Ritual/Bodies: 6th July 2024

Image: Woundlickers (detail) Katharina Ludwig, 2023, costume.

You are warmly invited to Ritual/Bodies, a live performance event and panel discussion, hosted by Goldsmiths CHASE funded Religion and Art Live, at St Pancras Euston Road on Saturday 6th July from 1.45pm, curated by Kate Pickering.

(Un)godly limbs, wombs, wounds, tongues and earthy crumbs materialise through dance, sound, costume, spoken word and performative ritual, resurrecting the hol(e)y, dis/obedient body within Christian tradition. Come and share in an unorthodox communion, take a pilgrimage down into the ground of deathly rebirth, witness the fragmented, in/credulous body on the cusp between inside and out, as the Last Man on Earth wanders among us.

Schedule:

Doors open 1.45pm

Live performances 2-4.30pm (exact schedule TBA June)

Panel discussion 5-6.30pm

Artists:

Katharina Ludwig and M. Maria Walhout - Wet Muscle – Conjured Fragments

Sophie Sleigh-Johnson – Diocletian Canticle

Holly Slingsby - Earth Rite

Sarah White – Oh Crumbs!

Ric Stott – 100 Flowers of Psyche

Garry Rutter – Condensed Milk Club and Know that He’s the Last Man on Earth

Kate Pickering – St Julian and The Wandering Womb

An afternoon of performance will be followed by a panel discussion and Q and A, including the Revd Dr Ayla Lepine (art historian and Associate Rector at St James’s Piccadilly); Teresa Calonje (art historian and curator); Dr Sophie Sleigh-Johnson (artist, writer and Lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths); Maria Walhout (artist, writer and researcher); Dr Katharina Ludwig (artist, writer and researcher); and Dr Kate Pickering (artist, writer and Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths). The discussion will focus on a renewed interest in ritual and the body in contemporary art, in particular how contemporary artists are taking up devotional cultures and revisiting the sacred to produce decolonial, feminist, queer and ecologically oriented worlds.

Accessibility: There is access into the church via a ramp to the side of the main steps. Some performances will require walking or standing (more details to come with an updated schedule). Seating will be provided where possible. Please note that there are no public toilets at St Pancras Euston Road. Public toilets are located at Euston, St Pancras International and Kings Cross train stations, alternatively local pubs or cafes will have facilities if you’re willing to buy a drink or two!

Refreshments will be available after the performances for a small donation.

We thank the Christian Arts Trust and Goldsmiths Graduate School Fund for their generous support.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

St Pancras New Church, 165 Euston Road, London, United Kingdom