HOLY GROUND, a commission by A+C 2020
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"Pilgrimage redraws topography as a sacred field , rendering the whole landscape as a sacred field of power" Alison Millbank
"To romanticise the world is to make us aware of the magic mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite" - Novalis
Holy Ground is a project commissioned by Art + Christianity working in collaboration with the communities in an around St Andrew’s Church and Shri Nathji Sanatan - Hindu Temple in Leytonstone over 3 seasons during 2020. The project explored ideas of Holy Ground in the broadest sense, seeking to connect with spiritual and embodied ideas of landscape and the universe. Working with a group of elders from both communities we looked more deeply at ways to connect to the natural world and the notion that all land was once considered sacred.
We delivered a series of listening sessions exploring ideas around pilgrimage, offerings and community creating collective actions and practices of attunement as embodied notions of spirituality in and around Epping Forest. Final outcomes of this work have come together as a exhibition and collection of works Call to Holy Ground. We worked with photographer Nikki McClarron during a series of performances with participants for camera.
The work has included a call out for fellow pilgrims
Wherein we collected a series of stories around pilgrimage
With support from the Arts Council of England, the Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation, The Lady Peel Trust and The Morel Trust.
As he looked on to the world he had birthed
he thought to himself
this place needs music
this place needs art
and so
at the place where the 3 rivers meet
with a swan at her feet
she was birthed
through a fountain of marigold flowers
she came wearing white
as a purification
she came wearing yellow
as a bringer of light
she became the river of knowledge
offering her flow beneath the surface of things
to emerge every 12 years
yet again to meet with the two other rivers
and 120 million beings
at the great wheel and water vessel
immense and intimate
the turning of the great oceans
in the union of earth and sky
a collective reflection from Temple session