Episode 167: The Hand of Ithell, with Amy Hale

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2024

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a British painter, poet, and occultist, long identified as a pioneer of the Surrealist movement in the UK. While her work is increasingly recognized for its mystical themes and innovative use of automatic techniques, deeply influenced by her esoteric studies, it also inspired extensive research on its broader cultural and spiritual contexts. Amy Hale, an anthropologist, folklorist, and author, has dedicated much of her career to exploring Cornwall, the fabled region of southwest England that became Colquhoun’s spiritual home. Hale’s book, Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-Loved Gully, published by Strange Attractor Press, offers a profound biographical study of Colquhoun, examining the historical and spiritual forces that influenced her work. In this episode, she joins JF and Phil to discuss Colquhoun, Cornwall, and the transformative power of research and writing. REFERENCES Amy Hale, Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-Loved Gully Agnes Callard, I Teach the Humanities, and I Still Don’t Know What Their Value Is Steven Feld, Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Lionel Snell, My Years of Magical Thinking Special Guest: Amy Hale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes, or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdst. This is Phil. This week, J.F. and I are talking to Amy Hale,
0:57.4	a folklorist, anthropologist, and leading scholar of the British surrealist painter Ithel Calhoun.
1:03.9	Amy is the author of Aethel Calhoun, genius of the fern-loved gully, which we discuss extensively in this show.
1:12.0	The first 20 or so minutes of our conversation deal with Amy's career as an independent scholar
1:17.3	and with the importance of independent scholarship, which is to say, scholarly research and
1:23.2	writing conducted outside of academic institutions. As I say in the show, independent scholarship
1:29.6	is especially important to the intellectual sphere of the weird, the intellectual weirdist
1:35.4	fear, to coin a term. If you want proof of this, I urge you to attend Shannon Taggart's
1:41.1	2024 Lillydale Symposium, which runs from July 25th through July 27th in
1:47.5	Lilydale, New York, a spiritualist hamlet that makes you feel as if you've wandered into a John
1:53.0	Crowley novel. J.F. and I presented our work at the 2023 Lillydale Symposium and will once again
1:59.7	appear there in a live show on Thursday, July 25th.
2:03.6	Amy will be there as well, delivering a talk titled The Making of Magical Cornwall.
2:08.6	I have been to dozens of scholarly conferences and symposia over the years,
2:13.6	and the 23 Lillydale Symposium was the most consistently exciting one I have ever attended,
2:19.9	in large part because of its blend of artists and researchers from both inside and outside of
2:25.8	academic institutions.
2:28.3	2024's symposium promises to be just as exciting, with presentations on topics ranging
2:33.9	from mediumship and remote
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -345 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Phil Ford and J. F. Martel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Phil Ford and J. F. Martel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.