"Belief in a Disenchanted World"

Paintings by Kadar Brock and sculptures by Lee Hunter. The exhibition’s title refers to Dutch philosophy professor Wouter Hanegraaff’s essay “How Magic Survived the Disenchantment of the World.” Hanegraaff describes the tension between a participatory or magical worldview and a secularly rational, disenchanted worldview, and how the latter denies the innate human need for the former. He writes: “…not only does the feeling of participation explain the continuous attraction of magic in a disenchanted world—the experience of disenchantment actually causes an emotional need to reaffirm participation.” The works of Brock and Hunter, while products of this disenchanted world, remain hopeful—they find magic within art-making.