Wooden statues survey the chapel and crown the arch
Saints bearing ornaments adorn the stained glass
Disembodied hands float between planes
Brass plaques commemorating residents and friends populate the walls
The skull of a horse lets hymns be heard the way the first scribes intended
Ghosts from an alternate world materialise…
Alvaro Samuel Castro: “My practice is guided by the overwhelm of images. From mapping my visual language and informing my research, images are the foundation of what I do. I am curious and drawn to the relationship between one image and another, like seeing them in sequence or side by side. These encounters, when you add being able to rapidly consume, archive and edit them, become endless as well as consistently unique. The expansive journeys that images take to reach me are important because my practice then becomes an extension of this history. Instead of a picture being worth a thousand words, a picture is worth a thousand pictures.”
Honey Mounce: “Within my practice I am interested in mimicking but purposefully a bit off, settled somewhere in between familiarity and alien. I’m frustrated at my inability to explain myself fully, I’m hoping that what I make might fill in the gaps, or is maybe an expression of that frustration itself, obstinately vaguue. My practice tends to refer to motifs that I have been fixated on, that I could only join the dots between after the fact of making: birds, seeds, shadows, watching things grow and then trapping them halfway through. These elements, seemingly with no reason, re-emerged in my work one way or another, like a cloud of dust hovering briefly apart in the sunlight and then settling back together in a pile on the ground.”
The energy from religious sanctuaries across the globe is undeniable, if you’ve ever been in the presence of a choir or heard a call to prayer; the spirit is palpable, you could almost reach out and touch it.
Join us for this exhibition where the artists respond to the opaque, spiritual and literal histories of St Margaret’s Chapel and what surrounds a place of worship. Through various mediums they traverse and meditate on the ethereal edges and structures of the space.
Instagram: @samuelcastroart @boyhowdyhoney
Venue: The Chapel, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL
Access: We are working to make our Grade II listed building more accessible but it will take some time. If you require access support (including our portable ramps), please get in touch via emily@stmargaretshouse.org.uk
Opening event: Friday 5th September, 6.30-8.30pm
Exhibition: Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September, 10am-6pm