Exhibition, United Kingdom, London, 21 May 2019
Skills: Exhibition space, Curator, Installation materials, Artist
Caro Williams and Deborah Burnstone curate an exhibition at the Crypt Gallery in London
PRESS RELEASE
Twelve contemporary artists explore ritual in today’s world
Crypt Gallery, London
from 16th until 21th May 2019
The Crypt Gallery’s labyrinthine passageways are the setting for a multi-media experimental contemporary art exhibition investigating ritual today.
How does ritual manifest itself in today’s society? This is the question twelve artists explore in an experimental show Contemporary Art + Ritual at the Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London, from 16-21 May.
Encompassing sound, light, word via dust, wood, thread and more, the show reveals ritual to be an expression of human life that is undergoing a process of constant reinvention. The Crypt is a consecrated burial ground beneath St Pancras Church. Its atmospheric brick vaulted corridors will take the viewer on a journey through healing, wishing, weaving, walking, cleaning, carving, folding, painting. A giant gold chain fashioned from bread snakes across the floor of a dark vault, two spectral life-sized figures made of dust hang from the ceiling, a ghostly woman conjures magpies from nowhere; in another chamber metal boxes emit birdsong reminding us of the passage of daily life while round another corner hundreds of wishes are beamed out into the darkness.
Ritual can be a series of communal actions binding us together and promoting health. Elspeth Penfold who performs ritual walks says: ‘The act of walking and knotting ropes allows us to think about where we are now and how our world might be transformed.’ Similarly the ritual axe wielding and wood cutting of James S. Bond have healing powers and, as well as creating sculptures from wood, James runs axe working workshops with troubled young men. ‘My work has uncovered a practice that reaches back beyond our cultural differences to a time when all humans were present to the life of trees and how and why they applied certain methodologies with hand tools in working the wood from trees,’ he says. Zara Carpenter takes and transforms polaroids of her body. ‘I obsessively make and each process is part of a ritual; a repetitious act of exploration. I was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder in my early 20s, over the years I have learnt to use my ritualistic behaviour to enhance my creative practice,’ she says.
For painter Jane Walker and multi-media artist Sally Tyrie making work is itself a ritualistic activity, while Hannah Stageman and Blandine Martin transform everyday ritual into
art. Hannah Stageman says: ‘As a person with no faith a ritual to me is an everyday, mostly unnoticed or unobserved, action.‘ Her daily walk is recorded and interpreted in a multimedia book. Blandine Martin transforms ordinary objects into fetishistic sculptures that reference domestic rituals.
The show is curated by artists Caro Williams and Deborah Burnstone.
Artists: Rosalind Barker, James S Bond, Deborah Burnstone, Zara Carpenter, Blandine Martin, Elspeth (Billie) Penfold, Zoe Simons-Walker, Hannah Stageman, Sally Tyrie, Nneka Uzoigwe, Jane Walker and Caro Williams
Contemporary Art + Ritual will be on display at the Crypt Gallery from the 16th until 21th May 2019
Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston Rd, London NW1 2BA Open daily 10am to 6pm
The exhibition is free to view
Private View Thursday 16th May from 6pm until 9pm the artists will be present, all welcome
Additional details: https://artandritual.wixsite.com/mysite
ENDS
Notes to Editors
jpg images email: contemporaryartandritual@gmail.com
For further information on this exhibition, interview with the artists, or any other matter, please contact Deborah Burnstone (m: 07931 700479 ) or Caro Williams (m: 07501 272999) or email Deborah and Caro at contemporaryartandritual@gmail.com
Find out more about the artists and artwork: https://artandritual.wixsite.com/mysite Find out more about The Crypt Gallery: http://cryptgallery.org/
PRESS RELEASE
Twelve contemporary artists explore ritual in today’s world
Crypt Gallery, London
from 16th until 21th May 2019
The Crypt Gallery’s labyrinthine passageways are the setting for a multi-media experimental contemporary art exhibition investigating ritual today.
How does ritual manifest itself in today’s society? This is the question twelve artists explore in an experimental show Contemporary Art + Ritual at the Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London, from 16-21 May.
Encompassing sound, light, word via dust, wood, thread and more, the show reveals ritual to be an expression of human life that is undergoing a process of constant reinvention. The Crypt is a consecrated burial ground beneath St Pancras Church. Its atmospheric brick vaulted corridors will take the viewer on a journey through healing, wishing, weaving, walking, cleaning, carving, folding, painting. A giant gold chain fashioned from bread snakes across the floor of a dark vault, two spectral life-sized figures made of dust hang from the ceiling, a ghostly woman conjures magpies from nowhere; in another chamber metal boxes emit birdsong reminding us of the passage of daily life while round another corner hundreds of wishes are beamed out into the darkness.
Ritual can be a series of communal actions binding us together and promoting health. Elspeth Penfold who performs ritual walks says: ‘The act of walking and knotting ropes allows us to think about where we are now and how our world might be transformed.’ Similarly the ritual axe wielding and wood cutting of James S. Bond have healing powers and, as well as creating sculptures from wood, James runs axe working workshops with troubled young men. ‘My work has uncovered a practice that reaches back beyond our cultural differences to a time when all humans were present to the life of trees and how and why they applied certain methodologies with hand tools in working the wood from trees,’ he says. Zara Carpenter takes and transforms polaroids of her body. ‘I obsessively make and each process is part of a ritual; a repetitious act of exploration. I was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder in my early 20s, over the years I have learnt to use my ritualistic behaviour to enhance my creative practice,’ she says.
For painter Jane Walker and multi-media artist Sally Tyrie making work is itself a ritualistic activity, while Hannah Stageman and Blandine Martin transform everyday ritual into
art. Hannah Stageman says: ‘As a person with no faith a ritual to me is an everyday, mostly unnoticed or unobserved, action.‘ Her daily walk is recorded and interpreted in a multimedia book. Blandine Martin transforms ordinary objects into fetishistic sculptures that reference domestic rituals.
The show is curated by artists Caro Williams and Deborah Burnstone.
Artists: Rosalind Barker, James S Bond, Deborah Burnstone, Zara Carpenter, Blandine Martin, Elspeth (Billie) Penfold, Zoe Simons-Walker, Hannah Stageman, Sally Tyrie, Nneka Uzoigwe, Jane Walker and Caro Williams
Contemporary Art + Ritual will be on display at the Crypt Gallery from the 16th until 21th May 2019
Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston Rd, London NW1 2BA Open daily 10am to 6pm
The exhibition is free to view
Private View Thursday 16th May from 6pm until 9pm the artists will be present, all welcome
Additional details: https://artandritual.wixsite.com/mysite
ENDS
Notes to Editors
jpg images email: contemporaryartandritual@gmail.com
For further information on this exhibition, interview with the artists, or any other matter, please contact Deborah Burnstone (m: 07931 700479 ) or Caro Williams (m: 07501 272999) or email Deborah and Caro at contemporaryartandritual@gmail.com
Find out more about the artists and artwork: https://artandritual.wixsite.com/mysite Find out more about The Crypt Gallery: http://cryptgallery.org/
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