SCI-FI, MAGICK, QUEER L.A.
Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation
USC Fisher Museum of Art
Jan. 14–March 15, 2025
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
Aug. 22–Nov. 23, 2025
LOS ANGELES has always been a destination for eccentrics seeking personal transformation. In what other city could a pioneering rocket scientist lead occult rituals, a satanic Hollywood studio secretary publish one of the first lesbian zines, or a communist musicologist forever transform queer identity? A fascinating exhibition, Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation, celebrates these artifacts of L.A.’s weirdness.
According to curator Alexis Bard Johnson: “We started looking at the large holdings in ONE Archives that, on the surface, seemed just like sci-fi material, particularly in Jim Kepner’s collection and our periodicals collection. That amount of material got us thinking, what is the deeper connection? We knew that Kepner was a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, and we started down that rabbit hole to see who else was involved with LASFS.” Answering this question was a journey into the overlapping worlds of science fiction fandom, occult societies, and queer activism between 1930 and 1960 in L.A.
Mark Timothy Hayward, a creative director and artist based in Los Angeles, is cofounder of the zine collective Mattazine Society.
