Ignota Hosts: Jenny Hval and Johanna Hedva to launch ’Girls Against God’

Thursday 22 October, 7pm BST/ 2pm EDT/ 11am PDT

Jenny Hval’s new novel Girls Against God is an experimental feminist horror story and a unique treatise on magic, gender and art. Join Hval and Johanna Hedva to launch Girls Against God with a conversation and astrology reading on Thursday 22 October. 

“It’s 1992 and I’m the Gloomiest Child Queen.” In 1990s Norway of Girls Against God, white picket fences run in neat rows and Christian conservatism runs deep. But as the Artist considers her past, her practice and her hatred, things start stirring themselves up around her. In a corner of Oslo, a coven of witches begins cooking up some curses. A time-travelling Edvard Munch arrives in town to join a black metal band, closely pursued by the teenaged subject of his painting Puberty, who has murder on her mind. Meanwhile, out deep in the forest, a group of school girls get very lost and things get very strange. 

Johanna Hedva’s new book Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain collects their writings that drift and delight in form to tunnel into mysticism, madness, motherhood, and magic. Minerva gets dirty with the mess of gender and genius and odysseys through Los Angeles, shapeshifting in stygian night and waking up to wail in the light.

Girls Against God by Jenny Hval is translated by Marjam Idriss and published by Verso. Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain by Johanna Hedva is co-published by Sming Sming and Wolfman Books and distributed in the UK and Europe by Parrhesiades. 

Norwegian musician and writer Jenny Hval has honed an intellectual and uncompromising view of politics and sexuality in her prose as well as in records that include The Practice of Love, Spells, Blood Bitch. Apocalypse, Girl and Innocence Is Kinky. She is the author of several books including Paradise Rot, the first of her books to appear in English.
Johanna Hedva is a Korean-American writer, artist, musician, and astrologer, who was raised in Los Angeles by a family of witches, and now lives in LA and Berlin. They are the author of the novel, On Hell (2018). Their work has been shown at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Performance Space New York, the LA Architecture and Design Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon. Hedva’s writing has appeared in Triple Canopy, frieze, and The White Review, and is anthologized in the Documents of Contemporary Art series by Whitechapel. Their essay “Sick Woman Theory,” published in 2016 in Mask, has been translated into six languages. Their albums are The Sun and the Moon (2019) and Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House (2020).

 

There are two ticket options: ticket only: £6 or a ticket plus a copy of Girls Against God: £12.50. Book here.

This event will take place on Zoom. In order to view, you will need to book in advance. Instructions for connecting to the discussion will be emailed to you just  before the event begins; you will not need to contact us in advance. 

Live closed captioning will be available. Please get in touch if you require signing: hello@ignota.org.

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