Enter The Pelvic Underground: a numinous world of transformed shoes, strange forms, shifting sounds and unexpected encounters.
The Pelvic Underground is an immersive, multidisciplinary installation inviting visitors into a strange and numinous world centred on one of the most fundamental structures of the human body: the pelvis.
The project began with the accidental recognition of a pelvic shape within a pair of discarded women’s shoes. From that unexpected encounter, an entire world began to unfold.
Working with reclaimed footwear, I draw on the deep fascial relationship between the foot and pelvic floor, transforming shoes into strange assemblages that hover somewhere between pelvis, animal, skull, creature and myth. I work instinctively and responsively, combining shoes with found, discarded and everyday materials — objects that already carry their own associations, histories and meanings. Rather than beginning with a fixed idea, I allow each piece to emerge through making, play and recognition. The work unfolds rather than being prescribed.
This spirit of transformation extends to the materials themselves. Pre-loved shoes are combined with materials already to hand and discarded objects gathered from wherever they happen to be found. Working with what already exists gives discarded and overlooked materials new forms, meanings and lives.
Together, the works form an evolving environment rather than a collection of separate objects. Light, darkness, moving image and sound transform the space, allowing the sculptures to inhabit a world of their own. Androgyno Biophilia, a kaleidoscopic moving-image work created from my nature photography, imagines a hidden inner landscape of an evolving pelvis, while an original soundscape draws on imagined bodily sounds, atmosphere and abstraction. Live music and improvised sound may further alter the environment as the exhibition unfolds.
Pelvic Play and Ponderance invites visitors to become part of this world themselves: decorating small clay pelvic forms and adding them to an evolving collective artwork, while also offering space for reflection, curiosity and play.
The Pelvic Underground does not offer a fixed interpretation of the pelvis or of the symbols that emerge within it. Meaning is not imposed in advance, and neither is a particular response expected from the visitor. Instead, the installation creates the conditions for an encounter — a space that can be playful, uncanny, funny, visceral, beautiful, unsettling or simply strange.
This exhibition marks the debut of The Pelvic Underground: the first time this evolving world will be opened to the public.
About Suke Catastro/FILLE:
Suke Catastro/FILLE is an East London-based multidisciplinary artist and musician working across photography, sound, performance, sculpture, moving image and participation. Her practice is driven by curiosity, play and recognition, often finding unexpected connections between people, nature, the body and the everyday.
Alongside her individual practice, Suke has many years' experience working creatively with communities, including around 15 years in community music and more recent work across heritage, arts and recovery settings. This long engagement with people and participation continues to inform a multidisciplinary practice in which she creates immersive, symbolic worlds for audiences to encounter and inhabit.
Recent projects include Flowers To The People, an ongoing series of photographic botanical hybrids exploring individuality and our relationship with nature, and In Tune with the Infinite, an immersive participatory installation where movement and technology allow visitors to interact with and influence a shifting cosmos of spinning galaxies.
Contact: If you have any questions regarding this exhibition, please email programming@stmargaretshouse.org.uk
Venue: The Chapel at St Margaret’s House, 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. Please note that entry to the Chapel is not step-free. If you require access support (including our portable ramps) and/or access to an accessible toilet, please contact us on 020 8980 2092 or email programming@stmargaretshouse.org.uk so we can arrange this for you.
Opening Event: Friday 13th November, 6.30-8.30pm
Exhibition: Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th November, 10am-4pm
Tickets for the Opening Event are free, but registration is essential