Hind Sight is 20/20: Tarot Cards for Working Women in a Global Pandemic is a collaboration between xtine burrough and Allison Jauregi. This complete deck of tarot cards was made on copper for its natural antimicrobial qualities.
The cards take two forms. The playing cards (approximately 3.75 by 5.75 inches) feature Allison's illustrations in black matte vinyl on copper sheets with trimmed corners.
burrough also fabricated a series of the twelve major arcana in etchings on large (16 by 24 inch) mirrored-copper plates. These etchings were made via a technique that combines laser etching with sandblasting and polishing.
Allison originally proposed an early version of this project as her undergraduate capstone thesis with burrough as her supervisor. While investigating the question of touch and contagion, the duo took advice from Dale MacDonald who said: "copper." The rest, as they say, is history.
In spring 2021, Jauregi made twelve illustrations, prepping the files for the laser cutter.
During the summer of 2021, burrough took Jauregi to the machine shop where they worked together: etching, peeling, sand blasting, and trimming the edges of the copper playing cards.
By the end of the summer, burrough led fabrication of 12 major arcana and three complete decks of playing cards. Huge thanks to members of LabSynthE who helped us with peeling so many playing cards.
This project was first exhibited Ceremonial Techne at NYU Bobst Mamdouha Gallery from October 19, 2021-May 31, 2022.
During the exhibition's opening night, David Scoroposki, a NYC-based celebrity astrologer read these cards for a live audience of approximately 60 NYU students, staff, and faculty. It was the first gathering in person at Bobst since the start of the quarantine in NYC.
This project was created by xtine burrough and Allison Jauregi.
We are grateful for Dale MacDonald's one-word-advice and for Andrew Bittner, our favorite Machinist at the UT Dallas Machine Shop for conducting so many materials-based trial and errors along with us.
xtine and Allison have presented this body of work in Ceremonial Techne at NYU and are looking for additional places to host a live tarot reading! Contact xtine for more information: xtineburrough [at] gmail [dot] com