78 Evasions: The Urnash Tarot

The tarot, a deck of cards reputed to predict the future, is a staple of fortunetellers. With their mysterious origins, complex symbolism and association with mystics like The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley, the tarot represents antiquity and the arcane.

Until Somerville artist Egypt Urnash got her hands on them. In her recently completed Silicon Dawn tarot, which will be on display in the exhibit 78 Evasions at Space 242 Aug. 28 - Sept. 19, the tarot gets a 21st century makeover that takes it past the gender binary and into the transhuman future. Forget the clunky illustrations reminiscent of medieval woodcuts. This tarot is streamlined, expressive, and dynamic, a colorful playground for cowboys, catgirls and cosmic kahunas.

Is Aleister Crowley spinning in his grave yet?

"First and foremost, I am a cartoonist," Urnash says of her style. "I am not a pen and ink person. I am not a painter. What I am after is the look of animated cartoons on a screen. I like things that are rubbery and full of life. I'm not really influenced by old masters."

It's a style she's been developing since she was a little boy. "I know it's a clich?," she smiles, "but I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil in my hand." When not sketching, Urnash was poring over art books, especially The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. That compendium of classic cartoons proved to be a huge influence on her aesthetic.

"I really glommed on to the stuff from the '10s and '20s," she recalls. "Like Little Nemo and Krazy Kat and Polly and her Pals. Winsor McKay led me into being a fan of art nouveau. Later there was a lot of influence from Warner Brothers. A few years ago I got into Mike Mignola and then finally I got into Jack Kirby."

Shuffling through a prototype deck, Urnash notes the references in her work: a jungle scene inspired by Walt Kelly's Pogo, a cosmic creation modeled on Galactus from Marvel Comics, and abstracted landscapes variously reminiscent of Chuck Jones and George Herriman.

Urnash first had the idea to create a tarot deck in her teens, but kept putting the project off. "You can't do a project like this until you have your tools down cold," she explains. "I cranked out one card every three days for the last six months. So you have to trust your skills and not waste time making mistakes."

"I had to be a crazy wizard holed up in her cave, working on this," she adds with a smile.

Like any wizard worth her salt, Urnash spent some time reading mystic tomes. She began the project by studying classic books about the tarot. Although she did not want to be bound by traditional interpretations, Urnash wanted to begin with a firm understanding of the deck's symbology. To keep her mental slate clean, she stopped looking at other tarot decks.

"I looked at all the writing and kept all the visuals away," she says. "I wanted to be pure ... I'm really trying to make it speak to a modern person. There are a bunch of decks out there that are based on the Rider-Waite deck, which is the classic deck everyone thinks of when they think tarot, but only in the most cursory fashion, not really thinking about the symbolism.

"I wanted it to be my own take on these themes, a completely new look. What is this card about, what are the mythic resonances of that, and how can I draw that? For instance the Justice card ended up having some resonance with Egyptian mythology...when you die, Anubis weighs your heart against a feather. So you see a little feather there, and a heart, and even a tiny little scale. Plus there's some element of Elric fan art in there, because I'm also bringing in modern pop art."

Similarly, Urnash's version of the Two of Swords draws on myths of the American frontier; The Man With No Name stands ready for a face off with a figure reminiscent of The Bride from Kill Bill. Urnash's innovation doesn't end there.

"The other thing I did, generally," she continues, "was transform the cards that are warnings into suggestions to be active. So this Two of Swords, instead of being blindfolded and sitting passively like she is on the Rider-Waite deck, is aware and ready to confront the situation and take control."

Urnash makes no bones about it being a personal deck. She made a major change to the traditional tarot symbolism by swapping the elemental associations of the suits of pentacles and wands, because "that symbology didn't work for me." Just for fun, she's adding some extra cards to the deck. And some of the traditional cards, like The Fool and The Magician, got a sex change.

"This is a femmey deck," she laughs. "I like drawing women more than guys. They have more curves and you can get more design-y and swoosh-y. Most decks out there are pretty butch. But this is not one of those aggressive feminist decks with an axe to grind. It's woman-flavored wisdom."

Modern witches and pagans sometimes talk about "coming out of the broom closet" when they reveal their interest in "the occult." Urnash is not a believer, but for her first gallery show she is coming out of the trans closet on a larger scale than she ever has before.

"I'm not trumpeting it from the rooftops," she shrugs, "but I'm not hiding it either. I want people to know...if you liked that art, you liked the art of a trans woman. And now there's a trans person who's human to you. It's easier to hate people when you don't know them."

To RSVP for the opening reception of 78 Evasions on Friday, Aug. 29, visit www.space242.com. See more of Egypt Urnash's work at www.egypt.urnash.com.