Perth Voice Interactive

WHILE some of us are vowing to lose a few kilos in 2025, artist Andrew Nicholls is busy creating a new divinatory system based around Western Planetary Magick.

It will take him years to complete the 70-card cartomancy deck, but he’s showcasing the initial ink and watercolour drawings at his new exhibition The Majestical Firmament.

A potpourri of nude men, stars, birds, planets, antlers and the odd scythe, the startling exhibition features baroque drawings, ceramics and ritual objects.

According to the gallery notes, “the works depict personifications of the seven traditional magickal ‘planets’ (including the sun and moon) identified by ancient peoples prior to the invention of the telescope.”

It’s unclear whether tongue is firmly planted in cheek, but at times it’s like a camp calendar meets Aleister Crowley.

Growing up, Nicholls was a devout Catholic, but he ditched religion in his late teens and became an agnostic atheist for 20 years.

Over the past decade he’s got into the esoteric and started dabbling in magick.

“During the covid lockdown I was inspired to try out some magickal procedures as I had the time and space to do so, and of course they worked extremely effectively,” he says.

“Being a good artist and being a successful magician both take a lot of time and energy, and I don’t have enough of either to do both well, so I had to combine the two practices.”

Nicholls says he was inspired to create a divinatory system after staging an elaborate ritual at the Perth Festival, which drew on his experience at the 2023 Exmouth eclipse and involved actor friends personifying planetary bodies.

“It’s actually quite contradictory conceptually-speaking, as astrology itself is a divinatory system, so it’s a bit redundant to then use that symbolic language to create a fortune-telling card deck, but I’ve felt very driven to persevere with it, and it’s going to take me several years to complete, so I have time to figure that out,” he says.

Nicholls has a deep love of history and museums, and is attracted to periods of cultural transition when Western civilisation was undone by wanton desire.

“I’d say I was interested in privilege rather than decadence, but the two frequently go together,” he says.

“My overriding interest is how power is expressed through aesthetics, so I’m drawn to the art of the elite during particular eras of Western culture, and the elite in any society is generally in a state of moral decline.”

Nicholls says he is inspired by historical artisans such as etchers Gustave Dorè and Giovanni Piranesi, and Johann Kaendler who sculpted for the Meissen porcelain company: “Their technical skills have never been surpassed, certainly not by me, but I try my best to emulate them.”

Best known for his drawings, Nicholls also practises ceramics, photography, installation, performance and filmmaking, and has exhibited across Australia, Southeast Asia, Italy and the United Kingdom.

“I feel very strongly that artists have not just a right, but a responsibility to live an unconventional existence, particularly at this moment in time when scientific materialism and capitalism have led us to such a disastrous place as a species,” Nicholls says.

“I gave myself permission to live an enchanted life, because I realised that there was no good reason not to: artists are meant to be weird.”

The Majestical Firmament is on Feb 1 to March 1 at the Art Collective WA, (Cathedral Square) 2/565 Hay Street in Perth. To find out more about see andrewnicholls.com.au and artcollectivewa.com.au.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK