Stations2017: Stations of the Cross & Stations of the Resurrection

Stations of the Cross brought together fourteen video works by Mark Dean that reinterpreted the medieval tradition of spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of the path Jesus walked to Calvary on the day of his crucifixion. The videos are not literal depictions of this journey. They rely upon Dean’s trademark appropriation of film and video footage and music, to introduce visual and aural puns that generate and interrogate meaning within the work, setting up disputations between the different elements being sampled. Although the work is carefully constructed, the reverberations created by placing potent symbols side by side are myriad. The work was projected in sequence onto the circular Henry Moore altar at St Stephen Walbrook throughout the night on Easter Eve, interspersed with readings and space for meditation. Participants were invited to stay for the duration but remained free to come and go, as part of a vigil culminating in a performance of A Prelude to Being Here by two dancers from Lizzi Kew Ross & Co and an optional dawn Eucharist. 

If you would like to view these video works, they are now online at: http://tailbiter.com/art/stations-of-the-cross together with the catalogue essay and the readings used during the Vigil.

Here Comes The Sony is a twelve-screen video and sound work, installed for the first time under the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral during Eastertide (Wednesday 26 April). It reinterprets the less definitive tradition of the Stations of the Resurrection, which emerged to encourage meditation on the resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in the New Testament. Being Here, devised by choreographer Lizzi Kew Ross and the dancers, is performed on the stage formed by the circular placement of television monitors under the dome. Five dancers emerge from the shadows around the edge of the stage and start to navigate the space, sometimes individually and sometimes in groups of far-off and nervous proximity. The on-lookers find themselves within the action of these movements. While not enacting the narratives, the dance performance is an interpretation of the moment, producing a sense of a shared journey and progression through time and space and enabling the audience to curate the tension and distance between the installation and their own responses.

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Planxty - As I Roved Out.