Rust, Blood and Bone
Walcot St Mortuary Chapel. Bath – Image Courtesy of Victoria Musson
Some impressions from the hauntingly beautiful ‘Rust, Blood and Bone’ exhibition, on show in Bath between 21st -25th June. The atmospheric Walcot St Mortuary Chapel was the venue for the exhibition featuring the work of Charlotte Rodgers, Katie Pollard, and Victoria Musson. The work of the three artists made powerfully distinctive individual statements, each showing a particular mastery of their chosen aesthetic forms, materials and themes.
Sculpture by Charlotte Rodgers – Image Courtesy of Victoria Musson
Charlotte invites the viewer into a compelling, magical world of strange, mischevious creatures. Each piece is made from an intricate bricolage of organic and non-organic found objects. The collection on show demonstrated how Charlotte’s sophisticated handling of both materials and processes produces wildly exotic, totemic sculptures, each with their own very distinctive personalities. Charlotte works in a variety of mediums as an ‘animist, artist and author who works with remnants of death to create talismanic and totemic art’.
Art and Image by Victoria Musson
Victoria Musson’s work displayed a mastery of straw craft through her collection of enchanting effigies, dolls, and poppets. She uses nature and the farming year as the inspiration for her artwork suffused with a ‘passion for the survival of early pre Christian worship within the countryside’. Her elemental, anthropomorphic forms are an arresting fusion of earth and spirit. Grounded in the soil yet suffused with primal, animistic vitality.
Garments by Katie Pollard – Image courtesy of Victoria Musson
Katie Pollard’s dramatic, elongated, floating ghostly garments, beautifully embellished with magical symbolism, hung from the ceiling and punctuated the space with a dramatic vertical flourish.
The artworks all held their individual presence in the shared space. Yet, also seemed engaged with each other in the setting, as they melded within the chapel interior to create a potent mixture of beauty and surreal ambiguity. The full programme of events that took place at the Chapel is above.
Amodali- Photo by Victoria Musson
Unfortunately, I missed the other events that took place at the Chapel earlier the week and visited the show on the 24h of June to give a Talk/Performance, ‘Liber Incarnadine & the Grail 156′. The talk was not recorded (thank you Victoria for the photo above, captured before the talk got underway), but a written version is here.
Louise Hodgson- Photo courtesy of Fred Yee
Happily, I caught Louise Hodgson’s fascinating talk on her strange encounters with the spirits of the land on Saturday evening. On Sunday, I experienced Roberto Migliussi’s compelling meditative techniques and Soul Retrieval practice first hand. Unfortunately, I had to leave before Andrea Kundry’s presentation on The cultural legacy of Antonin Artaud, this is now available as a video on Facebook.
Charlotte Rodgers – Photo Courtesy of Mogg Morgan.
Congratulations to the inspirational Charlotte Rodgers who curated and organized this wonderful show. Inviting the curious to immerse themselves in the unfamiliar for a few brief moments, to be challenged, moved, disturbed and delighted.