Sacred Indian Tarot by Kiren Rai & various artists

Recently I reported here finding a deck from India and how rare it was a deck from that huge country, well here I am back with yet another one from over there, published closely to each other with names that are almost similar (only one letter difference) yet in style and number of card they are as different as they can be (what is not really a surprise knowing the size of India and its number of inhabitants)

Consisting of 22 hand painted cards by young talented Indian artists, each working in their own techniques making this deck as diverse as the traditions and spiritual landscape of the country itself. The deck combines the western tradition and concepts of the tarot with vibrant images from powers, Gods and Goddesses from Indian mythology resulting in a spicy yet very digestible major arcana deck suitable for both the collector ans the tarot reader, for westerners as Indians, beginners as advanced tarot-users. 

The deck is easy to obtain through the mainstream distributors.

The Regretsy Tarot Project

The name of the decks sounds whimsy and that's exactly what the deck is! It is a collaborative project between 25 artists all over the world active on the website Regretsy.com (a site that's a humorous view of all strange stuff that can be found on the Etsy site )  and who call themselves 'April's Army'. last year they organised a successful fund-raiser and there are still some of the 1144 decks that make up this edition available at this location.

The cards are as a result of the regretsy origin full of fun and general (and specific) strangeness, and yes some of that is of an adult nature (for example the suits are called Tools, Genitalia, WTF, and Whimsicles and with extra card Towel Mike). The occasional hint to the WCS-deck, keeps it recognisable as a tarot yet viewed through an hilariously mad mind, the majors have been renamed to go with the vibe of the whole, some title work some are just bizarre - but as part of this deck what could you expect.

Tarot Collectors Forum 2011 Collaborative Deck

Le nouveau Tarot Collectors Forum tarot has arrived! Yes it's that moment of the year again, for it's 4th consecutive year members of the Tarot Collectors Forum have put together their efforts, creativity and love of tarot to create a 78 card deck - and once more the harvest from all that labour of love has been a good one.

As with the 3 previous decks style and materials used where up to the participants what resulted in a wide array of possible variations in result; mix that in with a background of people who have and know literally hundreds of decks and or even created at least one (some among us are even artist with deck that are self published or published by a big company). My personal contributions this year where The Chariot, the Page of Swords and shown below the Page of Pentacles (and I think I may be proud of my creations)

A big project like this one brings its problems with it, many persons working together on the same project but in their own manner, their own speed and personality means there is need for a good organisation with some strong personalities to keep the reigns, but we reached the finish all together and even faster than previous years. Bravo for us all!

It is a very exclusive deck, not meant for sale, there is one deck for each participant + one deck for the forums host Adam McLean and one fro the "Museo dei Tarocchi".

See also:
Tarot Collectors Forum 2010 Collaborative Deck
Tarot Collectors Forum 2009 Collaborative Deck

IL Diavolo & l'AcquaSanta Tarocchi Fantastici - Various artists

Some decks, like this one, seem to have a slow-moving effect with me, getting into my collection quite some time after their publication and being blogged about even later. This effect is in no way a negative judgment on it from my part – far from it even, it’s just one of those things that happen without any specific reason.

The IL Diavolo & l'AcquaSanta Tarocchi Fantastici was part of a grand event celebrating the Millennium of the Cattedrale di San Vicinio (housing the tomb of St. Vicinio a Bishop miracle worker) and was held in Archaeological Museum of Sarsina from November 15, 2008 till May 31, 2009, date of completion of the Jubilee Year.

22 contemporary artists, some emerging and some already established, were invited to create a work, of art , interpreting each one of the majors and using techniques as varied a painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography and even and processed X-rays. The exhibition was curated by Antonio Paolucci who is also director of the Vatican Museums, and architect Marisa Zattini, a well know art director and curator of significant exhibitions in that region of Italy.

 

For those who like names (and what they did in this project) here are the participating artist: Adriano Bimbi (Fool), Stefano Mazzotti (Magician),Richard Hess (High Priestess), Andrea Guastavino (Empress), Enrico Lombardi (Emperor), Moreno Bondi (Pope), Luke Piovaccari (Love), Francis Bombard (Chariot), Silvano D'Ambrosio (Justice) Nicholas Samorì (Hermit), Black (aka Alexander Neretti) (Fortune), Brutus Tomato (Strength), Ana Hill (Hanged Man), Mark Kostabi (Death), Pablo Echaurren (Temperance), Ugo Nespolo (Devil), Maximum Pulini (Tower), Aldo Rontini (Star), Daniele Masini (Moon), Alberto Mingotti (Sun), Gesine Arps (Angel), Paola Campidelli (World)

Mondo Bizzarro Gallery Tarot

The Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Rome Italy held an tarot related exhibition this year (today is the last day - it ran from 30 march 2011 till 18 may 2011), they invited 20 artists from the Italian underground art scene to interpret the 22 major arcana cards into their own style. The result is a varied as the artists themselves are, ranging from the sweet over the comical or serious to the bizarre. The whole exhibition was under the guidance of it's organizer Alessia De Filippi who researched the tarot among other sources from Paul Foster Case's"Introduction to the study of tarot


The deck, that was published in a small edition of only 200 decks  by  Mondo Bizzaro in collaboration with  Elsewhere Factory Lab, consists of a Tarot deck of 22 cards plus 3 information cards, edition is already nearing the point of being sold out.


 You can see the cards here
Although the decks is not on sale in their shop you can mail them about it - and yes they accept Paypal

For these interested in names, here are the artist who collaborated and what card they created: Hogre (The Magician), Antonio Guzzardo (the High Priestess), Valeria Crusade (The Empress), Simone Tso '(The Emperor), Jb Rock (The Pope), Nike Alghisio Brass (The Lovers), Infidel (The Chariot), PU: RE (Justice), Paul Petrangeli (The Hermit), Diamond (The Wheel), Alessandra Fusi (Strength), Elena Rapa (The Hanged Man), Bafefit (Death), Mark Rea (The Temperance), Michele Guidarini (The Devil), King of the Herring (The Tower), Saturno Butto '(The Star), Luisa Catucci (The Moon), Genuine (The Sun), Luisa Montalto (The Judgement), Francesco D'Isa (World), Gaetano Leone (The Fool).

The Hive I & II Tarot's

Tarot has become mainstream and can be found in all kind of applications, milieus and supports, from the most commercial to the highest art. As a system to work around with many artist it's perfect and many collaborative decks have been created by artist, here it's the Hive gallery  from Los Angeles that has gathered artist around it and has produced 2 majors only decks (even if both projects counted 78 cards) out of it. Although both times the WCS served as a base for the project, the artist deviated from it, and somethimes even radically!

The first Hive tarot was produced in 2009 in a limited edition of only 100 decks.

The second deck came out in 2011 as the previous one in a limited edition of 100 decks

I hope these 2 will be the start of a long running tradition at the Hive gallery with may more decks published on a yearly base.


Entries for previous editions are to be found here:

• The Hive III Tarot
• The Hive IV

Tarot Collectors Forum 2010 Colloborative Deck

For the third year in a row now some members of the "Tarot Collectors Forum" have created a deck and as different and individual as each member is so, so is each card. Once again, and to the joy  off all who participated, this deck turned out very well. All kinds of techniques where used from photographic over collage, paintings drawing etc..


Besides the unifying  borders and typesetting there was a special element to be incorporated into each creation namely a blue line. Despite some apprehensions of some this was executed in the best possible way without sticking out as a foreign thing.


And as something special the extra card in this deck must be one with the longer names around namely: "The Obsessive Collector & Incidentally Also The Happy Squirrel Card"


See also:

• Tarot Collectors Forum 2011 Colloborative Deck
• Tarot Collectors Forum 2009 Colloborative Deck

The Collective Tarot

Some decks stay under my radar and escape me - or at least for some time, the first limited edition of 500 decks published in 2008 escaped me completely the second one of 750 published end 2009 did not!

Despite it's not hugely original name this deck is original and worthy to get into the collection of all who are looking for something different. When you encounter a deck that descibes itself as: "queer-centric, radical-politicked tarot deck re-imaged to fit our times"you can not resist it (well at least i could not). There where over 20 persons involved but despite that the deck has a great consisty and is well worked out in structure and system.

Reworked updated, modernisized and with much renaming into the deck it is different yet remaining true to tarot structures. The suits are found magical objects: Keys (wands), Bottles (Cups), Feathers (Swords) & Bones (Coins) the court cards are fase cards are non hierchical system, stages of growth: seeker, apprentice, artist & mentor.

If you're interested in it you can buy one at Eberhardt Press.

Tarot Collectors Forum 2009 Collaborative Deck

A Collaborative yes and one I participated in so it's not with some pride i mention it here - you see I do more than just collecting ;-)

The "team" behind it are some of the members of the Tarot Collectors Forum - some of whom are well known and celebrated artist in the field of tarot like among others: Arnell Ando, Ly Marquez de Narciso, Stephan Lange ....
That what made our 'little' just that tad different from others, and also why I feature it here even when it has been 'out' quite some time is that it recently was featured at the Museo Dei Tarocchi and will be part of their permanent collection, speaking of exposure this one counts.

The link to the special page to the deck is here at the bottom of that page where it says 'Deck', if you click, you will see one card by each of us scroll by with the title and a little bit of info gathered from the LWB and again if there is a website it is shown underneath) the card scrolling by, all 30 artists have a card present and accounted for and it looks wonderful .

See also:
Tarot Collectors Forum 2010 Collaborative Deck
Tarot Collectors Forum 2011 Collaborative Deck