corpus christi play: flowerface

I graduated in 2001 with a First Class Honours degree in Fine Art, followed by MA Fine Art in 2002. Since that time I have been working continuously, exhibiting periodically in group shows. In 2006 I felt that I needed to move my practice up a gear and that I should commit myself to a long-term project that would help me define the strengths and weaknesses in my practice and specifically the areas that I really wanted to push in future. I applied for an Arts Council ‘Grants for the arts’ award to help fund an idea I’d had for a self-directed year-long residency in a medieval church. After re-structuring my application to include a mentoring programme and a strategy for securing a solo exhibition at the conclusion of the residency, I was successful in obtaining funding for Festial.

It sometimes feels as if contemporary art practice has either to be urban and gritty or to focus on contemporary culture elsewhere in the world to take its place in current debate. I would certainly like to challenge that and to make work that is just as hard-hitting despite often being rooted in a rural landscape.

Rogationtide
Corpus Christi
The Midsummer Bonfires
The Display of Relics
St Christopher’s Day
Assumption
Michaelmas
All Souls’ and All Saints’ Days
St Catherine’s and St Andrew’s Days
Christmas
Candlemas
Easter

Festial is named after a bestselling fifteenth century book of sermons for every major festival of the medieval church year. Designed to appeal to a mass audience the sermons were akin to sensational 'wonder tales'.
The Kalender of Shepherdes was another bestseller of the period. It was an almanac mixing religious advice with recipes, moon phases, astrology and seasonal tips. My Kalender is a fanzine-style giveaway multiple I produce after each festival and leave around for people to find and take away if they are curious.