Waking the Witch

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The British Isles have a particularly strong relationship to magic and the occult with the chants of witchcraft echoing throughout their history. This exhibition looks to the importance of craft, ritual and land on the practice of the ever shifting figure of the witch.

Traditional witchcraft has a strong connection to the earth with an intimate knowledge of herbs, plants and the elements - as well as the human body. As gatekeepers to altered consciousness witches have been both feared and sought out for their dealings with the unknown. Historically persecuted as an outsider, the witch has been taken on by artists as a challenging force to prevailing norms and as a symbol of dissidence. Looking to symbols, tools and the coven as a space for focusing collective intent, the artists in this exhibition explore the path of the witch as one for how we can connect with the earth and each other.

Artists: Verity Birt, Anna Bunting-Branch, Nadine Byrne, Mary Beth Edelson, Fiona Finnegan, Blue Firth, Fourthland, Georgia Horgan. Ben Jeans Houghton, Serena Korda, Candice Lin, Katarzyna Majak, Monica Sjöö, Lucy Stein, Ayesha Tan Jones and Cathy Ward.

Contemporary art works will be contextualised through archival material and periodicals, as well as loaned artefacts from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Feminist Archive South/Bristol University Special Collections and Rupert White/artcornwall.org.

Accompanying the tour will be an events programme led by the exhibiting artists. Artist duo Fourthland will lead public workshops where the weaving of modern day spells will form a participatory grimoire - a contemporary book of shadows - which will be collectively added to at each exhibition venue. Serena Korda will be leading participants in musical improvisation workshops through playing the ceramics in her piece Jug Choir. This will be finalised with a public performance at each venue. Ben Jeans Houghton will be performing modern day rituals at the public exhibition openings.

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The Exhibition will tour to:

Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, 15 September - 7 November 2018

20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, 19 January - 23 March 2019

Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury, 10 May - 15 June 2019

Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, 27 September - 16 November 2019

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Waking the Witch is a Touring Exhibition curated by Legion Projects and supported by Arts Council England

For more information about the exhibition and the accompanying events programme see https://legionprojects.com

#WakingtheWitchExhibition

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