Imogen Ashwin: FestialFestial is a self-directed, year-long residency which artist Imogen Ashwin is undertaking in a largely unrestored medieval church in the village of Wood Dalling, roughly three miles from her home in North Norfolk. The project is supported by an Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award.
This project takes its name from an influential medieval book - a runaway bestseller that went through multiple editions. John Mirk's Festial is an early fifteenth century collection of sermons for the major saints and festivals of the church year, for use by priests who were not learned or ambitious enough to find sermon materials for themselves. These sermons relied heavily upon legends, exempla and popular tales.
The timetable for the residency has been structured around some of the most important religious feasts of the medieval year. As we are now running thirteen days ahead of medieval time reckoning, the date for each festival has been calculated using the Julian calendar. Imogen is spending time at the site seeing what happens inside and outside: a meditative process through which she explores the limits of how far she can share in, empathise with and 'inhabit' the medieval world. Each visit sees her engaged in regular tasks and seasonal activities inspired by - although not re-enacting - some of the rituals appropriate to the medieval festival in question. In the course of her research, Imogen has come to feel that many issues of primary importance to medieval people lie at the heart of what it means to be human. Laying out her findings for inspection by the viewer, she is attempting to capture something of their resonance and to elicit a response that might not be entirely comfortable for their 21st century descendents.
Marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter, Michaelmas was one of the most important medieval feast dates. Imogen has been researching and experiencing this time as the sixth festival of her Festial year.
13 January 2008: excerpt from Imogen's Festial blog ...
It's a week now since our medieval Christmas Eve 'vigil' in St Andrew's, and I know that both Trevor and I have been thinking a lot about the experience. Being in an empty, darkened church at what would have been midnight on Christmas Eve for all those Wood Dalling residents who are commemorated in the brass inscriptions - well, it's not something that I would ever have imagined before the start of the Festial project! I think that one thing that's stayed with us both is the sheer level of noise in the pitch-black church. It was a stormy evening, which I suppose accounts for most of the banging and flapping(!) and also it was the dark phase of the moon so things could hardly have been blacker. Yet, it really wasn't scary
How much of the information gathered during that day and night will really come together into something I feel is interesting enough to share is another matter entirely. But today is when I start to find out, as it's time to begin working with the text and images for Kalender 8. Quite often before I've felt as I do right now: that the ideas in my head are too vague; that I'll never create a coherent publication; that I'm just not passionate enough about the possibilities inherent in the images collected for this particular festival and that this is bound to be reflected in the magazine itself.
But, so far at least (and thanks in no small measure to Trevor's technical and creative input), Kalender has always exceeded my initial expectations on all those counts. Fingers crossed!
Follow Festial here!
Follow the blog to learn more about Imogen's Festial adventures, and the issues that the project raises.
Visit the gallery to view some of the work Imogen produces as the medieval year passes.
Email Imogen at imogenashwin(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk.
Festial is supported by Arts Council England and sponsored by Made in Cley, and takes place by kind permission of the churchwardens.