Rituals Are Tellers of Us was an exhibition of contemporary art bringing together artworks that explore different aspects of ritual action. It was curated by four MA Curatorial Practice students from Falmouth University: Cat Bagg, Rosie Allen, Keziah Hughes and Rosie Leo, and was shown at Newlyn Art Gallery. A series of events were programmed to coincide with the exhibition; the private view hosted a celebration of the rituals of spring, including folk dancing from Hevva; a day of script writing, prop making and garment sewing took place in readiness for a performance of an ancient form of folk play; and a selection of the works on show were screened in London at ATOI & CULL.
Works left to right: paintings, Cutting the Wren (2011), and Ribbon Dance (2011) Eleanor Moreton; video The Battle of Orgreave (An Injury to One is an Injury to All) (2001) Jeremy Deller; assemblage The Maidens (2011) Abigail Reynolds; costumes, The Devil of the Daytime and The Devil of the Nightime (2011) Mathew Cowan; animation, First May (2008) Abigail Reynolds; paintings Night Rite (2012), Dancing Woman (2012), Queenie (2012), The Participant (2011) and Wise Witch (2011) Lindsay Bull; c-type photograph, The Pink Bard (2008) Hew Locke
Photo: Steve Tanner
Photo: Steve Tanner
CONTEXT
Charged with the responsibility to create an exhbition which would have local resonance, as well as a sense of contemporary criticality, the small curatorial team resisted the lure of takihg either the local landscape and seascape, or the rich artistic heritage of the area as a starting point. Instead we chose instead to turn to the rich living hertiage of folk tradition and ritual that exisits within Cornwall, exploring local collections including those of the Helston Folk Museum and considering the various sources of power that rituals hold: the power of transformation, the power story telling, the power of belief, and the powers of communal action and shared experience.
We wrote at the time:
We wrote at the time:
Perhaps, as is proposed by curators such as Lucy Lippard, in an increasingly globalise and digitised world there has been a return to the value of the local, the homemade an the handcrafted. An engagement with ritual as a cultural form offers artists the opportunity to give focus to the specificity of local enactment and performance. One of the things we are suggesting in this exhibition is that through the enactment of ritual something intimate between a person and a place - be it cherished or reviled - is exposed and either valued or banished. For us, the relationships between person and place that emerge during ritual offer ways to understand the deep bonds that are established as a result of communal acts.
In the development of our thinking about ritual, and through our research into works we might include within the exhibition, we began to consider how the some of the traditional tropes of folk ritual are incorporated into other forms of action and story telling, including protest, renactment, and art.
In the development of our thinking about ritual, and through our research into works we might include within the exhibition, we began to consider how the some of the traditional tropes of folk ritual are incorporated into other forms of action and story telling, including protest, renactment, and art.
EXHIBITION
Rituals Are Tellers of Us featured the work of Lindsey Bull, Tereza Bušková, Matthew Cowan, Jeremy Deller, Hew Locke, Eleanor Moreton, Abigail Reynolds, Anna Sadler & Jon Greenland and Tim Shaw.
Works right to left: paintings Dancing Woman (2012), Queenie (2012), The Participant (2011) and Wise Witch (2011) Lindsay Bull; c-type photograph, The Pink Bard (2008) Hew Locke; paintings Garland Dance (2011) and Men of Cornwall (2012) Eleanor Moreton; bronse sculptures, Fertility Figures (2008) Tim Shaw; screen prints, Winter and Spring (2009) and Beheading of the Cockerel (2009) Tereza Bušková; photogrpahic prints, Exercise in Presence (2012) Anna Sadler & Jon Greenland; assemblage The Maidens (2011) Abigail Reynolds.
Photo Alexander Burton.
Photo Alexander Burton.
Works left to right: partially obscured screen prints, Winter and Spring (2009) and Beheading of the Cockerel (2009) Tereza Bušková; bronse sculptures, Fertility Figures (2008) Tim Shaw; photogrpahic prints, Exercise in Presence (2012) Anna Sadler & Jon Greenland; paintings, Cutting the Wren (2011), and Ribbon Dance (2011) Eleanor Moreton.
Photo: Alexander Burton
Photo: Alexander Burton
Works left to right: paintings Cutting the Wren (2011), Ribbon Dance (2011) Eleanor Moreton; assemblage The Maidens (2011) Abigail Reynolds; video The Battle of Orgreave (An Injury to One is an Injury to All) (2001) Jeremy Deller; costume, The Devil of the Daytime (2011) Mathew Cowan
Photo: Miriam Stevens
Photo: Miriam Stevens
EVENTS
The exhibition opened on 3rd May 2013 with a celebration of the rituals of spring including folk dancing from Hevva and Beltane food and drink. The MA Curatorial Practice team also lead in a walk and talk through the exhibition.
On Friday 17th May – as part of Museums at Night, the team hosted mask and garland making workshops at Newlyn Art Gallery.
Artists Amy Thomas and Oliver Irvine invited the curators of Rituals Are Tellers Of Us to bring a capsule of the show from Cornwall to London, showing a selection of works by Tereza Bušková and Matthew Cowan at their Deptford project space ATOI & CULL on Friday 31st May.
FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
Rituals Are Tellers Of Us was curated by MA Curatorial Practice students from Falmouth University, in partnership with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange. With thanks to Artangel, Ceri Hand, Hales Gallery, Millennium Gallery, The Worshipful Company of Founders, Spectrum Photographic, Hevva, Jack Bardwell, Zoe Chambers, The Falmouth Watersports Centre, Skinners Brewery and St Austell Brewery.
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info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
