hour

Card readings are by donation and can be booked online here.

For seven years, artist Aaron Friend Lettner has been working on a photographic card deck, inspired by the Tarot – a cosmographic wisdom tradition that employs a rich, pictorial language to describe the soul’s journey into and out of form. His self-appointed task has been to bring clarity to this tradition: He began with extensive study and contemplation of the Tarot, tracing its many tributaries through antiquity to the modern era. With camera in hand, he then sought out these ancient, archetypal images in the world around him. The result is a set of 78 cards that have been carefully selected from over 4,000 negatives.

In Magic Hour, select images from the deck are printed using photogravure plates, setting the stage for card readings that occur within the gallery space. Each encounter is an entirely new creation that unfolds both for the first and last time. When cards are drawn, images are evoked, brought into association, and held in unexpected relationships that open new pathways of meaning. Each reading lasts as long as a small candle burns – hence the name. Lettner expounds, “One can draw cards on their own, of course, but there’s something remarkable about the connection between strangers, so intimate and brief. When the mood is right, the world will hush, and the cards sing. It’s beautiful to behold.”