Relocation Tarot / Christine Wang & Mieke Marple
January 10, 2018
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Ever Gold [Projects]
1275 Minnesota St., San Francisco CA 94107


“The origins of the Tarot are so veiled in the mists of time that it is only natural for myths and legends to surround it. Superstition, flights of fancy, and speculation have added their own patterns to the rich and colorful tapestry of Tarot lore and have only deepened its aura of magic and mystery. Cults have grown up around one or another historical theory, and sometimes their adherents have become fanatical in proclaiming the one and only “truth.” But the better-informed investigators retain a certain amount of flexibility—even skepticism—and make no ironclad assertions.

The truest claim we can make is that the Tarot is a symbolic record of human experience.[1]”

The earliest tarot cards that survive today were used as playing cards by Italian nobles in the late 14th century. It wasn’t until the 19th century, when French occultists connected tarot imagery back to ancient Egypt, that the cards became used for divination. The Rider Waite Smith deck, which debuted in 1909, was the first deck to be mass-produced in English and remains the most popular today. It was intended for fortune telling rather than gameplay and is the deck on which Wang and Marple base their cards. Wang’s deck, Crystal Clear Tarot, defies the interpretative tradition of tarot through its inclusion of unambiguous and satirical text. Marple’s deck, Art World Tarot, features a network of art world compatriots within a world of minimal, black and white symbolism. The exhibition at Ever Gold [Projects] will feature drawings and paintings from each artist’s seventy-eight card deck.

Christine Wang (b. 1985, Washington, DC) received her M.F.A. from the University of California in Los Angeles in 2013, her B.F.A. from Cooper Union in 2008. Wang has completed residencies at Skowhegan, Studio LLC at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, and chashama North. She has had solo exhibitions at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Reiseburogalerie, Cologne; and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin. She has been nominated for the 2017 Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize. Wang lives and works in San Francisco.

Mieke Marple (b. 1986, Mountain View, CA) received her B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles in 2008. She was partner of Night Gallery, Los Angeles, from 2011 until 2016 and has been written about by The New York Times, W Magazine, Elle, and Artsy among other publications. Marple lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[1] Gray, Eden. A Complete Guide to the Tarot. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1970.


1275 Minnesota St., San Francisco CA 94107

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