CHIVALRY
Exhibition Two: CHIVALRY 19th September - 25th October 2024
Curated by John Elcock
Chivalry forms the second chapter in our multi-disciplinary response to the medieval tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Artists explore the contemporary value of codes of conduct, in a world where the quest for honour must necessarily give way to the search for truth and to processes of becoming.
Room 1
ANGELO MADONNA THE ALCHEMY OF BLOOD AND RENEWAL (2024)
Mild steel plate - Soil/clay - Glass funnel - red ink - golden egg
In a tale reminiscent of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the blood-soaked earth undergoes a mystical alchemical process, transforming death into new life. The blood, like the prima materia in alchemy, nourishes the soil and brings forth a golden egg. From this egg hatches a brave new being, forged through the stages of alchemical transformation – the nigredo, the albedo, the citrinitas and the rubedo. www.angelomadonna.com | @kroniko66
ANDREW SHAW COMFORT/DISCOMFORT (2024)
Mild steel and mixed textiles on straw
This installation and sculpture is an introspective look at safety, comfort and discomfort. In this work I am exploring that through the materials used, the environment created, my own creative processes, passed down skills and learning from family members and personal experiences. www.andrewshawart.com | @davethebarman
SILVIA BATTISTA ACT II - THE KNIGHTS OF THE 21ST CENTURY (2024)\
Directed by Silvia Battista. Drawing, text and voice by Silvia Battista. Animation - Laura Spark. Sound and recording - Manoli Moriaty.
It brings together humour, spiritual traditions, folklore and science fiction to tell of an affirmative knighthood trained to hold both masculine and feminine energies. www.silviabattista.com | @silviabattista68 | @manolimoriaty | @laura.spark
JOHN ELCOCK ICON OF ST GEORGE (2019)
Egg tempera and gold leaf on gesso panel
This is a copy of a famous 15th century Russian icon. St George was Turkish, born of Greek and Roman parents, fought his mythical dragon in Syria, was martyred in Palestine, and is the patron saint of Ethiopia (and England). The artist John Ruskin established The Guild of St George - its aim: ‘to make Britain a happier place to live in’. With this noble aspiration in mind, the icon is on loan for Chivalry courtesy of a modern Companion of the Guild. Private collection
Room 2
PAUL MELLOR RITUAL LANDSCAPE (1986) Film A video-art work that entwines the meditative practices and rituals of both large format landscape photography with the ancient Japanese art of Kyudo (zen archery). The piece blends slow motion and highly saturated super 8 film with broadcast video tape. www.paulmellorart.com | @paulmellorfineart
PATRIC ROGERS TRYST (2024)
PLA filament
Inspired by the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and considering Wirral as the likely location of The Battle of Brunanburh, a defining moment in shaping our collective understanding of Britain. ‘Tryst’ intertwines fifty crimson mycelium-like Saxon swords symbolising the forgotten stories we embed in the land, which with the movement of time weaves myth with reality, history with legend.
PATRIC ROGERS SPECTRE (2024)
Mixed media. Digital prints.
Spectre features a life-sized Mari Llwyd sculpture and photographs taken from the coastline around the Isle of Anglesey. In Welsh tradition, the Mari Lwyd is carried from house to house during winter, especially around Christmas and New Year. The group accompanying the Mari engages in pwnco, a verbal duel of wit and verses with the household. This exchange is more than entertainment; it’s a symbolic confrontation with the unknown, where the household must demonstrate its wit, hospitality, and moral fortitude to keep the Mari Lwyd at bay. Much like the trials faced by Sir Gawain, encountering the Mari Lwyd is a test of one’s courage, honour, and integrity. | @patch_1138
ANGELO MADONNA BOD_J_ECT: CONVERSATIONS AND SONGS (2022)
Film Conceived, performed and edited by Angelo Madonna; filmed by John Elcock.
Bod _ j _ ect is a romance story of a knight encountering an object that has been rejected, after having played its function as dunnage bag for the human transportation of goods. This knight falls in love with the object, taking it with it and injecting it with a new, creative, and sustainable life. It narrates the dialogue between its materials, and how with ‘them’ it is possible to create different affective dynamics, considering how their texture, weight and symbolism may transform their perception.
RYAN GUAGE LET BE WHAT MAY FOLLOW (2024)
Two ritualistic sculptures created out of a faithful response to the text, explore the rich psychological stages of the human experience as told in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This work weaves together a tapestry of historical reference and processes, bringing to life lost pre-Christian, folk and religious symbolism and tradition.
UNITED (2024) Ceramics
These vessels invite you to engage in ceremonial drinking and celebratory and communal ritual, inviting you to share your personal ethics and codes.
HIDDEN (2024)
Ceramics, metal, wood, fabric, embroidery
This veiled space asks you to reflect on and express your transgressions against your own ethical code, a solitary experience under the watchful eye of the guardians. www.conveniencegallery.org | @ryangaugeceramics
PATRIC ROGERS PENITENT (2024)
PLA filament and moss
A knight kneels, a frozen moment of transformation. ‘Penitent’ reflects the inner struggle Gawain faced before the Green Knight. Chivalry is not bound by steel or oath alone, but by the soil beneath, the cycles of nature, and the forces that shape both man and world alike.
JOHN ELCOCK THE WHITE HART (2024)
Egg tempera and gold leaf on gesso panel
Gawain was possibly both written and performed for Richard II. This painting connects his royal emblem of the white hart with the hart hunted by Lord Bertilak in the poem. The work takes inspiration both in form and technique with the famous Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery, a fourteenth century masterpiece commissioned for the coronation of Richard II. The ‘highantlered hart’ is depicted in two types of gold and dancing in fields of rosemary, in the joy of escaping the hunt.
W. L. WINDUS (1822–1907) KNIGHT IN ARMOUR
Oil on panel
One of the Liverpool painters heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Lindsay Windus often depicted scenes of great drama and moral seriousness. This particular work focuses on the rear view of a knight on horseback, gazing into the distance. Although only a sketch, the perspective and composition of this work appear to suggest the heroism of our subject, contemplating at the start of a great and chivalric journey.
Collection of the Williamson Art Gallery
Room 3 ‘HAUTDESERT CASTLE’
CRAIG SINCLAIR and PIOTR MARCHEWKA TENDER KNIGHTS (2024)
Installation & performance
Tender Knights is a multimedia installation using film, sculpture and found objects to evoke an alternate reality wherein the titular characters explore notions of chivalry and masculinity from a queer perspective. The Tender Knights’ bedroom is asacred laboratory wherein new, softer codes of chivalry are written amidst mystical items and absurdist games.
www.piotrmarchewka.com | www.craigsinclair.co.uk
(UNKNOWN ARTIST) RINALDO AND ARMIDA (19th c) Parian porcelain
This sculpture is believed to depict a scene from Gerusalemme Liberata (1581) by poet Torquato Tasso. The poem delves into the tragic relationship between the characters Rinaldo and Armida which has influenced and inspired artists for centuries. It depicts Armida, a sorceress who falls in love with the crusader Rinaldo, bewitching him and taking him away to her lair. However the artist appears to take a more tragic and sympathetic note, with Rinaldo caring for the fallen Armida.
Collection of the Williamson Art Gallery
MATERIAL MATTERS IN A FLAT FIELD (2024) Film (15 mins).
Directed by Patric Rogers.
Performed by Angelo Madonna, Eddie Rogers, Patric Rogers, Silvia Battista
A surreal, meditative short film set as a view from Lord Bertilak’s castle, as seen in the world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The landscape is vast and quiet, dominated by a mysterious, fractured monolith. It stands unmoved as centuries pass, bearing silent witness to a series of strange and haunting figures. In a Flat Field is a hypnotic reflection on the stories etched into the landscape—tales of loss, mystery, and the passage of time—told through haunting imagery and wordless, dreamlike sequences.
CRAIG SINCLAIR and PIOTR MARCHEWKA Directed by PATRIC ROGERS SOFT COMBAT (2024)
Installation & performance
Soft Combat is an absurdist short film exploring the virtues of chivalry through a comedic lens. Set in a bedroom within Lord Bertilak’s castle, two knights in pink gowns engage in a bizarre, cyclical game. Every action sparks an equal reaction, echoing the beheading game from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, yet twisted into absurdity.
www.piotrmarchewka.com | www.craigsinclair.co.uk
