Imogen Ashwin: FestialFestial is a self-directed, year-long residency which artist Imogen Ashwin has recently undertaken in a largely unrestored medieval church in the village of Wood Dalling, roughly three miles from her home in North Norfolk.
The Festial 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 was 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 was calculated using the Julian calendar. Imogen spent time at the site seeing what happened inside and outside: a meditative process through which she explored the limits of how far she found herself able to share in, empathise with and 'inhabit' the medieval world. Each visit saw 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.
An exhibition of work arising from the Festial residency will take place at the Nicholson Gallery, Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk from 26 September until 17 October 2008. Click here for further information.
13 August 2008: excerpt from Imogen's Festial blog ...
The residency at Gresham's school - achieved through this project, as far as I can tell - is approaching fast. I will be in the school's art department every day (and as it's a public school it actually IS every day) for three weeks of September, followed by a day to set up a solo exhibition in their Nicholson Gallery, followed by a private view the following evening. Makes me tired/worried/nervous/excited just thinking about it! I will be teaching some Year 10 and Year 13 classes, as well as making a presentation about my work to sixth formers. When I first knew about this, I was in a complete panicky fuzz about the whole thing, but now I've worked out a lesson scheme and made my Powerpoint presentation things don't seem quite so daunting. Well, not quite.
There is still the small matter of a two-storey gallery space to fill singlehandedly. Although I'll have a space within the department to work on my own stuff in between times, realistically I need to have the majority of work ready before I start at the school at the beginning of September. Which doesn't give me long at all. And I have no funding or guidance or anything, so it's all in the lap of the gods, really. Although, I hasten to add, I do like a challenge.
Follow Festial here!
Follow the blog to learn more about Imogen's Festial adventures, issues raised by the project, and the ups and downs of preparing for her first solo show.
Visit the gallery to view work produced during the medieval year, and as a continuing response to the experience.
Read Kalender - all twelve issues now online!
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.