Like Magic — Grace Clark’s In a New Light

On the day of each new moon — believed by many to be a time of rebirth — visitors to Grace Clark’s In a new light (Healing Dirt) in Like Magic at Mass MoCA are invited to enter the chapel-like room and apply charcoal earth to parts of their body in need of healing, harnessing the magic of belief in change.

Humans have long sought healing, growth, regeneration, rejuvenation, and blessing from natural materials, whether at a healing spring in the Appalachian Mountains or from the dirt floor of a chapel in New Mexico.

Activation dates in summer and fall 2024 (open during gallery hours):

Thursday, June 6, 2024
Friday, July 5, 2024
Sunday, August 4, 2024
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Friday, November 1, 2024
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Monday, December 30, 2024

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Like Magic brings together work by Simone Bailey, Raven Chacon, Grace Clark, Johanna Hedva, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Cate O’Connell-Richards, Rose Salane, Petra Szilagyi, Tourmaline and Nate Young.

In times of uncertainty, Mass MoCA says, people often turn towards technologies of magic for solace and strength. These technologies are not the props used for stage magic (rabbits in hats, scarves hidden up sleeves) but rather are tools (devices, talismans, rituals, incantations) created by humans to help them survive and thrive in a chaotic world.

The exhibition Like Magic brings together artists who employ technologies of magic to resist systems that attempt to surveil and control people’s lives and stories, often because of their race, ability, sexuality, gender identity, indigeneity or immigration status.

Simone Bailey, Raven Chacon, Grace Clark, Johanna Hedva, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Cate O’Connell-Richards, Rose Salane, Petra Szilagyi, Tourmaline, and Nate Young use healing earth, witches’ brooms, AI, divination and more to imagine care-full and joy-full futures into being despite the peril promised by the past and present.