Ten steps to heaven
Chell, Edward (2010) Ten steps to heaven. [Exhibition/show, Installation, Site-specific work]
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Ten Steps to Heaven formed part of Fourteen Artists' Interventions, an exhibition held to mark the Swedenborg Society’s bicentennial celebration – a series of events including publications, lectures and presentations by writers including Simon Armitage, Iain Sinclair and A.S. Byatt. My contribution was a stair rail designed to have specific resonance to the site. Created for the bicentenary year, during which visitors encountered it as they moved through the building, my installation is now permanently in place and has been experienced by a diverse audience visiting the society for a wide range of reasons, visitors who may not normally engage with the visual arts.
The installation plays on ideas about seeing and knowledge, particularly the notion of spiritual vision and illumination coming out of a period of metaphorical darkness. The handrail charts a physical journey through the architectural space of the building but also embodies the metaphor of spiritual descent and ascent described in St John of the Cross' poem, 'The Dark Night of the Soul' and explored by Emanuel Swedenborg. This project enabled me to build on and develop my research about peripheries and margins, by embodying a text in an architectural space. As with the motorway verge or car park, the stairwell is a functional, overlooked but crucial space through which we pass en route to other seemingly more significant destinations. This site-specific intervention developed and opened up exciting future possibilities in terms of situating my work within a wider range of locations. It was accompanied by an artist's book, containing visual representations of the work and its setting and an artist's conversation with writer Amy Halliday reflecting on the project's development.
This was the first art exhibition to be held at the Swedenborg Society and was strongly publicised. It ran from February 25th to March 5th 2010. A series of symposia and talks coincided with the exhibition.
The exhibition "Fourteen Interventions" was an exhibition of photography, performance, film and site responsive artworks curated by Stephen McNeilly in celebration of the Swedenborg Society's 200th Anniversary.
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