/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/life/together/snapshot/2021/10/31/a-vampire-and-devil-relive-the-joys-of-trick-or-treating-in-1989/trick_or_treaters.jpg)
A vampire and devil relive the joys of trick or treating in 1989
How trick-or-treating brothers whipped up their costumes
Sunday, October 31, 2021
HÄXAN - WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES (Sweden 1922, Dir: Benjamin Christensen).
Sep 26, 2019
The complete film featuring the SOUNDTRACK composed & performed by GEOFFREY SMITH on multiple prototype hammered dulcimers & voice. http://www.dulcimer.co.uk http://www.thefluidpiano.com
ARTICLE ABOUT THE FILM & SOUNDTRACK
Häxan - Witchcraft through the ages is a truly legendary and infamous film. It was banned in every country in Europe when first released in 1922. Haxan was one of the first drama-documentaries, integrating fact, fiction, objective reality, investigation, delusion and hallucination. The film's mixture of narrative methods is astonishing for its freedom and audacity. Christensen's uninhibited and experimental style endeared Häxan to the Surrealists: it's transfused with humour - a witches' brew of the horrific, gross, and darkly comedic. Grave robbing, perversion, repressed eroticism, torture, possessed nuns, ritual sacrifice and a satanic Sabbath: the director uses a series of dramatic episodes to explore the hypothesis that the 'witches' of the Middle Ages suffered the same mass hysteria as did the mentally ill in the early 20th century.
Moreover, Häxan has a freshness and timelessness that retains a powerful and shocking resonance in the 21st century: this is a moving, disturbing but also ultimately liberating study of the persecution of the mentally ill, women, the poor and the elderly. Geoffrey Smith's score for Häxan further explores his pioneering approach to composition, performance and design that was exemplified in Faust and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. As well as a composer, performer, orchestrator, inventor, vocalist, songwriter and percussionist Smith is acknowledged both as a world-leading virtuoso and a unique innovator in composition, technique and performance on the hammered dulcimer. He is also a pioneer in Dulcimer design. Smith's score has been inspired and led by Christensen's genius.
The director is simultaneously painter, historian, political psychoanalyst, horror guru and pioneering filmmaker. Häxan comes alive as few attempts to recreate the past on film have. There is a palpable atmosphere of excitement, evil, temptation and perversion enabled by inspirational direction, virtuoso camera work, innovative lighting techniques as well as absolutely astounding special effects that were decades ahead of their time and which are all the more impressive when viewed from a 21st century perspective. For the performance of Häxan Smith uses numerous prototype hammered dulcimers, one being the first microtonal dulcimer incorporating his revolutionary 'Microtonal Fluid Tuning Mechanism': It would have been impossible to compose and perform the soundtrack for the film without this invention, which in turn led to his invention of the Fluid Piano: http://www.thefluidpiano.com
The hammered dulcimer is an ancient percussion instrument struck by small wooden hammers, sticks or mallets. The largest dulcimers have well over 100 strings. Each country has its own indigenous dulcimer which peculiarly reflects its respective culture - England, Scotland, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Iran, India, Germany, Egypt, Tibet, China, Korea, Mexico and so on. Until today the dulcimer has been seen as a traditional instrument and has usually been used in 'folk' and 'classical' musics in respective cultures. Smith's new score for Häxan is a revelation in the composition and performance of live music for film.
Now for the first time. 'Häxan - Witchcraft through the ages' a classic of world cinema, has a musical soundtrack worthy of its place in the history of film. This immensely dynamic score illuminates Christensen's aesthetic obsession, his wildly imaginative investigation of the paradox of the persecution of superstition by superstition, the juxtaposition of horror with dark humour and the ultimate triumph and liberation of the spirit. M
EDIA "It's a tribute to Smith that his music was able to bring this wonderful move back to life." Financial Times “The Hammered Dulcimer has been waiting for someone like Geoff Smith to come along.” Fiona Talkington, BBC Radio 3.
“A fascinating combination of disturbing images and otherworldly sounds which yanks the tradition of silent movie accompaniment spectacularly back to the future. Smith is a virtuoso percussionist who has revolutionised a forgotten instrument.” Sunday Times
***** The Scotsman #film #music #soundtrack #dulcimer #cimbalom #yangqin #hackbrett #composer #performer #vocalist #percussion
The witch isn't dead: New book explores witchcraft's rebellious history -- and modern transformation
Published 31st October 2021
Credit: Courtesy of TASCHEN
The witch isn't dead: New book explores witchcraft's rebellious history -- and modern transformation
Written by Marianna Cerini, CNN
Look up "witches" and you might see any of a number of depictions: ugly old ladies and young, sensual temptresses; antiheroes and aspiring role models; evil creatures mixing deadly potions and righteous sorceresses helping girls find their way (a la Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wizard of Oz").
A new title from Taschen's Library of Esoterica aims to explore this wealth of complex identities in a visually vibrant volume that isn't so much a book as it is a spellbinding tribute to a figure and a practice that are as old as time.
'Last Night in Soho' costume designer on creating Edgar Wright's frightful fashion flick
"Witchcraft" offers a deep dive into the many facets of a centuries-old tradition in the Western world, weaving more than 400 classic and contemporary artworks with essays and interviews by what editor Jessica Hundley describes as "a diverse coven of writers, scholars and modern-day practitioners, each embracing the practice in their own individual ways."
In "Witches' Sabbath," artist Jacques de Gheyn II depicts the sabbath with a pen-and-ink drawing of a swirling cauldron. Credit: Courtesy of TASCHEN
"I wanted to present witchcraft through symbolism and art but also fresh, personal perspectives," Hundley explained in a phone interview. "So much of the esoteric is often shrouded in secrecy and weighed down by stigma. With 'Witchcraft,' we worked collaboratively on introducing the subject in a way that felt inclusive and less intimidating."
Clocking in at 500-plus pages, the compendium spans the history of witchcraft and the representation of witches in literature and fairy tales; the tools of the craft and the rituals that have long been part of it. There are also sections dedicated to fashion, creative media and the witch in films and pop culture.
A history of feminine energy and rebellion
While the word "witch" has its etymological roots (wicce) in Old English, the lineage of the 'Western witch' can be traced back to Greek mythology and the earliest folk traditions of Egypt, northern Europe and the Celts.
Each culture represented the mystical figure differently, yet some of her traits recurred across geographically widespread countries: a witch was a powerful goddess, often associated with home and love, but also death and magic. Above all, she was a signifier of complex femininity.
William Holbrook Beard, "Lightning Struck a Flock of Witches," United States, Date Unknown. Beard depicts a fantastical view of stormbound witches in flight -- the coven sent reeling from a flash of close lightning.
"The iconography of the witch, while shifting over the centuries, has always revolved around the idea of feminine power, and reflected society's changing attitudes towards it," said the book's co-editor, Pam Grossman, in a phone interview.
In the 11th century, as male-centered Christianity spread across Europe, perceptions of femininity changed.
So-called witches (often any woman who strayed from the prescriptions of monotheistic religion) began to be considered outliers within their communities, feared and isolated for their supposed connection with the devil.
By the 14th century, the collective imagination had recast witches into heretical outcasts. For the next three centuries, witch hunts and executions -- including the Salem trials of 1692 -- would sweep both the Old and New Worlds.
In Kiki Smith's work "Pyre Woman Kneeling," a bronze female figure tops a pyre. The statue commemorates women who were burned for witchcraft.
"The image of the witch that's been crystallized in our minds -- that of a diabolical, frightening woman -- was born out of this exact period," said Grossman, who is also a writer, curator and teacher of magical practice. "The advent of the printing press, in particular, really helped popularize it. What she really was, of course, was even scarier: a threatening woman."
Indeed, what emerges from "Witchcraft" is that witches and their practice have long been a metaphor for women who want authority over their own lives (the coven, essentially a female-run community, is part of this metaphor, too). Browsing the book, which features works by names as diverse as Auguste Rodin, Paul Klee and Kiki Smith, it's hard not to notice how so many of them represented witches as fierce, powerful creatures even as they were being shunned by society.
Whether aging hags or hypersexual young beauties, they're the embodiment of a rebellious spirit that "wants to subvert the status quo," Grossman said.
A resurgence of witches
In the 18th and early 19th century, as the persecution of witches ended (at least in the Western world) and witchcraft started to be recognized as the last vestige of pagan worship, the magical figure was recast once again. This time, she was made into a fantastical subject as well as a symbol of female rage, independence, freedom and feminism.
Behind the latter "rebranding" was the suffragette movement, which used the archetype of the witch as the persecuted "other," an example of patriarchal oppression.
Witchcraft gained popularity again in the 1960s as second-wave feminism saw witches and their covens as expressions of feminine power and matriarchy (on the activism side, there was even a group of women who, in 1968, founded an organization called W.I.T.C.H).
The Boston-based group, W.I.T.C.H Boston, gather September 19, 2017, on Boston Common for a rally opposing the end of the DACA program.
The practice made another comeback during the 1990s, following the Anita Hill hearings and the rise of third-wave feminism; and then again in the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election and the #MeToo movement.
Over the past four years, the practice has gone mainstream, spurring articles, podcasts and Instagram accounts.
"I think that for a lot of women and, increasingly, queer and nonbinary people, the witch has come to represent an alternative to institutional power, as well as a way to tap into their spirituality in a way that isn't mediated by someone else," Grossman said.
"Witchcraft is a means by which you can feel like you have some agency in the world. And because so much of it is about creating your own rituals, it allows individuals from different backgrounds to take part in it on their own terms."
Anthony "Bones" Johnson, "Lilith," England/Ibiza 2018. In his last series, Anthony "Bones" Johnson painted scenes that honor the alchemical forces of nature and the power of women.
The witchy narrative has evolved on screen, too, and "Witchcraft" dedicates its last pages to that.
From the scary Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz" to the beautiful Samantha of "Bewitched" and the tenacious Sabrina of the "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" (which couldn't be more far removed from the original show starring Melissa Joan Hart), the witch has shifted from villain to protagonist, and from someone you would be afraid of to someone you might aspire to be.
Women have been overlooked in the history of alcohol. This author set out to change that
"Whether they instill fear, seduce, use violence or act for the greater good, the way visual arts portray witches is always reflective of the cultural moment they're part of,'' Hundley said. What has remained unchanged through the centuries, she noted, is that the very nature of the witch is to contain all of these archetypes within her at all times.
"The witch is in a state of constant evolution," she said. "She's a shapeshifter."
"Witchcraft" is available in Europe now and will be released next month in the US.
Add to queue: Empowering witches
READ: "The Once and Future Witches" (2020)
Witchcraft and activism are woven together in this Gothic fantasy novel by Alix E. Harrow, set in an alternate America where witches once existed but no longer do The year is 1893, and the estranged Eastwood sisters -- James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth and Beatrice Belladonna -- join the suffragists of New Salem while beginning to awaken their own magic, transforming the women's movement into the witches' movement.
BROWSE: "Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America" (2020)
Frances F. Denny's photographic project "Major Arcana: Witches in America" is an ambitious visual document of the modern face of witchcraft. Denny spent three years meeting and photographing a diverse group of witches around the US, capturing the various ways "witch-ness" expresses itself.
WATCH: "Motherland: Fort Salem" (2020)
Witches become superheroes in this action-packed series, currently in its second season. Three young sorceresses conscripted into the US Army -- Raelle Collar, Abigail Bellweather and Tally Craven -- use their supernatural tactics and spells to defend the country against a terrorist organization known as the Spree, a witch resistance group.
LISTEN: "Between the Worlds" (2018-present)
WATCH: "American Horror Story: Coven" (2013)
Set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, the third season of the FX horror anthology series "American Horror Story" centers on a coven of witches descended from the survivors of the Salem trials as they fight for survival against the outside world. The show deals with femininity and race, as well as issues around modern feminist theories and practice.
Top image: Titled "Ritual," this 2019 work by photographer Psyché Ophiuchus shows a ceremonial circle taking place in Fairy Glen on the Isle of Skye at dusk.
Published 31st October 2021
Credit: Courtesy of TASCHEN
The witch isn't dead: New book explores witchcraft's rebellious history -- and modern transformation
Written by Marianna Cerini, CNN
Look up "witches" and you might see any of a number of depictions: ugly old ladies and young, sensual temptresses; antiheroes and aspiring role models; evil creatures mixing deadly potions and righteous sorceresses helping girls find their way (a la Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wizard of Oz").
A new title from Taschen's Library of Esoterica aims to explore this wealth of complex identities in a visually vibrant volume that isn't so much a book as it is a spellbinding tribute to a figure and a practice that are as old as time.
'Last Night in Soho' costume designer on creating Edgar Wright's frightful fashion flick
"Witchcraft" offers a deep dive into the many facets of a centuries-old tradition in the Western world, weaving more than 400 classic and contemporary artworks with essays and interviews by what editor Jessica Hundley describes as "a diverse coven of writers, scholars and modern-day practitioners, each embracing the practice in their own individual ways."
In "Witches' Sabbath," artist Jacques de Gheyn II depicts the sabbath with a pen-and-ink drawing of a swirling cauldron. Credit: Courtesy of TASCHEN
"I wanted to present witchcraft through symbolism and art but also fresh, personal perspectives," Hundley explained in a phone interview. "So much of the esoteric is often shrouded in secrecy and weighed down by stigma. With 'Witchcraft,' we worked collaboratively on introducing the subject in a way that felt inclusive and less intimidating."
Clocking in at 500-plus pages, the compendium spans the history of witchcraft and the representation of witches in literature and fairy tales; the tools of the craft and the rituals that have long been part of it. There are also sections dedicated to fashion, creative media and the witch in films and pop culture.
A history of feminine energy and rebellion
While the word "witch" has its etymological roots (wicce) in Old English, the lineage of the 'Western witch' can be traced back to Greek mythology and the earliest folk traditions of Egypt, northern Europe and the Celts.
Each culture represented the mystical figure differently, yet some of her traits recurred across geographically widespread countries: a witch was a powerful goddess, often associated with home and love, but also death and magic. Above all, she was a signifier of complex femininity.
William Holbrook Beard, "Lightning Struck a Flock of Witches," United States, Date Unknown. Beard depicts a fantastical view of stormbound witches in flight -- the coven sent reeling from a flash of close lightning.
Credit: Gene Young/Smithsonian American Art Museum/Courtesy of TASCHEN
"The iconography of the witch, while shifting over the centuries, has always revolved around the idea of feminine power, and reflected society's changing attitudes towards it," said the book's co-editor, Pam Grossman, in a phone interview.
In the 11th century, as male-centered Christianity spread across Europe, perceptions of femininity changed.
So-called witches (often any woman who strayed from the prescriptions of monotheistic religion) began to be considered outliers within their communities, feared and isolated for their supposed connection with the devil.
By the 14th century, the collective imagination had recast witches into heretical outcasts. For the next three centuries, witch hunts and executions -- including the Salem trials of 1692 -- would sweep both the Old and New Worlds.
In Kiki Smith's work "Pyre Woman Kneeling," a bronze female figure tops a pyre. The statue commemorates women who were burned for witchcraft.
Credit: Martin Argyroglo/Courtesy of TASCHEN
"The image of the witch that's been crystallized in our minds -- that of a diabolical, frightening woman -- was born out of this exact period," said Grossman, who is also a writer, curator and teacher of magical practice. "The advent of the printing press, in particular, really helped popularize it. What she really was, of course, was even scarier: a threatening woman."
Indeed, what emerges from "Witchcraft" is that witches and their practice have long been a metaphor for women who want authority over their own lives (the coven, essentially a female-run community, is part of this metaphor, too). Browsing the book, which features works by names as diverse as Auguste Rodin, Paul Klee and Kiki Smith, it's hard not to notice how so many of them represented witches as fierce, powerful creatures even as they were being shunned by society.
Whether aging hags or hypersexual young beauties, they're the embodiment of a rebellious spirit that "wants to subvert the status quo," Grossman said.
A resurgence of witches
In the 18th and early 19th century, as the persecution of witches ended (at least in the Western world) and witchcraft started to be recognized as the last vestige of pagan worship, the magical figure was recast once again. This time, she was made into a fantastical subject as well as a symbol of female rage, independence, freedom and feminism.
Behind the latter "rebranding" was the suffragette movement, which used the archetype of the witch as the persecuted "other," an example of patriarchal oppression.
Witchcraft gained popularity again in the 1960s as second-wave feminism saw witches and their covens as expressions of feminine power and matriarchy (on the activism side, there was even a group of women who, in 1968, founded an organization called W.I.T.C.H).
The Boston-based group, W.I.T.C.H Boston, gather September 19, 2017, on Boston Common for a rally opposing the end of the DACA program.
Credit: Lauren Lancaster/Courtesy of TASCHEN
The practice made another comeback during the 1990s, following the Anita Hill hearings and the rise of third-wave feminism; and then again in the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election and the #MeToo movement.
Over the past four years, the practice has gone mainstream, spurring articles, podcasts and Instagram accounts.
"I think that for a lot of women and, increasingly, queer and nonbinary people, the witch has come to represent an alternative to institutional power, as well as a way to tap into their spirituality in a way that isn't mediated by someone else," Grossman said.
"Witchcraft is a means by which you can feel like you have some agency in the world. And because so much of it is about creating your own rituals, it allows individuals from different backgrounds to take part in it on their own terms."
Anthony "Bones" Johnson, "Lilith," England/Ibiza 2018. In his last series, Anthony "Bones" Johnson painted scenes that honor the alchemical forces of nature and the power of women.
Credit: Courtesy of TASCHEN
The witchy narrative has evolved on screen, too, and "Witchcraft" dedicates its last pages to that.
From the scary Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz" to the beautiful Samantha of "Bewitched" and the tenacious Sabrina of the "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" (which couldn't be more far removed from the original show starring Melissa Joan Hart), the witch has shifted from villain to protagonist, and from someone you would be afraid of to someone you might aspire to be.
Women have been overlooked in the history of alcohol. This author set out to change that
"Whether they instill fear, seduce, use violence or act for the greater good, the way visual arts portray witches is always reflective of the cultural moment they're part of,'' Hundley said. What has remained unchanged through the centuries, she noted, is that the very nature of the witch is to contain all of these archetypes within her at all times.
"The witch is in a state of constant evolution," she said. "She's a shapeshifter."
"Witchcraft" is available in Europe now and will be released next month in the US.
Add to queue: Empowering witches
READ: "The Once and Future Witches" (2020)
Witchcraft and activism are woven together in this Gothic fantasy novel by Alix E. Harrow, set in an alternate America where witches once existed but no longer do The year is 1893, and the estranged Eastwood sisters -- James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth and Beatrice Belladonna -- join the suffragists of New Salem while beginning to awaken their own magic, transforming the women's movement into the witches' movement.
BROWSE: "Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America" (2020)
Frances F. Denny's photographic project "Major Arcana: Witches in America" is an ambitious visual document of the modern face of witchcraft. Denny spent three years meeting and photographing a diverse group of witches around the US, capturing the various ways "witch-ness" expresses itself.
WATCH: "Motherland: Fort Salem" (2020)
Witches become superheroes in this action-packed series, currently in its second season. Three young sorceresses conscripted into the US Army -- Raelle Collar, Abigail Bellweather and Tally Craven -- use their supernatural tactics and spells to defend the country against a terrorist organization known as the Spree, a witch resistance group.
LISTEN: "Between the Worlds" (2018-present)
Host Amanda Yates Garcia discusses tarot, psychology, mythology, pop culture, witchcraft, magic, art and history alongside a series of special guests, in a podcast that aims to explore the many expressions of the practice.
WATCH: "American Horror Story: Coven" (2013)
Set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, the third season of the FX horror anthology series "American Horror Story" centers on a coven of witches descended from the survivors of the Salem trials as they fight for survival against the outside world. The show deals with femininity and race, as well as issues around modern feminist theories and practice.
Top image: Titled "Ritual," this 2019 work by photographer Psyché Ophiuchus shows a ceremonial circle taking place in Fairy Glen on the Isle of Skye at dusk.
‘Joyously subversive sex goddesses’: the artists who gave witches a spellbinding makeover
We all know what a witch looks like. A gnarled old face full of warts with teeth missing and bright green skin. Then there’s the long black coat, the tall black hat and let’s not forget the sizable crooked nose, sniffing the fumes rising from a bubbling cauldron in a room festooned with cobwebs.
But that’s not what witches look like at all, or at least not according a hefty new art book being published in time for Halloween. In this compendium of witchy women, from Renaissance paintings to modern Wicca, the caricature of the evil hag is turned upside down. Witchcraft, the latest volume in Taschen’s Library of Esoterica, finds evidence from artists as diverse as Auguste Rodin and Kiki Smith for its revisionist view that witches are typically young, glamorous practitioners of highly sexualised magick. The cover painting, by Victorian artist JW Waterhouse, depicts the ancient enchantress Circe in pale, red-lipped pre-Raphaelite ecstasy – and the fun just keeps coming. The witches here are powerful feminist sex goddesses whose rites and incantations are joyously subversive.
There’s nothing respectably academic about Witchcraft. One of its editors is herself a witch and it includes photographs of 1960s and 70s Wiccans – practitioners of modern pagan magick. Consecration of Wine, Stewart Farrar’s misty monochrome 1971 photograph, portrays his wife, Janet, bare-breasted, filling a raised chalice in a modern ritual “meant to invoke the sacred union of male and female – the alchemical wedding”. Another photo shows a group known as the “Farrar coven” lying on their backs to form a pentagram in a British back garden in 1981.
Not one you’ll see this Halloween … a highly symbolically decorated witch by Oh, featured in the book Witchcraft. Photograph: © Vic Oh
Thousands of women were slain after being accused of witchcraft. Don’t they deserve more than the evil cackling hag stereotype? A powerful new book blows away the satanic baby-eating myths
Jonathan Jones
Wed 27 Oct 2021 13.34 BST
Thousands of women were slain after being accused of witchcraft. Don’t they deserve more than the evil cackling hag stereotype? A powerful new book blows away the satanic baby-eating myths
Jonathan Jones
Wed 27 Oct 2021 13.34 BST
We all know what a witch looks like. A gnarled old face full of warts with teeth missing and bright green skin. Then there’s the long black coat, the tall black hat and let’s not forget the sizable crooked nose, sniffing the fumes rising from a bubbling cauldron in a room festooned with cobwebs.
But that’s not what witches look like at all, or at least not according a hefty new art book being published in time for Halloween. In this compendium of witchy women, from Renaissance paintings to modern Wicca, the caricature of the evil hag is turned upside down. Witchcraft, the latest volume in Taschen’s Library of Esoterica, finds evidence from artists as diverse as Auguste Rodin and Kiki Smith for its revisionist view that witches are typically young, glamorous practitioners of highly sexualised magick. The cover painting, by Victorian artist JW Waterhouse, depicts the ancient enchantress Circe in pale, red-lipped pre-Raphaelite ecstasy – and the fun just keeps coming. The witches here are powerful feminist sex goddesses whose rites and incantations are joyously subversive.
There’s nothing respectably academic about Witchcraft. One of its editors is herself a witch and it includes photographs of 1960s and 70s Wiccans – practitioners of modern pagan magick. Consecration of Wine, Stewart Farrar’s misty monochrome 1971 photograph, portrays his wife, Janet, bare-breasted, filling a raised chalice in a modern ritual “meant to invoke the sacred union of male and female – the alchemical wedding”. Another photo shows a group known as the “Farrar coven” lying on their backs to form a pentagram in a British back garden in 1981.
Pyre Woman Kneeling by Kiki Smith commemorates women who were burned for witchcraft. Photograph: Martin Argyroglo/La Monnaie de Paris
Witchcraft’s thesis is completely convincing. In scouring the history of art to back up their modern-pagan perspective, the editors point to something remarkable. Artists over the centuries have created images of the witch far removed from the cackling stereotype established by witch trials and remembered in popular culture today without any respect for the women (and some men) who were killed in these mockeries of justice.
A work by Kiki Smith tries to show reverence to the victims of the witch-hunters. Her sculpture of a naked witch kneels on an unlit pyre, spreading her arms in triumph: a woman resurrected from this history of misogyny. Typically – at the height of the “witch craze”, which lasted from around 1570 to 1660 – people accused of witchcraft were older women who lived in poverty at the margins of rural communities. Better-off neighbours feared their supposed magical vengeance. Investigators such as England’s infamous Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, believed the witches met at a midnight sabbath and ate babies, exchanged animal familiars or “imps”, and had sex with Satan.
This stereotype was just as unrelated to reality as medieval Europe’s murderous caricature of Jewish people. Yet leafing through this book, you quickly see that even as elderly rural women were being demonised and burned alive, Renaissance artists saw witchcraft in a very different way. They associated it with desire, enchantment and female power.
One spread in the volume features Satisfaction – a 1984 painting by Shimon Okshteyn of a triumphant post-coital “modern siren” as the caption has it – exulting in presumably witchy erotic power. It is juxtaposed with a 15th-century German painting by an unknown artist of a naked woman performing a spell in her room. A man appears at the door, spying on the nude witch. He’s in big trouble, you can’t help feeling. He’s going to get a magical punishment simply for seeing this witch dancing at her private rituals. But warts, ugly nose, a familiar? No, this is one of the most sensual nudes in early Renaissance art.
Witchcraft’s thesis is completely convincing. In scouring the history of art to back up their modern-pagan perspective, the editors point to something remarkable. Artists over the centuries have created images of the witch far removed from the cackling stereotype established by witch trials and remembered in popular culture today without any respect for the women (and some men) who were killed in these mockeries of justice.
A work by Kiki Smith tries to show reverence to the victims of the witch-hunters. Her sculpture of a naked witch kneels on an unlit pyre, spreading her arms in triumph: a woman resurrected from this history of misogyny. Typically – at the height of the “witch craze”, which lasted from around 1570 to 1660 – people accused of witchcraft were older women who lived in poverty at the margins of rural communities. Better-off neighbours feared their supposed magical vengeance. Investigators such as England’s infamous Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, believed the witches met at a midnight sabbath and ate babies, exchanged animal familiars or “imps”, and had sex with Satan.
This stereotype was just as unrelated to reality as medieval Europe’s murderous caricature of Jewish people. Yet leafing through this book, you quickly see that even as elderly rural women were being demonised and burned alive, Renaissance artists saw witchcraft in a very different way. They associated it with desire, enchantment and female power.
One spread in the volume features Satisfaction – a 1984 painting by Shimon Okshteyn of a triumphant post-coital “modern siren” as the caption has it – exulting in presumably witchy erotic power. It is juxtaposed with a 15th-century German painting by an unknown artist of a naked woman performing a spell in her room. A man appears at the door, spying on the nude witch. He’s in big trouble, you can’t help feeling. He’s going to get a magical punishment simply for seeing this witch dancing at her private rituals. But warts, ugly nose, a familiar? No, this is one of the most sensual nudes in early Renaissance art.
The Four Witches by Albrecht Dürer, 1497.
Photograph: © National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection
That stress on the allure and attraction of witches is even more explicit in the work of the great German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. In 1497, Dürer made The Four Witches, an engraving that depicts fleshy nudes dancing in a round. They are delineated with a boldness he learned on a trip across the Alps to Venice. There he encountered not just the city’s sex workers who also worked as artist’s models, but the new classically influenced Italian art with its cult of the human body. But Dürer’s own desires make him anxious. Even as he draws these women naked – as if picturing respectable Nuremberg frauen with their clothes off – he seems to sense they are witches. At the back of the room, an open door reveals the devil, his fanged mouth hanging open as he watches his minions from a cellar that has become a portal of hell.
Even when he does portray an aged witch riding backwards on a goat, an image much more closely connected to the witch-hunt stereotype, Dürer gives her a retinue of Renaissance cupids to complicate things. He is not really interested in persecuting old peasants but in exploring the artistic and moral tensions between his love of the flesh and his fear of sin.
A painting by his pupil Hans Baldung Grien gives two witches an even more gracious youth and beauty. They pose glamorously, more like models than agents of the macabre. Another great German 16th-century artist, Lucas Cranach, was most paradoxical of all. He painted fetishistically gloved or bonily nude women as charismatic beings of sexualised power – while, as a magistrate, he would have been personally involved in executing “witches”. In the sado-masochist fantasy world of his art, he desires everything that in real life he persecuted.
If artists could enjoy the witch as much as this – while women accused of witchcraft were being burned for the threat they were thought to pose to Christian society – itis little wonder art became ever more enchanted by the subject once the persecution ceased. By the 18th century, burning witches seemed like cruel superstitious nonsense. Instead, they became fuel for fantasy. Erotic drawings by Rodin and his kinky Belgian contemporary Félicien Rops imagine other uses for broomsticks than flying. In a Rodin sketch from about 1890, a witch faces us with her naked legs apart, rubbing her broom against her body with pleasure. Rops, too, depicts a young witch with a broomstick between her legs while she reads from her spell book wearing only her stockings.
That stress on the allure and attraction of witches is even more explicit in the work of the great German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. In 1497, Dürer made The Four Witches, an engraving that depicts fleshy nudes dancing in a round. They are delineated with a boldness he learned on a trip across the Alps to Venice. There he encountered not just the city’s sex workers who also worked as artist’s models, but the new classically influenced Italian art with its cult of the human body. But Dürer’s own desires make him anxious. Even as he draws these women naked – as if picturing respectable Nuremberg frauen with their clothes off – he seems to sense they are witches. At the back of the room, an open door reveals the devil, his fanged mouth hanging open as he watches his minions from a cellar that has become a portal of hell.
Even when he does portray an aged witch riding backwards on a goat, an image much more closely connected to the witch-hunt stereotype, Dürer gives her a retinue of Renaissance cupids to complicate things. He is not really interested in persecuting old peasants but in exploring the artistic and moral tensions between his love of the flesh and his fear of sin.
A painting by his pupil Hans Baldung Grien gives two witches an even more gracious youth and beauty. They pose glamorously, more like models than agents of the macabre. Another great German 16th-century artist, Lucas Cranach, was most paradoxical of all. He painted fetishistically gloved or bonily nude women as charismatic beings of sexualised power – while, as a magistrate, he would have been personally involved in executing “witches”. In the sado-masochist fantasy world of his art, he desires everything that in real life he persecuted.
If artists could enjoy the witch as much as this – while women accused of witchcraft were being burned for the threat they were thought to pose to Christian society – itis little wonder art became ever more enchanted by the subject once the persecution ceased. By the 18th century, burning witches seemed like cruel superstitious nonsense. Instead, they became fuel for fantasy. Erotic drawings by Rodin and his kinky Belgian contemporary Félicien Rops imagine other uses for broomsticks than flying. In a Rodin sketch from about 1890, a witch faces us with her naked legs apart, rubbing her broom against her body with pleasure. Rops, too, depicts a young witch with a broomstick between her legs while she reads from her spell book wearing only her stockings.
Boston WITCH by Lauren Lancaster, 2017. WITCH was a 1960s anti-war group resurrected in 2016 to protest against US immigration practices. Photograph: Lauren Lancaster
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In modern art by women, however, the witch has been reclaimed as a figure of power and freedom. Francesca Woodman poses eerily in a ruinous room in Providence, Rhode Island, almost floating, weaving the air with her arms, as if performing a spell. She seems to be conjuring up the inhabitants of this haunted house. Maybe she’s summoning the victims of New England’s bygone witch-hunts. Betye Saar’s installation Window of Ancient Sirens uses mirrors and fire to invoke her demon sisters. Her art openly embraces African and Caribbean magical traditions to animate objects and re-enchant modern life.
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In modern art by women, however, the witch has been reclaimed as a figure of power and freedom. Francesca Woodman poses eerily in a ruinous room in Providence, Rhode Island, almost floating, weaving the air with her arms, as if performing a spell. She seems to be conjuring up the inhabitants of this haunted house. Maybe she’s summoning the victims of New England’s bygone witch-hunts. Betye Saar’s installation Window of Ancient Sirens uses mirrors and fire to invoke her demon sisters. Her art openly embraces African and Caribbean magical traditions to animate objects and re-enchant modern life.
The cover of Witchcraft, featuring JW Waterhouse’s Circe Invidiosa. Photograph: Taschen
Even the stereotype of the evil black-clad old witch is transformed by feminist art. Members of the Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) – originally founded by anti-war protesters in 1968 and recreated in 2016 – hide their identities under their pointy hats in a photograph by Lauren Lancaster.
But the fun of Witchcraft is its enthusiastic embrace of every side of its subject, from the sublime to the silly. You don’t have to buy a stuffed goat, set up an altar in your garage and invite the neighbours to a swinging sabbath to agree that witches get a rough ride three centuries after the European witch-hunt ended. At Halloween, most of the monsters we delight in have no connection to reality. Vampires, ghosts and Frankenstein’s monster are creatures of the imagination. But tens of thousands of real human beings were put to death in the name of the witch stereotype that is touted around for fun at this time of year. And that could well be the most horrifying thing about Halloween.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft, edited by Jessica Hundley and Pam Grossman, is published by Taschen on 31 October (£30).
Even the stereotype of the evil black-clad old witch is transformed by feminist art. Members of the Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) – originally founded by anti-war protesters in 1968 and recreated in 2016 – hide their identities under their pointy hats in a photograph by Lauren Lancaster.
But the fun of Witchcraft is its enthusiastic embrace of every side of its subject, from the sublime to the silly. You don’t have to buy a stuffed goat, set up an altar in your garage and invite the neighbours to a swinging sabbath to agree that witches get a rough ride three centuries after the European witch-hunt ended. At Halloween, most of the monsters we delight in have no connection to reality. Vampires, ghosts and Frankenstein’s monster are creatures of the imagination. But tens of thousands of real human beings were put to death in the name of the witch stereotype that is touted around for fun at this time of year. And that could well be the most horrifying thing about Halloween.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft, edited by Jessica Hundley and Pam Grossman, is published by Taschen on 31 October (£30).
TASCHEN IS AN ART BOOK PUBLISHER
Five more climate activists arrested in Vancouver on final day of 'October Rebellion'
Three Extinction Rebellion protesters locked themselves to a block structure in the middle of a busy intersection downtown Vancouver.
Author of the article: Tiffany Crawford
Publishing date:Oct 30, 2021 •
Three Extinction Rebellion protesters locked themselves to a block structure in the middle of a busy intersection downtown Vancouver.
Author of the article: Tiffany Crawford
Publishing date:Oct 30, 2021 •
Several climate protesters were arrested late Friday after they chained themselves to a cement block in the intersection of Burrard and Pacific streets in Vancouver.
PHOTO BY EXTINCTION REBELLION /PNG
The action comes as delegates from around the world meet Sunday at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, where members of the group Extinction Rebellion are planning high impact “deliberate disruption, according to the BBC.
Three men and two women were arrested after refusing to leave the intersection at Burrard and Pacific and blocking traffic for several hours, said Vancouver police spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison on Saturday.
Extinction Rebellion, the climate activist group that has been staging the series of protests, says three of its members locked themselves to a block structure early Friday evening. The block was covered in chicken wire and blue tarps, painted to represent Earth.
The group alleges police were “rough” with the protesters when removing them from the intersection.
Addison said three protesters had locked themselves together using some sort of device, but they freed themselves after the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services arrived to cut them out.
Two protesters lying in the middle of the road were removed from the area and arrested, he added.
The action comes as delegates from around the world meet Sunday at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, where members of the group Extinction Rebellion are planning high impact “deliberate disruption, according to the BBC.
Three men and two women were arrested after refusing to leave the intersection at Burrard and Pacific and blocking traffic for several hours, said Vancouver police spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison on Saturday.
Extinction Rebellion, the climate activist group that has been staging the series of protests, says three of its members locked themselves to a block structure early Friday evening. The block was covered in chicken wire and blue tarps, painted to represent Earth.
The group alleges police were “rough” with the protesters when removing them from the intersection.
Addison said three protesters had locked themselves together using some sort of device, but they freed themselves after the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services arrived to cut them out.
Two protesters lying in the middle of the road were removed from the area and arrested, he added.
Several climate protesters were arrested late Friday after they chained themselves to a cement block in the intersection of Burrard and Pacific streets in Vancouver.
PHOTO BY EXTINCTION REBELLION /PNG
Friday’s protest marked the end of 14 consecutive days of action in Vancouver, including several roadblocks downtown Vancouver and disrupting traffic to the Vancouver International Airport.
A total of 54 people were arrested over the two weeks, including one arrest in Nanaimo, according to the group.
Extinction Rebellion Canada said it wants a commitment from the provincial and federal governments to end fossil fuel subsidies at the conference in Glasgow.
The group says it is unacceptable for leaders to claim to be climate leaders when they are still funding companies that are contributing to human-caused climate change.
A recent report from the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change that UN Secretary-General António Guterres called a “code red for humanity,” says crossing the 1.5 C warming above pre-industrial levels threshold is close and will be exceeded unless the world drastically cuts its CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade.
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet,” said Guterres, adding there must be no new coal plants built after 2021 and countries should end all new fossil fuel exploration and production and shift to renewable energy.
The IPCC has been been producing reports that assess the science on climate change since 1988. The reports are the consensus of the world’s scientists and governments.
Friday’s protest marked the end of 14 consecutive days of action in Vancouver, including several roadblocks downtown Vancouver and disrupting traffic to the Vancouver International Airport.
A total of 54 people were arrested over the two weeks, including one arrest in Nanaimo, according to the group.
Extinction Rebellion Canada said it wants a commitment from the provincial and federal governments to end fossil fuel subsidies at the conference in Glasgow.
The group says it is unacceptable for leaders to claim to be climate leaders when they are still funding companies that are contributing to human-caused climate change.
A recent report from the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change that UN Secretary-General António Guterres called a “code red for humanity,” says crossing the 1.5 C warming above pre-industrial levels threshold is close and will be exceeded unless the world drastically cuts its CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade.
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet,” said Guterres, adding there must be no new coal plants built after 2021 and countries should end all new fossil fuel exploration and production and shift to renewable energy.
The IPCC has been been producing reports that assess the science on climate change since 1988. The reports are the consensus of the world’s scientists and governments.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND -Pilgrimage groups who have walked to Glasgow are joined by members of the group, Extinction Rebellion as they walk to raise awareness of the climate crisis on October 30, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.
PHOTO BY IAN FORSYTH /Getty Images
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – Extinction Rebellion Blue Rebel Brigade members join pilgrimage groups who have walked to Glasgow to raise awareness of the climate crisis on October 30, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.
PHOTO BY IAN FORSYTH /Getty Images
ticrawford@postmedia.com
ticrawford@postmedia.com
BC
PROTEST‘We haven’t protected the old growth:’ dozens gather on land & water to protest raw log exports
Demonstrators from Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo conducted a protest against raw log exports on land and sea in downtown Nanaimo on Saturday, Oct. 30.
(Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)
By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff
By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff
Oct 30, 2021 | 1:56 PM
NANAIMO — Around 100 protesters had a clear and simple message for B.C.’s provincial government: end raw log exports and stop old-growth logging.
The crowd gathered at 1 Port Drive in downtown Nanaimo on Saturday, Oct. 30, first holding a small rally in the parking lot before approximately 20 people took to the water in various boats, including a First Nations canoe, for a flotilla protest in front of a log barge stationed at the port.
Leah Morgan, a program coordinator with Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo, told NanaimoNewsNOW a lot of talk has taken place on old growth logging and raw log exports, but little has actually been done.
“Nothing changes when nothing changes. We will not survive the climate emergency unless we take action. So far, our government has done very little action and a lot of promises which have not come to fruition.”
Morgan added no action has occurred on the topic, despite 14 recommendations from a strategic review done for the Ministry of Forests in 2020.
“In that forest review panel report it stated clearly the old growth needed to be protected within six months of the report being released, which was a year and a half ago. We haven’t protected the old growth.”
Both Extinction Rebellion members and guest speakers consistently reiterated they were not anti-logging, but wanted to continue the practice in a measurable and sustainable way while keeping logs cut in B.C., milled in B.C.
NANAIMO — Around 100 protesters had a clear and simple message for B.C.’s provincial government: end raw log exports and stop old-growth logging.
The crowd gathered at 1 Port Drive in downtown Nanaimo on Saturday, Oct. 30, first holding a small rally in the parking lot before approximately 20 people took to the water in various boats, including a First Nations canoe, for a flotilla protest in front of a log barge stationed at the port.
Leah Morgan, a program coordinator with Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo, told NanaimoNewsNOW a lot of talk has taken place on old growth logging and raw log exports, but little has actually been done.
“Nothing changes when nothing changes. We will not survive the climate emergency unless we take action. So far, our government has done very little action and a lot of promises which have not come to fruition.”
Morgan added no action has occurred on the topic, despite 14 recommendations from a strategic review done for the Ministry of Forests in 2020.
“In that forest review panel report it stated clearly the old growth needed to be protected within six months of the report being released, which was a year and a half ago. We haven’t protected the old growth.”
Both Extinction Rebellion members and guest speakers consistently reiterated they were not anti-logging, but wanted to continue the practice in a measurable and sustainable way while keeping logs cut in B.C., milled in B.C.
Around 10 boats, including a large First Nations canoe, took to the water early Saturday afternoon and blockaded a stationary log boom on the water in front of downtown Nanaimo.
(Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)
Torrence Coste of the Wilderness Committee told the crowd assembled between five and six million logs are exported, raw from B.C. every year during a recent string of record volume years.
He said if you loaded those logs onto trucks, parked end to end, the line would stretch between Vancouver and Montreal.
“That is a staggering amount of logs that we could either be leaving in the forest to suck up carbon from the atmosphere, provide habitat for endangered species, or sending to mills right here on Vancouver Island or across B.C. to be turned into higher value things by people working here.”
Coste added they are expecting another announcement from the provincial government in the near future on the next steps related to log exports and old-growth forestry.
He was skeptical on its content.
“[The province does] have some solid scientists working for them on this. We’re expecting their diagnosis to be good, it’s whether their treatment or not actually meets the scale of the challenge.”
Coste was adamant any solution for logging in B.C. must include First Nations consultation, including return of land to traditional owners.
Torrence Coste of the Wilderness Committee told the crowd assembled between five and six million logs are exported, raw from B.C. every year during a recent string of record volume years.
He said if you loaded those logs onto trucks, parked end to end, the line would stretch between Vancouver and Montreal.
“That is a staggering amount of logs that we could either be leaving in the forest to suck up carbon from the atmosphere, provide habitat for endangered species, or sending to mills right here on Vancouver Island or across B.C. to be turned into higher value things by people working here.”
Coste added they are expecting another announcement from the provincial government in the near future on the next steps related to log exports and old-growth forestry.
He was skeptical on its content.
“[The province does] have some solid scientists working for them on this. We’re expecting their diagnosis to be good, it’s whether their treatment or not actually meets the scale of the challenge.”
Coste was adamant any solution for logging in B.C. must include First Nations consultation, including return of land to traditional owners.
Around 100 people attended a demonstration at 1 Port Drive in downtown Nanaimo and a subsequent water flotilla on Saturday, Oct. 30. Their demands included ending raw log exports and stopping old growth logging.(Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)
Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, is a high-profile member in the ongoing demonstrations at Fairy Creek, with protesters aiming to protect an area of old growth land on southwestern Vancouver Island from logging.
Hundreds of arrests have occurred at the site as protesters defied court injunctions and property boundaries at the site.
Davidson told onlookers on Saturday the RCMP didn’t understand the connection certain people feel to the land.
“The people on the mountain are the strongest people I’ve ever met, they’re stronger than the RCMP, stronger than industry because we’re up there together. We don’t have the hard system, the law protecting us, we’re going up against the system.”
She added protesters were tired, but holding the line at the site in continued efforts to preserve old growth on Vancouver Island.
“We are not activists, this is just how we live our life. The RCMP will start arresting people and it’s B-S, it’s f***ing B-S. They’re going to make us the criminals, they have, but we’re going to remember this for the rest of our lives.”
Organizers stated at the rally two members of Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo were arrested Saturday morning, prior to the rally. NanaimoNewsNOW was unable to verify the claim.
Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, is a high-profile member in the ongoing demonstrations at Fairy Creek, with protesters aiming to protect an area of old growth land on southwestern Vancouver Island from logging.
Hundreds of arrests have occurred at the site as protesters defied court injunctions and property boundaries at the site.
Davidson told onlookers on Saturday the RCMP didn’t understand the connection certain people feel to the land.
“The people on the mountain are the strongest people I’ve ever met, they’re stronger than the RCMP, stronger than industry because we’re up there together. We don’t have the hard system, the law protecting us, we’re going up against the system.”
She added protesters were tired, but holding the line at the site in continued efforts to preserve old growth on Vancouver Island.
“We are not activists, this is just how we live our life. The RCMP will start arresting people and it’s B-S, it’s f***ing B-S. They’re going to make us the criminals, they have, but we’re going to remember this for the rest of our lives.”
Organizers stated at the rally two members of Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo were arrested Saturday morning, prior to the rally. NanaimoNewsNOW was unable to verify the claim.
VIDEO
https://view.vzaar.com/23586283/player
alex@nanaimonewsnow.com
On Twitter: @alexrawnsley
alex@nanaimonewsnow.com
On Twitter: @alexrawnsley
A protest flotilla gathers in the waters off 1 Port Dr. in Nanaimo, speaking against exporting of raw logs from Canada. (Karl Yu/News Bulletin)
B.C. environmental activists form flotilla in protest of raw log exports
Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo and others warn of exporting of raw logs, climate crisis
KARL YU
Oct. 30, 2021
Protesters and forestry worker representatives were among those joining together to protest raw log exports at central Vancouver Island on Saturday, Oct. 30.
With a raw log carrier vessel in the background, speakers, including ones from Extinction Rebellion, Public and Private Workers of Canada union and the Wilderness Committee, spoke of the dangers of exporting raw logs out of Canada at a rally in Nanaimo.
Leah Morgan, Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo coordinator, told the crowd the aim was to unite all walks of life in solidarity to deal with the climate crisis effectively and immediately
“This raw log barge behind us, this is literally exporting B.C. jobs and money out of Canada,” said Morgan. “These are unprocessed logs being shipped abroad for bottom dollar instead of being processed here and sorted here with the value-added industry that could be on top of milling our own wood. Countless jobs.”
Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee national campaign director, said it’s not about ending logging, but rather getting more out of trees being cut down. The two issues cannot be separated, he said.
“We need to set aside vast swaths of forest,” said Coste. “That’s what the biodiversity crisis demands. That’s what the climate crisis demands. The forest that we are leaving open to some logging, we need to be turning them into more valuable things. We need to be spreading those benefits more efficiently and more effectively and more justly throughout our communities.”
Cam Shiell, PPWC environmental sustainability officer, said he has lobbied both B.C. NDP and Liberal governments for policy change, but to no avail. The union has a long-standing history of advocating for a transition from old growth harvesting and the focus needs to be on second- and third-growth harvests and getting more value from the forests, he said.
“I am 43 years old and in my working career, I believe I will see the end of old-growth logging,” said Shiell. “Either it’s going to be transitioned out, phased out, or we’re just going to come to an end of the trees. For me, I don’t want to see a world with no more old growth.”
After the rally, a flotilla of kayaks and other vessels paddled out to the raw log barge in further protest.
Morgan estimated 70 people were present.
Organizers said police arrested a protester prior to the flotilla setting off.
READ ALSO: One arrested after Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo Airport protest
Antarctic sea-ice plays an important role in regulating Earth's energy budget
When Earth's snow and ice cover melts, the reflectivity of Earth's surface—known as albedo—decreases. And when the albedo of Earth's surface decreases, a smaller share of sunlight is reflected back into space. As a result, more solar radiation energy remains on Earth, warming its climate system. Similarly, as the snow and ice cover grows, reflectivity increases, which has a cooling effect. This mechanism is called snow and ice albedo feedback. The scale of the snow and ice albedo feedback is determined by, for example, the amount of sunlight and cloudiness.
In their new study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists from the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research calculated the heating and cooling effect of changes in reflectivity in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The study period was between 1982 and 2018 and calculations were based on satellite observations.
Albedo changes in polar regions alter Earth's energy budget
The results confirmed previous findings that melting of the snow and ice cover in the Arctic region since the 1990s has had a warming effect. In addition, the new study describes two significantly different developments taking place in the Antarctic region: Between 2000 and 2015, the expansion of the Antarctic sea-ice cover produced a cooling effect that largely balanced out the warming effect caused by the melting of the Arctic region. However, in 2016 there was a notable reduction in Antarctic sea-ice cover, which completely reversed the cooling effect that had increased over the previous 15 years.
"Our results highlight the important, but previously little-known, role of the Antarctica's sea-ice cover as a regulator of the radiative energy budget in polar regions," says Aku Riihelä, Research Professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the corresponding author of the study.
"The dramatic change in the sea-ice cover in 2016 also shows that major changes in the sea-ice cover can take place rapidly. For this reason, more attention should be paid to the monitoring of Antarctica and its sea-ice in the future, as well as the development of related models," Riihelä says.
Loss of Antarctic sea-ice could also add to the anthropogenic global warming
Between 1992 and 2018 the changes in the reflectivity of polar regions, on average, amounted to a global warming effect of +0.08 Watts per square meter. This corresponds to about 10 percent of the warming effect caused by annual anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions since 1992. And this share may increase if the Antarctic sea-ice cover does not recover from its recent shrinkage.
"The question of whether the huge loss in Antarctic sea ice can be recovered is important, given the profound implications for Earth's radiative energy balance. The Antarctic has long served as a sort of refrigerator in the earth system. Breaking it beyond repair would really chip away at our remaining emission budgets, making it ever more difficult to meet our ambitious mitigation targets," says Ryan Bright, a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research and one of the study's co-authors.
However, more recent studies have shown partial recovery in the Antarctic sea-ice.
"While this may be seen as good news, we cannot afford to dismiss the 2016–2018 reversal as anomalous until we really understand the mechanisms that caused it," says Bright.Earth is dimming due to climate change
More information: Aku Riihelä et al, Recent strengthening of snow and ice albedo feedback driven by Antarctic sea-ice loss, Nature Geoscience (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00841-x
Journal information: Nature Geoscience
Provided by Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
Mitsubishi Heavy starts LNG-fired power generation facility plant in Java
JAKARTAJapan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd has announced the start of commercial operations of a 500-megawatt natural gas-fired power generation system it provided to a power plant run by Indonesia's state-owned electricity provider PT PLN on the northwestern coast of Java.
The gas turbine combined cycle power generation system was completed at the Muara Karang thermal power complex more than a month ahead of schedule despite the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Tokyo-based major engineering company, known as MHI, said.
Located in the northwest of Jakarta, the plant was constructed by local state-run contractor PT Wijaya Karya (Persero) Tbk. MHI and PT Wijaya Karya jointly received a full turnkey contract for the plant in 2016.
Under the contract calling for engineering, procurement and construction, MHI supplied key equipment, including gas turbines and boilers for recovering exhaust heat, while Mitsubishi Electric Corp provided power generation-related equipment.
The GTCC system generates power by gas turbines while steam turbines use exhaust gas for additional electricity generation, realizing effective energy consumption and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by some 90 percent compared with the conventional coal-fired power plant.
The new facility is the most efficient in Indonesia, according to MHI.
© KYODOQuebec's cheap power lures Europe's green hydrogen buyers
The abundance of cheap hydro-electric power that made Quebec a haven for cryptocurrency miners and data centers is now attracting other potential power-thirsty buyers: European green hydrogen producers.
“We have people right now in Europe who want to decarbonize: They are very interested in coming to Quebec to produce green hydrogen from green electricity, to put that on a boat, and go back,” Sophie Brochu, the chief executive officer of power utility Hydro-Quebec, said in an interview. “They are ready to pay a fortune to decarbonize.”
With the world confronting the challenges of transitioning to cleaner energy this winter as natural gas shortages cripple countries from the U.K. to China, Quebec is in a enviable position. Home to 50 power-intensive data centers for companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the province also has large contracts to export its clean electricity to New York and Massachusetts.
Provided the U.S. projects proceed -- there’s been strong opposition to one of two new transmission lines in Maine -- Hydro-Quebec no longer foresees the kind of excess capacity that made it eager to add cryptocurrency miners and data centers clients just a few years ago.
“Appetite for our electricity has never been higher,” said Brochu, who took over the government-owned company in the early weeks of the pandemic. “We’re not saying ‘Oh my God, where do we push our electricity right now?’”
CRYPTO WALL
The province’s cryptocurrency mining boom hit a wall when a moratorium was imposed, and new rules that followed did little to revive it: Of an extra 300 megawatts allocated to new clients from the industry in 2019, only 22 megawatts have been taken up, according to Hydro-Quebec. Data centers, though, have been going up at a faster clip, from 39 in 2019 to the 50 it has now.
Demand is helped by the post-pandemic economic rebound. But there’s also interest from people wanting to use hydro electric power to make their products greener, she said.
That’s the case with green hydrogen. Europe’s goal to rely on hydrogen produced without fossil fuels for its heavy industry has prospective power customers from the other side of the pond knocking on Hydro-Quebec’s door. The idea would be to produce the clean-burning gas in Quebec -- using electricity to break water molecules -- and then ship it across the Atlantic.
Helping the U.S. and Europe achieve clean energy goals also appeals more to Quebeckers.
“The population right now wants to make sure that when we move forward and use a green electron, it goes as long a way as possible,” she said.
In addition, Hydro-Quebec is taking a more active approach to other sources of renewable energy. Last year it bought a 19.9 per cent stake in Innergex Renewable Energy Inc., a company based outside Montreal that owns and operates hydro electric power facilities, as well as wind and solar farms in several countries. The two also struck an alliance to make joint investments.
The utility is interested in making more transactions in these industries, with a focus on regions it’s connected with.
“Cash is not an issue,” Brochu said. “Spending wisely is.”
Hydro-Quebec CEO says U.S. rivals
feel threated by hydro power, unlike
solar and wind
Hydro-Quebec CEO Sophie Brochu talks about pushback from U.S. rivals that sell power generated from fossil fuels, just as the company prepares to begin construction on a transmission line that will deliver hydroelectricity from Canada to New York City. She says that hydro power is in line with "what the planet needs" and what consumers want.
Future of Canadian crude pricing at stake in November ruling on Enbridge pipeline proposal
HIGHLIGHTS
Startup of Line 3 replacement largely ends pipeline bottleneck for now
Enbridge sees higher Canadian prices and volumes, pipeline expansions
Opposition fears smaller producers being squeezed out
Author
Jordan Blum Pat Harrington
Editor
Jeff Mower
Commodity
Natural Gas, Oil, Shipping
The future of Canadian crude pricing, volumes and the finances of several smaller producers could hang in the balance of a November regulatory decision on the contracting of Enbridge's Mainline pipeline network that may be upended for the first time in 70 years.
The Canada Energy Regulator is set to decide by the end of November whether it will approve Enbridge's years-long fight to change the crude and NGL pipeline network's monthly nomination system as a "common carrier" to long-term committed contracts with just 10% of capacity set aside for spot shipping.
Enbridge contends the move is necessary for volume certainty and less month-to-month volatility, as well as stronger Canadian crude pricing. Smaller Canadian producers fear higher tolls, or being squeezed out entirely with their barrels stranded in Alberta and sold at deeper discounts.
With the capacity to ship 3.2 million b/d across 8,600 miles, Mainline is by far Canada's largest crude transporter and exporter, moving supplies from the Alberta oil sands to the Ontario and US Midwest refining markets -- and farther to the Cushing, Oklahoma storage and pricing hub, and to the US Gulf Coast through additional pipelines.
The current Mainline tolling system relies on a monthly nomination system that utilizes apportionment when demand exceeds capacity, which has been the case for years with a shortage of Canadian pipelines into the US. Under 50% apportionment, for instance, a producer wanting to move 1,000 barrels would only be allowed to ship 500 barrels.
Enbridge instead wants to shift to the more modern system of longer-term, take-or-pay contracts with minimum volume commitments -- for up to 20 years -- similar to most North American pipelines. The change is preferred by US refiners and some larger producers.
The last 10-year tolling agreement expired in June and Enbridge is eager to implement the changes in 2022. The Canada Energy Regulator can either outright approve or reject Enbridge's requests, or settle on some sort of compromise that sets aside more than 10% of the capacity for spot shipments and lower the base toll, said Parker Fawcett, North America supply analyst with Platts Analytics.
"The CER decision appears to be on a knife's edge, with the regulator having to generally side with Enbridge, integrated producers and US refiners, or with Canadian producers," Fawcett said, giving Enbridge's chance of success or compromise slightly above 50%. "Enbridge's dominant market share means there are little competitive alternatives."
The regulatory decision will follow the Oct. 1 startup of Enbridge's Line 3 replacement project, increasing capacity on a key Mainline crude artery from 390,000 b/d to 760,000 b/d, and essentially ending the pipeline bottleneck into the US now that Canadian production has largely recovered from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
With many months requiring more than 50% apportionment of heavy crude in the past, Enbridge said Oct. 19 that apportionment levels on lines carrying heavy crude fell to 12% for November flowing barrels. However, Canada's competing Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project, which is tentatively slated for an end-2022 completion, already has long-term contracts in place that could give it advantages over Mainline's current common carrier status.
Opposing views
László Varsányi, Enbridge's vice president of tolling strategy, said the plan is for Canadian crude volumes and Western Canadian Select pricing to both rise with the new contracting certainty. Basing the Canadian swing barrels on pipeline economics and not the more expensive crude-by-rail exports should tighten differentials and lead to more production and Mainline expansions, he said.
"That's the nirvana," Varsányi said in an interview. "We can see this basin start to grow again."
"You're talking about a $5/b difference in the price," he added.
Platts assessed WCS at Hardisty at WTI CMA minus $15.85/b Oct. 27, and at minus $7.35/b at Nederland, Texas. That $8.50/b spread is within the range of pipeline economics for committed shippers.
With the additional capacity of the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project now online, Platts Analytics sees the WCS price remaining in the pipeline economics range and not having to weaken to accommodate the extra cost of rail shipments.
Platt's Analytics projects 1 million b/d of Canadian production growth over the next decade, meaning that more pipeline expansions eventually will be needed even after Trans Mountain in the years ahead.
Varsányi said long-term contracting should lead to optimization expansions of more than 200,000 b/d on Mainline -- through additional pump stations and more drag-reducing agents -- and of other pipelines that carry crude to the USGC, especially the Flanagan South and Seaway pipeline systems. He said Enbridge also remains committed to its partnership with Enterprise Products Partners to build the deepwater Sea Port Oil Terminal, called SPOT, offshore of the Houston Ship Channel, triggering more demand for Canadian and Bakken Shale barrels for overseas exports.
"It really comes down to completely eliminating the business uncertainty as much as possible," Varsányi said of the planned contracting changes. "We've been suffering through almost 50% apportionment on a month-to-month basis."
While the lower 12% apportionment now is great, he said, it may be a "low-water mark" as volumes and drilling activity rise, at least until the Trans Mountain expansion is completed.
The goal is to win regulatory approval and then launch open seasons for new contracts, he said. "We do remain confident that mid-2022 effective date for the contract is attainable."
However, a lot of opposition remains, especially from the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, called EPAC. The lobbying group's president, Tristan Goodman, said it is critical to keep Mainline as a common carrier open to all Canadian producers, especially now that more pipeline capacity is available on the network. The long-term contracts favor the US refiners and squeeze out the junior Canadian producers, he said.
"Mainline allows easy access to small, medium and large producers. You don't want to see one group of large producers lock up the capacity," Goodman said. "We need to allow the smaller and more junior producers to survive and thrive."
Platts Analytics projects a strong possibility for a regulatory compromise, such as requiring Enbridge to set aside 15% or 20% capacity for spot shipping.
The energy research and investment banking firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. has a base case for a 20% compromise on uncommitted capacity, as opposed to Enbridge's desire for just 10%.
"The regulator is keenly focused on the public interest," said Canadian midstream analyst Matthew Taylor, of TPH. "Our expectation is Enbridge will be successful with more concessions, including allowing more spot capacity. The other concession is making it more competitive and cost-effective for its customers."
Long history
Despite the new Mainline capacity, Enbridge's long push to move away from a monthly nomination process to committed volumes began as way to address the inefficiencies that resulted from shippers producing too much oil without enough pipelines.
In 2017, it became clear that new production from oil sands projects, such as Canadian Natural Resources' Horizon Phase 3 and Suncor's Fort Hills, would push Western Canadian production above the capacity for both rail and pipelines.
When crude inventories in Alberta rose dramatically, the value of Canadian crude plummeted. The differential for WCS at Hardisty, Alberta, reached an all-time low of WTI CMA minus $51.55/b on Oct. 11, 2018. Alberta officials warned low oil prices were threatening the province's financial stability, which ultimately resulted in a production cap by the end of 2018.
With pipelines running full and turning away crude, some buyers -- uncertain about how much crude they would receive -- began bidding for more crude than they needed. Some shippers, in turn, nominated more crude than they actually had. That led Enbridge in June 2018 to switch the monthly nomination process for one that gave priority to shippers based on their historical shipping volume. The confusion caused the WCS differential to widen more than $6/b in a single day, forcing Enbridge to cancel the plan.
The dramatic price swings around Enbridge's 2018 attempt to change its nomination process led companies, such as BP, to formally complain to the Canadian regulator. That essentially started the long process that is expected to end by late November, when the regulator makes a final decision.
HIGHLIGHTS
Startup of Line 3 replacement largely ends pipeline bottleneck for now
Enbridge sees higher Canadian prices and volumes, pipeline expansions
Opposition fears smaller producers being squeezed out
Author
Jordan Blum Pat Harrington
Editor
Jeff Mower
Commodity
Natural Gas, Oil, Shipping
The future of Canadian crude pricing, volumes and the finances of several smaller producers could hang in the balance of a November regulatory decision on the contracting of Enbridge's Mainline pipeline network that may be upended for the first time in 70 years.
The Canada Energy Regulator is set to decide by the end of November whether it will approve Enbridge's years-long fight to change the crude and NGL pipeline network's monthly nomination system as a "common carrier" to long-term committed contracts with just 10% of capacity set aside for spot shipping.
Enbridge contends the move is necessary for volume certainty and less month-to-month volatility, as well as stronger Canadian crude pricing. Smaller Canadian producers fear higher tolls, or being squeezed out entirely with their barrels stranded in Alberta and sold at deeper discounts.
With the capacity to ship 3.2 million b/d across 8,600 miles, Mainline is by far Canada's largest crude transporter and exporter, moving supplies from the Alberta oil sands to the Ontario and US Midwest refining markets -- and farther to the Cushing, Oklahoma storage and pricing hub, and to the US Gulf Coast through additional pipelines.
The current Mainline tolling system relies on a monthly nomination system that utilizes apportionment when demand exceeds capacity, which has been the case for years with a shortage of Canadian pipelines into the US. Under 50% apportionment, for instance, a producer wanting to move 1,000 barrels would only be allowed to ship 500 barrels.
Enbridge instead wants to shift to the more modern system of longer-term, take-or-pay contracts with minimum volume commitments -- for up to 20 years -- similar to most North American pipelines. The change is preferred by US refiners and some larger producers.
The last 10-year tolling agreement expired in June and Enbridge is eager to implement the changes in 2022. The Canada Energy Regulator can either outright approve or reject Enbridge's requests, or settle on some sort of compromise that sets aside more than 10% of the capacity for spot shipments and lower the base toll, said Parker Fawcett, North America supply analyst with Platts Analytics.
"The CER decision appears to be on a knife's edge, with the regulator having to generally side with Enbridge, integrated producers and US refiners, or with Canadian producers," Fawcett said, giving Enbridge's chance of success or compromise slightly above 50%. "Enbridge's dominant market share means there are little competitive alternatives."
The regulatory decision will follow the Oct. 1 startup of Enbridge's Line 3 replacement project, increasing capacity on a key Mainline crude artery from 390,000 b/d to 760,000 b/d, and essentially ending the pipeline bottleneck into the US now that Canadian production has largely recovered from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
With many months requiring more than 50% apportionment of heavy crude in the past, Enbridge said Oct. 19 that apportionment levels on lines carrying heavy crude fell to 12% for November flowing barrels. However, Canada's competing Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project, which is tentatively slated for an end-2022 completion, already has long-term contracts in place that could give it advantages over Mainline's current common carrier status.
Opposing views
László Varsányi, Enbridge's vice president of tolling strategy, said the plan is for Canadian crude volumes and Western Canadian Select pricing to both rise with the new contracting certainty. Basing the Canadian swing barrels on pipeline economics and not the more expensive crude-by-rail exports should tighten differentials and lead to more production and Mainline expansions, he said.
"That's the nirvana," Varsányi said in an interview. "We can see this basin start to grow again."
"You're talking about a $5/b difference in the price," he added.
Platts assessed WCS at Hardisty at WTI CMA minus $15.85/b Oct. 27, and at minus $7.35/b at Nederland, Texas. That $8.50/b spread is within the range of pipeline economics for committed shippers.
With the additional capacity of the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project now online, Platts Analytics sees the WCS price remaining in the pipeline economics range and not having to weaken to accommodate the extra cost of rail shipments.
Platt's Analytics projects 1 million b/d of Canadian production growth over the next decade, meaning that more pipeline expansions eventually will be needed even after Trans Mountain in the years ahead.
Varsányi said long-term contracting should lead to optimization expansions of more than 200,000 b/d on Mainline -- through additional pump stations and more drag-reducing agents -- and of other pipelines that carry crude to the USGC, especially the Flanagan South and Seaway pipeline systems. He said Enbridge also remains committed to its partnership with Enterprise Products Partners to build the deepwater Sea Port Oil Terminal, called SPOT, offshore of the Houston Ship Channel, triggering more demand for Canadian and Bakken Shale barrels for overseas exports.
"It really comes down to completely eliminating the business uncertainty as much as possible," Varsányi said of the planned contracting changes. "We've been suffering through almost 50% apportionment on a month-to-month basis."
While the lower 12% apportionment now is great, he said, it may be a "low-water mark" as volumes and drilling activity rise, at least until the Trans Mountain expansion is completed.
The goal is to win regulatory approval and then launch open seasons for new contracts, he said. "We do remain confident that mid-2022 effective date for the contract is attainable."
However, a lot of opposition remains, especially from the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, called EPAC. The lobbying group's president, Tristan Goodman, said it is critical to keep Mainline as a common carrier open to all Canadian producers, especially now that more pipeline capacity is available on the network. The long-term contracts favor the US refiners and squeeze out the junior Canadian producers, he said.
"Mainline allows easy access to small, medium and large producers. You don't want to see one group of large producers lock up the capacity," Goodman said. "We need to allow the smaller and more junior producers to survive and thrive."
Platts Analytics projects a strong possibility for a regulatory compromise, such as requiring Enbridge to set aside 15% or 20% capacity for spot shipping.
The energy research and investment banking firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. has a base case for a 20% compromise on uncommitted capacity, as opposed to Enbridge's desire for just 10%.
"The regulator is keenly focused on the public interest," said Canadian midstream analyst Matthew Taylor, of TPH. "Our expectation is Enbridge will be successful with more concessions, including allowing more spot capacity. The other concession is making it more competitive and cost-effective for its customers."
Long history
Despite the new Mainline capacity, Enbridge's long push to move away from a monthly nomination process to committed volumes began as way to address the inefficiencies that resulted from shippers producing too much oil without enough pipelines.
In 2017, it became clear that new production from oil sands projects, such as Canadian Natural Resources' Horizon Phase 3 and Suncor's Fort Hills, would push Western Canadian production above the capacity for both rail and pipelines.
When crude inventories in Alberta rose dramatically, the value of Canadian crude plummeted. The differential for WCS at Hardisty, Alberta, reached an all-time low of WTI CMA minus $51.55/b on Oct. 11, 2018. Alberta officials warned low oil prices were threatening the province's financial stability, which ultimately resulted in a production cap by the end of 2018.
With pipelines running full and turning away crude, some buyers -- uncertain about how much crude they would receive -- began bidding for more crude than they needed. Some shippers, in turn, nominated more crude than they actually had. That led Enbridge in June 2018 to switch the monthly nomination process for one that gave priority to shippers based on their historical shipping volume. The confusion caused the WCS differential to widen more than $6/b in a single day, forcing Enbridge to cancel the plan.
The dramatic price swings around Enbridge's 2018 attempt to change its nomination process led companies, such as BP, to formally complain to the Canadian regulator. That essentially started the long process that is expected to end by late November, when the regulator makes a final decision.
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