Cyberpagan
The Attestation of Cernunnos in 2026 AD
2026
“Che” Fonzino
American, b. 1993
Reclaimed e-waste (electrical wire, electrical tape, bluetooth speaker components)
The Attestation of Cernunnos in 2026 AD explores the relationship between technology and spirituality. In a globalized world, it asks the question: what does earth-based religion look like when we are increasingly divorced from nature?
Using reclaimed e-waste, it reworks the trappings of reconstructionist paganism into a modern ritual of communion and summoning dedicated to a god with only one proven historic decpiction-- The Lord of Wild Things, Cernunnos.
This work portrays Cernunnos, a figure known to witches and magick practitioners as The Horned God, The Lord of Wild Things, or simply The Lord. He is variously depicted as a god of the wilderness, the underworld, fertility, and of masculine energy in a male-female deific dichotomy.
However, he is historically attested only once, in a religious stele known as the Pillar of the Boatmen, found in modern Paris. Dating back to 1st century AD, it is the only known artifact depicting his imagery with the caption “Cernunnos”, though his image and associated symbology--horned serpents, torcs, deer with cross-legged men--are found in multiple Celtic and Gaulish cultures predating the pillar.
Despite his contested historicity, Cernunnos took prominence in the reconstructionist neopagan movements of the 19th and 20th century and is invoked still today.
The Attestation of Cernunnos in 2026 AD is a multimedia experiential piece. The mask and speaker displayed have been used in multiple performances, imagining and creating a new type of religious ritual.
In its initial performance, an audience member wore a VR headset which exposed them to a 360 degree scene of the forest. As they explored their surroundings, the artist, donning the mask, entered the room and interacted with other audience members. The artist then sat across from the individual in the mask and waited for them to remove the headset. The participant was then presented with a torc, a twisted piece of jewelry from prehistoric Celtic cultures, made of braided electrical cables.
The piece was accompanied by the audio of a forest scene, combining real deer, fox, and insect sounds with fully computer-generated deer calls, highlighting the analog-digital relationship.
The artist wore a saffron kilt based on the Irish léine, a garment co-opted by Gaelic revivalists and pan-Celtic cultural groups in the 19th century.
The Attestation of Cernunnos in 2026 AD
April, 2026
Performed at College of Dupage
Poem
A man steps off of a boat by the Seine
His nails rap the chiclet stones
The gap in his teeth whistles like a modem
There are gods in your keyboards
We stare at night skies
Projected onto ceilings
And watch a starfall by algorithm
The antlers of the Horned God
Erupt like an ego
From the CRT
Screens show
A woman standing on the edge of the woods
She locks the door to her sedan
And its faux leather seats
Draped in leopard print covers
The wind beckons her with cries of foxes
And deer in heat
And deer in jaws
And the spirit of
Deer carry the wind
Her socks coil around her ankles
They are servants of
The Lord of the Wild Things
Her watch lights her path
It is a torc twisted at her wrist
A ticket of passage through the
Mouth of the river
She is ferried on the currents
A salmon snacks on
Fallen acorns
That hold all the
Knowledge of the world
A man rises from his crouch
His mouth opens
And out flows a
Psalm for frayed wires
The arthritis in his wrists are carvings
His carpal tunnel is the
Carved stone facing of
A runestone stele
The clouds above him part
But the rain continues
In sunshowers that
Cascade like code
Compiling
Compiling
Compiling
There are ghosts in your inbox
And imps in your cables
The wilderness beckons you yet
Behind links and reels
Where prayers are disguised as
Comments and content
Your thumbs struggle
A supplicant’s tongue for
Cernunnos, The Lord of Wild Things
There are gods in your keyboard