Exhibition Dates: August 4th – October 15th  |  Opening Reception: August 4th, 6-9pm | OCA Gallery

Stephanie Leitch is a Salt Lake City artist whose work consists of large-scale installations and small-scale “spells,” which utilize handwritten-media and repetitive processes to imbue a specific intention. These unique “spellworks” typically consist of encoded typography and can have a meditative effect on creator and viewer, as they were initially developed as a fruitful outlet for the artist’s OCD or a tool for processing emotional trauma.

Spell Field is a 3D iteration of the artist’s previous hand-written spellworks as it expands and layers subtle text in space. The ancient spell, ABRACADABRA appears in writing as a triangle, with the letters projected to read the spell in all directions. This piece combines the artist’s interest in site-specific, performative installations with the meditative process and encoded mysticism of her spellworks.

Says the artist: “I use spellwork in my art to process grief and desire. In some cases, I seek to purge a devil by repeating its name so many times it becomes meaningless, yet at the same time is transmuted into something entirely different. It’s hidden in plain view. The named devil is not inherently malicious, and ranges from processing the recent death of my father or simply the loss of some interpersonal potential. I imbue the intention to both bind and free into the work through my hands…You as the viewer activate the spell by experiencing the work. And here we stand at the Entrance. It’s about being at the threshold between the end and the beginning. As Elie Wiesel said: In both cases a door opens: in meeting it opens on the future, in separation on the past. It is the same door.”