Today we’d like to introduce you to Bunny Nunn.
Hi Bunny, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
As a kid, I was an avid reader and was exposed to a multitude of worlds and perspectives. As a teen and young adult, I spent my time devouring films and experimental music and began to learn about practices like divination and chaos magic that would go on to influence my art practice. I worked for several years at a now-defunct local metaphysical shop and absorbed as much as possible during that time about the occult arts and that has also deeply shaped my work.
My early days as an artist were focused on handcrafts, primarily silversmithing, and projection-based kinetic “liquid light shows” before I evolved with my mediums to new spaces and more sophisticated tools. I also founded the award-winning Far Out Festival here in Nashville and spent 8 years as the lead curator and art designer for the yearly event. This time taught me everything about community event organizing, team management, and design.
I spent a year learning about stained glass restoration from Butch Quinn and went on to conduct my own stained glass classes at the Appalachian Center for Craft. I have also led classes on topics from screen-printing to tarot reading. I love to share the knowledges I’ve gained over the years with anyone who is interested.
Through all of this, I found my way back to experimenting with my video camera and various circuit-bent electronics and began creating music videos, feedback installations, and other experimental film projects.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve been lucky to be part of many successful collaborations but I have certainly experienced the challenges that come with working with other artists on a collaborative project. I think I’ve come to learn a lot through these experiences about my own boundaries as an artist and how I can best contribute to group works. I’ve also developed into a better person in the world at large through making art with others and I’m very grateful for that.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Most people know me either through my video artworks or my assumed position as a sort of “witch-about-town”. These might be seen as two sides of me, but I find my art practice to be in tandem with my occult practices and they often intersect.
I subscribe to the technopagan idea that electronics can be both artistic and ritual tools simultaneously and I like to approach my film-making with a sense of reverence and worship. My video installations, which have been seen in places such as Belcourt Theater and Defy Film Festival in Nashville, as well as Gallery 1010 in Knoxville, incorporate esoteric symbols and references to themes such as pagan rituals, alchemy, and divination.
I’m quite proud of a collaborative piece I created with my husband Sylas Nunn entitled “Let Loose A Terrible Cry” that debuted at Kindling Arts Festival in 2024. Combining cello drones, channeled poetry, and a web of mesmerizing video footage, we created a space where I’m convinced dimensions shifted. The atmosphere felt electric.
My most recent film piece “The Three Clairs” was shot at the Arteles Creative Center in Haukijärvi, Finland and presented on four CRT television sets in a little grove of trees at the Defy Film Festival. I felt the setting for viewing this work, that was largely filmed in the Finnish forests, transformed it into an immersive experience.
I’ve also been blessed to be part of the greater magical community of Nashville as an aura photographer at Tertiary Sight, a tarot reader at private and public events all around town, and a “wedding witch”, conducting hand-fasting rituals for people joining in marriage. Through both my art media as well as my witchly exploits, I find a route to connection with the world around me and I feel quite devoted to envisioning a more magical world.
How do you think about happiness?
Working with my hands gives me a deep satisfaction. I love to construct something out of nothing and I enjoy tedious crafts. I like to experiment with new mediums constantly and I’ve also been doing a lot of “householding” – painting vines in the little corners of my house, digging up forgotten structures in the yard, and rewilding some of the property to provide refuge for the local animals. I have been working the past few years to become a better gardener, I’m aiming to have a yard full of native perennial plants and this project has connected me deeper to our beautiful earth. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I like to go water my garden.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bunnynunn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bunny_archmage
- Other: https://linktr.ee/bunnyarchmage
