M A G I C I A N S

PRESS REVIEWS of

MAGICIANS - A Digital Phantasmagoria

"Really nice - congrats"

Maggie Taylor
Artist

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What you see in a magic trick is what the magician wants you to. Sleight-of-hand, influence and misdirection all combine to create a cleverly constructed illusion. Max Scratchmann’s Magicians exhibition at the Aberdeen Arts Centre is one such trick.

If all is to be believed then Aberdeen enjoyed a golden age of music hall-style magic performances at the City’s ‘renowned’ Electric Theatre, which apparently stood from 1888 until 1963. Here, many of the greatest stage magicians performed, including Houdini in 1904, to enthralled crowds, fascinated with Victorian showmanship.

Dr Bodie the Electro Man, Madame Dorgere the Saw Woman, The Great Grimaldi and The Leopard Lady, as well as three other famed sorcerers, conjurers and illusionists from the Electric’s heyday, are depicted in Magicians.

If you look behind the wizard’s curtain you’ll find an intricate fantasy, nonetheless magical for its mercurial truths. Multi-media conceptual artist and illustrator Max Scratchmann has digitally reimagined original daguerreotype photographs of magic shows and performers, to create a series of images that capture the glamour and mystery behind the original phantasmagoria.

Scratchmann retells the story of magic, as he wishes it still were – intimidating, frightening and fanciful.

(Many thanks to S1play.com for allowing me to reproduce their review - MS)

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"I would like to congratulate you on the splendid show at the Aberdeen Arts Centre. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommended it to many friends and colleagues..............marvellous pieces."

Dave Goulding
President, Aberdeen Magical Society

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"Beautifully designed and intriguing. Are you also a prestidigitator? Handsome brute with a hint of a more serence and less complicated time. Filled with the symbols of our dreams. Well done."

John Bergstrom
Art Rep, New York City

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• Always buy work that you personally like; if you like it then others will, it's a good start.

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• Always buy signed work. Limited edition prints are more affordable than unique works such as paintings, so are a good place to start, and as long as they are in a limited edition and signed and numbered by the artist, prints are classed as original works.