JESSE BRANSFORD . Dice Drawings
From late 2007 to around 2013 I kept a rigorous journal of drawings on index cards. The idea was to open an intuitive mental space by facilitating free association. Each session at the studio began with casting two dice, a 20-sided die and a 10-sided die. By casting the d20 once I generated a number between 1-20 and wrote it on the top left of the card. By casting the d10 die twice I generated a number between 1-100 (1-10 as the first decimal and 1-10 as the second). This second number was placed in the top left next to the first number. I then proceeded to draw whatever came to mind. Typically I did between three and five of these drawings before moving on to other tasks. A set was complete when the dice produced an equivalent number (7/07 for example). I grouped these cards and began another set. I made about fifteen sets during this period and they range in size from as few as four cards to almost two hundred. The set presented here includes thirty cards and was completed in 2008.
Jesse Bransford is a New York-based artist whose work is exhibited internationally at venues including The Carnegie Museum of Art, the UCLA Hammer Museum, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center and the CCA Wattis Museum among others. He holds degrees from the New School for Social Research (BA), Parsons School of Design (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA). An associate professor of art at New York University, Bransford's work has been involved with belief and the visual systems it creates since the 1990s. Recent work has focused on the folk magic of the Norse traditions, specifically the talismanic stave spells and the seiðr traditions. Parts of this work are collected in the recently published book from Fulgur Press, “A Book of Staves (Galdrastafabók).” He lectures widely on his work and the topics surrounding his work. He is the co-organizer of the biennial Occult Humanities Conference and an editorial member of the Black Mirror Network. More information can be seen at www.jessebransford.com.