Past Exhibitions
‘The 13th Zodiac’ installation view. Photos by Katarzyna Perlak.
‘The 13th Zodiac’ by John Costi & Rhett Nicholl (EvilTwin)
October 2024
The Swiss Church London presents ‘The 13th Zodiac’, a multimedia installation and live performance by long-time collaborators and 2024 residency recipients, John Costi and Rhett Nicholl, AKA ‘EvilTwin’. They invite the audience to explore the intersections of art, trauma and healing, rewriting narratives of complex, toxic masculinity and scrutinising wider systems of societal oppression, including class and criminal justice systems.
The title references both artists’ birthdays, which fall under Ophiuchus, the rarely acknowledged 13th sign of the Zodiac. Also known as the serpent bearer, a god of medicine and so adept in the art of healing, he could return souls from the underworld. This ability was learned from a snake on the river Styx, the main river leading to Hades.
These are fitting themes for Costi and Nicholl, whose personal journeys have involved battling addiction, navigating prison and seeking redemption through art.
The multimedia installation, including a film and accompanying performances, traces a spiritual journey of surrender and transcendence, with elements drawn from the 12-step recovery model, the Zodiac, and pantheistic traditions. The film’s protagonist, ‘E.T,’ embodies the struggles and dualities that both artists have faced.
In a quest to find himself and ‘reset the zodiac’, E.T speeds through interdimensional spaces, meeting mythical characters along the way. He confronts past trauma, including a powerful scene set in a North London council estate where Costi experienced a life-altering sexual assault.
By reclaiming the location as a “Museum of Injury”, the artists turn pain into a poignant symbol of healing.
The film and accompanying score are shown with a tunnel-like installation featuring ‘patchwork blackout blinds’, representing inherited realities and ancestral wounds.
EvilTwin have adopted London’s transport networks as tributaries of the river Styx, enlisted actors and musicians with lived experience and drawn on their professional roles in social health care for the presentation that includes printmaking, sculpture, restricted legal documents, family artefacts and archival materials, alongside the immersive installation, performance and film.
EvilTwin’s residency at the Swiss Church culminates in a 4-day showcase featuring live musical and theatrical performances that utilise the Swiss Church’s unique architecture and acoustics.
Performer: Bill Morey (photo by Katarzyna Perlak)
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
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.
‘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 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.
Image courtesy of the artists
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
Film still from “no time for business as usual”, 2024 (courtesy of the artist)
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.
Performance still of “A Home Is A Cloud”, 2024 (courtesy of the artists)
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
Image courtesy of Anna Fearon
The Swiss Church in London is pleased to present Legacy of Family, an exhibition by 2023 Artist in Residence, Anna Fearon.
Through a series of staged photographs, Legacy of Family is a celebration of chosen family, specifically within Black and POC queer communities, and the space that facilitates these connections.
“The Legacy of Family is a meditation and celebration of black queer community and chosen family. It is an exploration of movement and the synergy of dancing bodies moving to a single rhythm, and how these moments transcend beyond the dance floor. The fleeting joy of the club nights that become temporary havens in impermanent spaces to seek community and freedom, becoming a space that invites the possibility to dream. Dreams of nature, of freedom of movement, of thriving, living and loving.The work here seeks to embody the intangible feeling of intimacy, community and spirituality.” – Anna Fearon
Find out more about Anna Fearon.
Ballet Gala 2024: Image courtesy of Verdouxlens Photography
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.
Installation view: Image courtesy of DDS
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.
ART PROGRAMME ALUMNI EVENT
July 2023
The Swiss Church Art Programme hosted talks and presentations from our Arts Alumni.
We were joined by previous Artists in Residence, Hot Desque, our upcoming 2023 Artist in Residence, Anna Fearon and our Art Programme Co-chairs Mary Branson and Julie Hoyle.
Installation view: Photograph by Peter Otto
FABIENNE HESS | Softly Swaying
Softly Swaying explored the themes of community and gift exchange through silk prints.The photographs printed onto the hangings depict gifts exchanged in the community at the church.
Hess sees gift exchange within a group as offering equilibrium and coherence, “a kind of anarchist stability”.
Hess saw the church’s community not as one coherent unit, but as a number of partially overlapping groups. Her installation, which consisted of over a dozen differently shaped prints, reflected this free-flowing complexity.
Find out more about Fabienne Hess
With thanks to the Swiss Embassy for the Launch Reception drinks.
SARAH WHITE | He Whom You Shall Love Is Absent
Image courtesy of Sarah White
with tyroneisaacstuart and Gardner & Gardner
Performances | Saturday 15 April 2023
He Whom You Shall Love Is Absent is an improvised dance performance by Sarah White, with tyroneisaacstuart: exploring faith and doubt, belief and disbelief. The work exists within the space of improvised performance – and the acts of attention, listening and contemplation – as a site for sense-making of the unknown or not-yet-fully-known. The performance itself is a site for movement research and generation.
Find out more about Sarah White and this project.
Image courtesy of Goldsmiths Department of Design
Physical Editing presents | UNEARTHED
Evening Film Screening by Goldsmith’s Department of Design
31st March 2023 | 7:30pm – 10:30pm
A series of films and excavated artifacts produced through methods of acting and recovery, highlighting moments of learning ‘real-time’ through a selection of ethnographic responses and to unearth frictions and feedback that occur between the actor and its subject.
CORA SEHGAL CUTHBERT | I Left Love Here Somewhere
Image courtesy of Cora Sehgal Cuthbert
Artist in Residence 2022 Exhibition
11 – 13 November 2022
I Left Love Here Somewhere is a mixed media installation based upon the artist’s relationship with her Nan, and is the culminating exhibition of her 2022 Artist Residency at the Swiss Church.
Made up of text, photography, sculpture and print, the installation explores the ways in which the themes of family, immigration, spirituality, grief, isolation, mental health, care, love and loss intertwine.
When all seems to be lost, can love still be found?
Cora Sehgal Cuthbert is a London based multi disciplinary artist. Throughout her practice, she is constantly searching for, and presenting, the extraordinary in the ordinary. Influenced by artists, poets and philosophers like Mark Leckey, William Blake and Iris Murdoch, Cora’s work observes the intersections and connections between the personal, the cultural and a universal humanity/spirituality.
Find out more about the Cora Sehgal Cuthbert
ALI CLARKE & GARY SCHOLES | Sanctuary
27 – 30 October 2022
Image courtesy of the artist: ‘Fortress’ (2022) installation view
This collaborative exhibition by Artist duo Ali Clarke and Gary Scholes explored ideas of home and belonging. Taking inspiration from the disparate and striking surrounding architecture and the stories of people within the Swiss Church and Covent Garden community, artists Ali Clarke and Gary Scholes created a series of structures that symbolise individual sanctuaries. The exhibition included model making, sculpture and digital print inviting visitors to explore the artworks up close.
Find out more about the artists
Ali Clarke’s website
Gary Schole’s website
FUNDRAISING BALLET GALA 2022 | A Floral Landscape
Organised by Ruth Gordon
1 October 2022
‘A Floral Landscape’ 2022 (Photographer Catrine Håland)
An afternoon of music and classical ballet at the Swiss Church to raise funds for the church’s Arts Programme.
This year’s gala was organised by Ruth Gordon, retired Swiss ballet dancer and member of the Art Committee, in collaboration with the Art Committee. The Art Committee organises regular art events at the Swiss Church to foster the dialogue between the secular and the sacred world, and to support early and mid-career artists on their journeys.
The programme is inspired by the painting A Floral Landscape by former Swiss Benevolent Officer Petra Kehr-Cocks.
Watch the gala documentary video here
CAROL WYSS | The Mind has Mountains
27 – 28 August 2022
Image courtesy of the artist: Installation view
Wyss showed an immersive installation ‘The Mind has Mountains’. Carol used images of structures inside the human skull, evoking mountainous landscapes.
Find out more about the Carol Wyss
RICHARD NIK EVANS | PretaVasculum – A Container of Ghosts
20 – 23 July 2022
Image courtesy of the artist: Installation view
Evan’s show asked the question what would happen if evolution had taken a different course and algae had developed a complex intelligence of its own? The show presented us with a selection of these results, and exhibiting them in the Swiss Church, Richard asked us to address these forms on a symbolic, philosophical and poetic level.
Find out more about the Richard Nik Evans
ABEL SHAH | Exodysis I
Artists in Residence 2021 Exhibition
Image courtesy of the artists: Abel Shah ‘Exodysis I’ (2021)
Our Swiss Church London Artists in Residence for 2021 are Abel Shah, an artistic duo consisting of the Alex Bell and Guilia Shah who have developed new work within the Swiss Church studio space.
Abel Shah have a mutual interest in the relationship between language and the body, structures of power, and the distribution of knowledge and ideas through technologies. They create multimedia installations, publications and internet art.
Abel Shah on Exodysis I: During our time in residence with The Swiss Church in London we have been experimenting with materials we find around ourselves in everyday life and which have been integral to the developments of the 20th and 21st century’s, including urban housing, high-speed transportation, healthcare technologies, information storage and control of movement. By using materials which make up the shells of our everyday environments and recent histories, the sculptures we have made start to act as symbols of the layered-ness of our own skins and experiences.
Exodysis I is an open-ended sculptural installation that invites others to engage, leave traces and create memories within the installation. The body of work has developed alongside ongoing dialogues with fellow practitioners and collaborators and we have been thinking about how meaning and relationships are built through language and exploring alternative ways of communicating.
Read more about Camden Giving and Abel Shah
MARGUERITE HUMEAU | WEEDS (Partnership with Goldsmiths University)
June 2021
What if extinct voices were brought back to life? How can we make silenced and invisible knowledge visible?
As part of the Goldsmith’s partnership with the Swiss Church, the 2021 exhibition presented Marguerite Humeau’s new sound piece WEEDS, realised in collaboration with the musician Lafawndah in 2021. The exhibition also included a number of talks titled “Rendering the Invisible Visible” from those such as Simone Voegelin, Gina Buenfeld-Murley, Aliya Say, and Rasheeqa Ahmad.
WEEDS is a tribute to past and present women who have had an impact in the development of medicine, but whose knowledge and names have been put aside from the official narrative.
Throughout history women have been midwives, pharmacists, doctors, botanists, and healers. They contributed to the development and research of medicine, and they had an important role in their community. Nevertheless, many have been cast out of the official narrative of medical history. Their practices have often been associated with witchcraft and they were victims of the Witch Hunts, which raged in Europe between the 14th and the 19th century. A considerable body of knowledge surrounding plants and their healing effects has been lost.
Led by the repeated sound of a gong, a voice – musician Lafawndah – lists names of women and fragments of their history. Through the simple but caring act of naming them, Marguerite Humeau brings them back to the very centre, giving them a voice, a power, and a presence. WEEDS is the result of an important work of investigation and research by the artist, typical of her creative process.
This project has been made in partnership with Goldsmiths University and the Swiss Church.
Art reproduced by d&b audiotechnik.
HOT DESQUE | Model Village
Artists in Residence Exhibition 2020
James Jessiman’s Model, Hot Desque 2020
Founded in 2018, Hot Desque is an artist-curatorial partnership by Lizzy Drury and Neena Percy, showing emerging and established artists within site-specific exhibitions, writing publications and hosting events.
Hot Desque have worked on projects in temporary settings across the UK, including a former nightclub. The exhibitions aim to bring artworks together as part of a theatrical mise-en-scène, providing a platform for experimentation and interdependence.
At the end of the residency, Hot Desque showed the exhibition Model Village at the Swiss Church. The exhibition took the form of a series of artist- made scale models. These were used as alternative exhibition spaces as part of the resulting project of nomadic curatorial platform Hot Desque’s residency at the church.
Read more about the Hot Desque
HAMAD MAIYE
Artist in Residence 2019
A collaborative installation and performance by musician Roxanne Tataei and artist Hamed Maiye, commissioned by the V&A museum. With permission of Hamed Maiye, Roxanne Tatei and the V & A Museum.
Hamed Maiye is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in London that uses portraiture as a means of expressing emotional identity and heritage. Maiye founded the arts movement ‘Afro-Portraitism’ which documents the multifaceted image of the contemporary youth of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora whilst exploring the concept of self representation. One of the key drivers in Maiye’s collaborative practice is the introduction of new personal narratives and creating visibility for those who are often marginalised.
During his residency Maiye wished to explore the parallels between spiritualism, surrealism and reality:
“I am interested in the space between reality and surrealism and how these can reflect/inform each other. This space of cross reflection will be grounds to research a visual language and aesthetic of personal utopias and safe spaces. My research will include exploring different forms of iconography and implementing it into my practice in order to create a body of work.”
Read more about the Hamed Maiye
ANDY PALFREYMAN
Photo exhibition – Curated by Daniella Rossi
October 2019
Andy Palfreyman was homeless for 30 years after he left his parental home in Cheshire at the age of 19. He slept mostly in the streets of London in various postcodes. Life changed in 2015 after a chance conversation with an artist who had an exhibition next to the Swiss Church, where he used to come for weekly breakfast. That’s how he got his first camera and the necessary support for his artistic work.
“Photography is a way of expressing myself and how I see the world. Until 2015 I had no idea I had any artistic talent and I didn’t believe in myself. I had very little self-worth, hence 30 years on the streets. Photography empowers me and hopefully is going to raise awareness for homelessness. This is what it’s about for me.”
Andy held his first exhibition ‘Cardboard and Caviar’ at the Swiss Church in London in December 2015 showing some of the doorways that became home. The exhibition was a great success with exposure in the Evening Standard, BBC London News and Buzzfeed. In 2017 the exhibition was also shown in Zurich, Switzerland.
Andy describes the content of his second photography exhibition: “When you are street homeless you tend to look down and notice things most of the general public don’t see. It strikes a chord with me, why it’s there, how it got there, and I photograph it. It feels like I’m the only person who sees it. Some of these things can be upsetting, but I see it from a homeless person’s point of view. When I see these things I can personally relate to them. For example in Shaftesbury Avenue there is a broken spanner pressed into the tarmac and I bet no one else can see it but me. It reminds me how homeless people are pushed down and become invisible. Once a homeless guy walked past me, it just started to rain, and he left footprints on the wet pavement. I call this photograph The Invisible Homeless.”
SARA RODRIGUES AND TYLER EASH | Allusion to a Body no Longer Present
June 2018
Curated by Camille Brechignac and George Watson (Partnership with Goldsmiths University)
“Allusion to a Body No Longer Present” is made of four main elements: a stage-like installation, a performance, a conversation room, and two audience-engaging events. The work, created specifically for the Swiss Church, deals with questions of impermanence, legacy and significance, heightened by the location within a church.
Curators Camille Bréchignac and George Watson presented a newly commissioned performative installation by Tyler Eash and Sara Rodrigues. The work is informed by the artists’ interaction within the Swiss Church community, the performance taking as its point of departure interviews with the congregation on questions of mortality, faith and legacy. The focus on community extends to the curated conversation room – providing a comfortable space to converse about the exhibition.
This project has been made in partnership with Goldsmiths University and the Swiss Church.
MARY BRANSON | A Conversation with My Mother
February 2018
Mary Branson, A Conversation with My Mother, 2018. Photograph: Emma Brown Photography
Her first large installation since the iconic New Dawn in the Houses of Parliament, A Conversation with My Mother explores the notion of loss through dementia and the power of the subconscious to offer insights into the nature of grief.
Set in the captivating space of the Swiss Church, Covent Garden, the piece included sculpture and soundscape interviews with a diverse group of women who talk about relationships with their mothers.
Find out more about the artist
ANDY PALFREYMAN | Homelos
November 2017
After the success of Andy Palfreyman’s photography exhibition Cardboard and Caviar at the Swiss Church in 2015, the exhibition toured to Zurich in 2017. The Offene Kirche St. Jakob and the Grossmuenster hosted the project HomeLos with a series of events, including art exhibitions, panel discussions and writing workshops for young people.
ANDY PALFREYMAN | Cardboard and Caviar
December 2015
Andy has been living in the streets for 30 years. We met him through our outreach work, and he soon after started to photograph the places where he was sleeping rough. The exhibition is the result of his street photography and he wants to raise awareness for street homelessness with his work.
Read a review here.
ANDREA GOHL | Endell Street
November 2015
For over a year Swiss artist Andrea Gohl has explored Endell Street and its people. The art installation brought together fragments of this research in photography, video and text.
poster artwork by Lewis-MRP
