Visual Arts at the Swiss Church in London

The Swiss Church in London is a unique meeting place for contemporary art and sacred architecture. Our visual arts programme transforms the church into a space where creativity, dialogue, and community converge. Through exhibitions, installations, and collaborative projects, we invite audiences to encounter art in new and unexpected ways.

Mission

Experiencing and making art has the power to transform lives. Our core mission is to provide a safe environment for creative ideas to grow, foster a critical contemporary art dialogue in a sacred space and engage and inspire communities through artistic projects. 

We support the work of emerging and mid-career artists, those who do not identify as artists yet, and practitioners who seek to strengthen community impact in the arts. We also provide creative opportunities for people who have less access to artistic programmes. We do this through residencies, exhibitions, academic collaborations, networking events, workshops and projects in collaboration with the church’s longstanding communities.

We are open to all faith groups and world views committed to promoting the values of inclusivity, diversity and tolerance. 

Vision

Art empowers communities and we aim to become an art institution that champions underrepresented voices of local and international artists. We see strength and importance in artistic variety by presenting a culturally diverse art programme. 

Artists in Residence

2024

John Costi & Rhett Nicholl (EvilTwin)

Our 2024 Artists in Residence are artist John Costi and singer/songwriter Rhett Nicholl.  

Their collaborative project, EvilTwin, is based on a foundation of parallel experiences growing up in London’s entrenched street cultures. This has been deepened by a shared journey at the intersection of addiction, mental illness, criminality and redemption through art. 

The duo will be realising their project, 13th Zodiac, a film and musical score depicting a spiritual process of surrender, atonement and transcendence through a cycle of 12 steps of the Zodiac. EvilTwin will manifest as a character in the film, acting as an amalgam of the two artists’ lived experiences.  

Costi and Nicholl’s 3-month residency will result in a final presentation of their work at the Swiss Church in late October 2024. 

John Costi 

Born after a spiritual awakening during a 6-year sentence for armed robbery, Costi’s practice accesses inherited versions of ‘masculinity’ and criminal sub-culture. Through lived experience, he scrutinises class and the justice system to make sense of his past. Preserving real life to occupy art settings, the gallery acting as support group or showroom, experience and emotion are the charging forces. Social work is at the core; Costi also heads crime diversion groups in probations and prisons.  

He is interested in dismantling hierarchies of art experience, turning passive audiences into active participants. Often improvised and informed by chance, Costi creates sculptures, installations, paintings and performances. The fallout forms maps of life, as art, the trails of destruction, or fruitful adventure, all to keep a mission firmly in place.  

‘I make art to transport me, literally and metaphorically. Art has changed my surroundings externally, as well as my internal beliefs and blocks. It’s saved my life in doing so, providing me a golden ticket out of a past life, a privilege most do not have where I come from.’ – John Costi 

Rhett Nicholl 

Having spent almost two decades in a cycle of chaotic addiction and offending, Nicholl spent the last four signed to RCA Records, writing, recording and producing music and music videos. He has subsequently transitioned to a vocation in health and social care. Nicholl is now a support worker at a complex needs supported accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. He is also studying to be a counsellor specialising in substance use disorders with an emphasis on the integration of the arts into psychosocial treatment modalities.

2023 – 2024 Artist Community Residency

From Autumn 2023 – Summer 2024, we are announcing a new opportunity for artists by providing a part-time studio space for two practitioners and collectives to rehearse, experiment with the acoustics of the building and engage with local communities.

Our 2023 – 2024 Artist Community members are Aliaskar Abarkas and artist duo, Amanda Camenisch & Therese Westin.

Amanda Camenisch & Therese Westin

Focusing on facilitating holistic spaces and experiences that become conduits for artistic expression, the artists tend to both individual and collective needs in the process of developing projects and creating artworks with various private and public outcomes.

In January 2024, we hosted ‘A Home Is A Cloud’, a large-scale movement and sound piece conceived by Amanda Camenisch and Therese Westin, directed and performed by Abimbola, Clara Soyinka, Dotty, Elizabeth Addoi, Florence Musa, Freida C. McNeil, Funmilda Olojo, Grace Ade, Grace Owolabi, Jani, Ladun Mary Oguntoyinbo, Leo, Ms Jumoke, Margaret, Pham B Long, Priyanka G Geriya, Sharon, Sungyeon Kim, Vanessa Mirza, Zara.

Over a period of 3 months, the group has met weekly and explored notions of home, faith and belonging through the lens of music and movement as a form of worship. The result is a 45 minute long, part scripted part, improvised score, consisting of collective movement and song, interspersed with individual solo pieces.

For three years, Amanda & Therese have hosted many workshops across London, working with refugees, migrants and women that have experienced domestic abuse. They have worked with organisations such as the Asian Women’s Resource Centre, Hackney Migrant Centre and the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Listen to ‘Elemental Sounds’ with Amanda & Therese, a radio programme aired on Montez Press on 25th January 2024.

The programme includes the voices and stories of the artists and participants who have directed and produced ‘A Home Is A Cloud’, performed at the Swiss Church in January 2024.

‘Elemental sounds’, is a radio program that introduces participants and artists that have been performing a self devised piece titled A Home Is A Cloud and Sounds Of Worship in London in January 2024. The radio program brings together participants and artists with whom Amanda and Therese have worked with over the last year, exploring sound as a healing practice through the elements as well as movement practices and poetry. Amanda and Therese have been running workshops all over London for the past 3 years, working with refugees, migrants and women that have experienced domestic abuse. – Montez Press

Aliaskar Abarkas

Aliaskar is an Iranian artist and writer whose practice is deeply rooted in alternative and collective education. Through a performative approach, he captures the dynamics between people, forging a shift from individual to collective experience. His projects, notably The Community Whistling Choir, explore themes of communication, conviviality, and transformation of self and knowledge. Together with the participants, he documents the process to produce films and compose sound and text.

As part of an ongoing collaboration, Aliaskar will be regularly using our studio space to work on his project, The Community Whistling Choir. The ongoing project, explores communication, conviviality, and participation through the unique medium of whistling, transcending conventional language.

As part of his residency, Aliaskar will invite a diverse group to engage in monthly rehearsals. These sessions, enriched with workshops, exercises, and listening sessions facilitated by the artist and guest collaborators, aim to collectively craft whistling soundscapes. Collaborating with musicians, the participants record whistling sounds, creating compositions for streaming on radio stations, a music album, and a live performance at the Church in April 2024.

2023

Anna Fearon

Anna Fearon is a Photographer, Director & Writer living in London. Her work centres on exploring identity, telling nuanced stories exploring Black and queer identity.

Anna initially started as a photographer and her practice has broadened into film, working on short films and music videos. She has had her film The Muse screened at the V&A museum and has given a talk at Friday Lates: The eyes have it. Anna has been commissioned to make short films for Channel 4 Random acts for Black history month which have been broadcast on tv as well as British Vogue last year for their Pride series. She has also published two issues of ‘Blue’ a print publication, founded by herself which focuses on celebrating Black beauty, fashion and art. She recently completed an artist residency with Hypha studios supported by art council and solo exhibition Colour + Movement.

She also facilitates film workshops for young people, and community focused projects. She is currently in early stage development for her first feature film.

During her time with us, Anna explored her project ‘Legacy of Family Part I & II’; a celebration of chosen family within queer communities, specifically Black and POC communities and the spaces that facilitate community. The project explored what it means to create legacy through the intertwining of family trees, iconography and myth.

Exhibitions

‘Cube of the Standing Wave’ by Aaron McPeake

June 2025 | RSVP via Eventbrite

Public Events Programme:

• Friday 13th June | 6 – 8pm | Launch Event
• Saturday 14th June | 2 – 4pm | Free, Interactive Sound Experience Drop-in Session
• Saturday 28th June | 11 am – 1 pm | Free Family Workshop (booking essential)
• Saturday 28th June | 2 – 5 pm | Finale Event

The Swiss Church London is excited to present ‘Cube of the Standing Wave’, an exhibition of new sound and sculptural interventions by artist Aaron McPeake.

McPeake invites audiences to interact with sculptural works created using standing wave technologies and cast bell metal that generate sound and light interventions at the Swiss Church London. The exhibition is accompanied by an events programme, providing opportunities for the public and the Swiss Church community to engage directly with the works throughout June 2025.

‘Cube of the Standing Wave’ incorporates the unique spatial and acoustic qualities of the church, encouraging new sensory experiences of the space. Using digital technology, light, touch and the church’s architectural standing wave – a phenomenon produced when two sound waves are trapped within a space and interfere with one another – as tools to generate sounds, McPeake invites us to experiment, collaborate, and play. The participatory, site-specific installation offers a sculptural and sensory encounter, encouraging curiosity and self-expression.

McPeake was the last to cast a bell at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The artistry of bells evokes many meanings: celebration, commemoration, a warning, or a notification. They have the power to evoke both joy and urgency and awaken personal memories. The Swiss Church London does not have its own bells. We are therefore presenting the first extended exhibition throughout June this year.

Having lost his sight later in life, McPeake has shaped an artistic practice that proposes a deep dive into the senses through sculptural interventions. He states, “We are not taught to touch, to smell, to taste, to listen; we are taught to observe”. Our senses are our connection to the world around us and have a deep impact on how we feel, interpret and remember. ‘Cube of the Standing Wave’ intends to inspire audiences to appreciate the senses differently, respond to the vibrations that surround us and create a “new way of seeing”.

Public Events Programme | RSVP

Friday 13th June 2025 | 6 – 8pm | Launch Event 

Join us for the celebratory opening of ‘Cube of the Standing Wave’ by Aaron McPeake including a live musical performance by Swiss AlpHorn duo, Frances Jones & Marc Woodhurst.

Saturday 14th June 2025 | 2 – 4pm | Free, Interactive Sound Experience Drop-in Session:

A perfect afternoon out for families, this playful drop-in session is an opportunity for audiences to interact with the artworks and meet the artist. Aaron McPeake will also offer an introduction to the exhibition, his creative practice, as well as demonstrating how to play the sound sculptures on display.

Saturday 28th June 2025 | 11 am – 1 pm | Free Family Workshop (booking essential):

Aaron McPeake leads a sculptural workshop for families to explore the five senses: sound, touch, smell, sight, and taste.

Saturday 28th June 2025 | 2 – 5 pm | Finale Event:

Join us for the celebratory finale of ‘Cube of the Standing Wave’, including a live musical performance by Aaron McPeake. This event offers a sensory experience, including a new sonic performance made in response to the exhibition, followed by an open discussion about the works with Aaron McPeake.

 

This exhibition is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.

With thanks to our local partner, London Graphic Centre.

www.henry-moore.org

 

                    

‘NO KIDS’ by Louise Ashcroft with Sarah Elena Müller & Luzia Studer

January 2025 (press release)

 

If you missed ‘No Kids’, you can now watch, listen and read the accompanying exhibition material. This includes the ‘No Kids Nursery Rhymes‘ book and recorded songs, as well as the live performance by the ‘No Kids Choir‘.

 

Read the No Kids Nursery Rhymes

 

This exhibition is supported by the Swiss Cultural Fund, Swiss Church London and Goldsmiths University of London. With thanks to Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Camden People’s Theatre and Künstler:innenhaus Bremen for supporting earlier developments of the works and research. Thanks to Partner Ole & Steen UK. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PORTALS

Alan | Andy Palfreyman | David Bedford | David Fussell |John Joseph Sheehy | Katandpigeon | Lewis-MRP  Lorraine | Matt | Mary Vallely | RICASO | Tean | Lui Saatchi | The Homeless Poet 

November 2024 (press release)

The Swiss Church London is pleased to present ‘PORTALS’, the first Breakfast on the Steps Guests’ art exhibition. The exhibition will be open to the public over two days and highlights the voices, stories and talents of artists with experience of homelessness and poverty.

This collaborative, multimedia exhibition represents a passage to new spaces, be it through doorways, over thresholds and into memories, hallucinations, fantasy, mythology and science fiction. The motivation is simple: art can transport and transform. The exhibition aims to highlight the voices, stories and creativity of the community.

Many of the artworks have been made at the weekly Breakfast on the Steps Art Workshop and were be presented alongside submissions from artists and filmmakers who currently or previously visited the weekly breakfasts at the Swiss Church. An artist-led exhibition, the title and themes of ‘PORTALS’ have emerged from the ideas and artworks submitted and produced in the weekly workshops.

*this exhibition has been made possible by the generous support from our volunteers, EKS Swiss Abroad Churches Fund, Kirchkreis 9 and local partners The London Graphic Centre and Ole & Steen.

 

 

‘The 13th Zodiac’ by John Costi & Rhett Nicholl (EvilTwin)

October 2024

‘All the Whistlers’ by Aliaskar Abarkas

September 2024

In September 2024, the Swiss Church presented  ‘All the Whistlers’ by Aliaskar Abarkas, our 2023 – 2024 Community Artist in Residence. Aliaskar invited his Community Whistling Choir participants and guest artists for a series of workshops and performances.

The event was a celebration of Aliaskar’s residency at the Swiss Church and a ‘birthday party’ for The Community Whistling Choir project he has been developing over the past year.

Activities included a reading workshop of recently commissioned poems by Hasti & Carlos, where Aliaskar then invited participants to read and sing the poems, connecting with the sound of the words. As the words started to disappear, a melody was formed as a birthday gift to each of the attendees. The evening was followed by and collective birthday cake decorating exercise and music by NITAMORTEÏ.

Aliaskar also invited jazz pianist, composer and poet, Robert Mitchell, to explore a vision of a contemporary sonic myth and compose an anthem for whistling through a participatory workshop. Attendees participated in sonic and somatic activities, delving into the possibilities of developing a musical language. The workshop aimed to create new compositions that responded to the architecture and unique characteristics of the Swiss Church.

All The Whistlers created a nomadic space for experimentation and learning, and aimed to explore the social power of collective whistling, fostering community connections and peer building.

 

Aliaskar Abarkas

Aliaskar is an Iranian artist and writer whose practice is deeply rooted in alternative and collective education. Through a performative approach, he captures the dynamics between people, forging a shift from individual to collective experience. His projects, notably The Community Whistling Choir, explore themes of communication, conviviality, and transformation of self and knowledge. Together with the participants, he documents the process to produce films and compose sound and text.

Throughout 2023 – 2024, Aliaskar used the Swiss Church to work on his project, The Community Whistling Choir. The ongoing project, explores communication, conviviality, and participation through the unique medium of whistling, transcending conventional language.

As part of his residency, Aliaskar invited a diverse group to engage in monthly rehearsals. These sessions, enriched with workshops, exercises, and listening sessions facilitated by the artist and guest collaborators, aimed to collectively craft whistling soundscapes. Collaborating with musicians, the participants recorded whistling sounds, creating compositions for streaming on radio stations, a music album, and this live performance, All the Whistlers: Aliaskar Abarkas & Robert Mitchell, at the Swiss Church.

 

 

Amelia Watson, Marina Sanchez & Sahishnu Tongaonkar | Flow ‘er Ton al Vision

Collaboration with London College of Communication MA Sound Arts

July 2024

This Year’s exhibitors for our 2024 collaboration with LCC MA Sound Arts were Amelia Watson, Marina Sanchez & Sahishnu Tongaonkar, with their project ‘Flow ‘er Ton al Vision’.

Learning to be truly present… as mortal critters entwined.” – Donna Haraway

The relations between human and non-human are being re-evaluated in an increasingly warming world. The situation of climate change implies an intrusion of being situated at a sensory unknown, blurring the threshold of knowing and not knowing.

Flow ‘er Ton al Vision was a sonic exploration of entangled moments in time, allowing space for imaginary worlds to emerge. Sound is perceived through listening and touch, each listener becoming a part of the eco-sound-system designed around the Flower of Life, a moment of becoming together.

Read the full Press release

 

Ruby Wroe | “no time for business as usual”

April 2024

 

“no time for business as usual”, was the first solo exhibition and new film-work by London-based artist, Ruby Wroe.

Over the past six months, Ruby has been volunteering at the Swiss Church’s weekly breakfasts for people affected by homelessness, and getting to know different people connected to the church. Ruby’s proposition at the beginning of this process was to make a film that had the church’s communities at its core, and involved its frequenters in its making.

“no time for business as usual” plays with the expected roles people have within the community, mixing up who does what, when. Who is receiving, who is a making, who is allowed where, and when, are all hierarchies the film disrupts. For example, guests from Breakfasts on the Steps are invited to play the organ, an unwieldily and eternally new instrument.

Ruby’s practice considers the body as a sponge of social relations and she produces performances with people at their centre. These performances have often included groups of people – groups tied together, groups reading in unison, groups embracing. Over the last few years, she has been making work that sits at the intersection of film and performance documentation, exploring ideas around absurdity, negotiation and community.

Ruby is the recipient of the the Co-Chairs Choice Award, selected by the Swiss Church Art Committee’s leaders, Mary Branson and Julie Hoyle, in 2022.

Read the “no time for business as usual” press release

 

Ruby graduated from BA Fine Art Photography from Camberwell College of Arts in 2016, and was awarded the Jonathan Harvey Studio Award by ACME & The Tomart Foundation, and The Technical Achievement Award by Camberwell College of Arts. She holds an MA in Fine Art Media from Slade School of Art, during which she was a Sarabande Scholar.

 

Goldsmiths MA Design Expanded Practice | DIY DAILECT(ic)S

March 2024 

 

As part of our ongoing collaboration with Goldsmith’s University, students from the Communication and Experience Studio on MA Design Expanded Practice present a series of short films developed in response to an unfolding 10 week process, exploring the translation of visual narratives through various creative and critical lenses to re-communicate cinematic tropes, scenes and micro-narratives. 

Cinematic language bleeds into an expanded sense of syntax or dialect, defining cultures, describing histories and challenging experiential norms of visual culture. The processes of editing, crafting narratives, scripting movement, defining dialogues and creating atmosphere can each be folded into a wider visual design practice. They enable ways to challenge, dream or provoke questions, to force alternative reflections and new framings of the world through moving image, creating new and experiential languages.   

Communication cannot avoid language, it relies on systems of sounds, words, image and grammar to pursue its goal: to transfer information, from source to destination, a journey which–when reflecting on information theory–requires a battle with noise: an unavoidable process which challenges, shapes or interprets concepts, meaning or truth. 

The series of films screened at The Swiss Church question how we design and communicate alternative modes of story telling through the translation and manipulation of image, text, gesture and sound to produce new moving image works that encompass a multitude of interpretative approaches on the themes of love, loss, fear, and beyond. 

DIY DAILECT(ic)S Press Release

 

 

HOT DESQUE | Holding Cosmic Dust: An Almanac

January 2024

 

Holding Cosmic Dust: An Almanac, was a video installation by artist duo, Hot Desque. Creating theatrical environments through their collaborative practice, with An Almanac Hot Desque alludes to the behind-the-scenes of a speculative archaeological dig in which a matriarchal society is uncovered. The installation drew connections between archaeology, history and fantasy. It was delivered in conjunction with an exhibition intervention within the permanent, local archaeological collection of the Corinium Museum, in Cirencester.

At the Swiss Church, in a new video work, digital renderings, handmade drawings and metal embossings evoked a constellation of relics and remnants from the matriarchal society, found within a mysterious forest site. Highlighting processes of observational study and embellishment, who or what is making the analysis is left unknown.

The exhibition questioned how knowledge is made or verified and the role fantasy plays in these processes. It emphasises connections between multiple timescales at once and the role of the human hand in shaping stories. Humanity’s relationship to the past extends to the geological deep time, our species’ impact is questioned on planetary and ecological scales, and extinctions are not only a thing of the past but also the present and the future. 

Talk:

During the private view, Hot Desque was in conversation with historian Frederika Tevebring, who contributed an essay to the accompanying publication. They discussed Hot Desque’s worldbuilding practice, past and possible future matriarchal societies, fantasy in archaeology and the role of art in creating alternative narratives at times of planetary crises.

The collaborative video brought together artworks by Holly Graham, Rubie Green, Rebeca Romero, Amba Sayal-Bennett, Abel Shah and Suzanne Treister. 

Learn more about Holding Cosmic Dust on the Corinium Museum website.

Learn more about Hot Desque.

Holding Cosmic Dust is supported by The Corinium Museum, Arts Council England, The Swiss Church, Hypha Studios and Woodlands UK. 

A wider project is delivered in collaboration with Peckham Levels, Step Out Mentoring, Lab Gloucestershire Library and Cirencester and Bingham Library.

 

AMANDA CAMENISCH & THERESE WESTIN | ‘A Home Is A Cloud’

January 2024

 

The Swiss Church in London is pleased to host ‘A Home Is A Cloud’, an exhibition by Amanda Camenisch & Therese Westin.

A Home Is A Cloud is a large-scale movement and sound piece conceived by Amanda Camenisch and Therese Westin, directed and performed by participants: Abimbola, Clara Soyinka, Dotty, Elizabeth Addoi, Florence Musa, Freida C. McNeil, Funmilda Olojo, Grace Ade, Grace Owolabi, Jani, Ladun Mary Oguntoyinbo, Leo, Ms Jumoke, Margaret, Pham B Long, Priyanka G Geriya, Sharon, Sungyeon Kim, Vanessa Mirza, Zara.

Over a period of 3 months, the group has met weekly and explored notions of home, faith and belonging through the lens of music and movement as a form of worship. The result is a 45 minute long, part scripted part, improvised score, consisting of collective movement and song, interspersed with individual solo pieces.

 

About the Artists:

Working with sound, textiles, sculpture and poetry as art-making and healing practices, Amanda & Therese develop collaborative projects that centre the experiences of its participants through a trauma-informed approach. Focusing on facilitating holistic spaces and experiences that become conduits for artistic expression, the artists tend to both individual and collective needs in the process of developing projects and creating artworks with various private and public outcomes.

Some of the performers are people with whom Amanda and Therese have worked with for several years, some have joined the project just a few months ago. The foundation for the collective creative process has been a deep appreciation for music and sound, movement, and conversations around faith and belonging. The voices and stories, poems and songs also featured in a 4 part radio program on Montez Press Radio.

 

Listen to Amanda Camenisch & Therese Westin’s ‘Elemental Sounds’ aired with Montez Press on 25th January 2024:

 

Music Credits:

“Panta Rei, music by Moshi Honen 2023”
“Spirit of the waves, part 1, music by Ilyas Kassam 2022”
“Slow Fire, music by Sille Kima 2023”

 

ANNA FEARON | Legacy of Family

November 2023

The Swiss Church in London is pleased to present Legacy of Family, an exhibition by 2023 Artist in Residence, Anna Fearon.

 

 

2023 FUNDRAISING BALLET GALA | FOUR SEASONS

September 2023

Each year, with the help of ballet dancer and choreographer, Ruth Gordon-Jaeggi, the Swiss Church in London puts together a Ballet Gala and fundraising event to help support our Arts Programme. This event not only allows us to share a glimpse into our annual Arts Programme but also helps us support our amazing artists and exhibition programme throughout the year. 

This September we travelled through Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, in an evening filled with music by Franz Schubert, Paso & Garcia Alvarez and Antonio Vivaldi and performances choreographed by the lovely Ruth Gordon-Jaeggi with local dancers and artists.   

 

 

 

 

 

DDS | CAVING

Collaboration with London College of Communication

July 2023

DDS (Elliot Buchanan, Martyn Riley and Benjamin Harrison) are a sound art collective exploring acoustic spatiality. 

Caving is an investigation into archaeoacoustic histories of resonance and how the relationship between sound and space can allow access to the divine. The sound installation is a negotiation of the acoustic properties of The Swiss Church and its resonant frequencies to create complex harmonies and resonant entanglements.

This exhibition is part of our collaboration with London College of Communication’s MA Sound Art programme.

Press Release