Artistic responses to St Stephen Walbrook

Within our new website for St Stephen Walbrook we are collecting a series of artistic responses to this Wren masterpiece which is complemented by the modern art of Henry Moore and Patrick Heron. These can all be found in the Gallery section of the site.

Paul Raftery and Dan Lowe's time-lapse video of St Stephen Walbrook is filmed in black and white and is a meditative piece that explores the tranquil, domed space with its sculptural altar by Henry Moore. It was shot over three days using timelapse footage captured on DSLR cameras and incorporating motion control, with a bespoke soundtrack by George McLeod. The film received its premiere at Anise Gallery in an exhibition of photography and film based on themes found in the Sacred Geometries. The film encompasses the three aspects of Sacred Geometries seamlessly - mathematics, nature and spirituality.

Daniel Bourke is undertaking a digital residency with St Stephen Walbrook re-creating the building as a virtual environment. He has made an initial video as one of his initial imaginative responses to the space. His work can be viewed at http://danielbourke.com/.

Quintetta at St Stephen Walbrook Church is a drawing made by Trevor Mill while listening to the fantastic brass quintet during a magic lunchtime at St Stephen Walbrook.

In the context of our recent Crucifixions: Francis Bacon exhibition, Rupert Loydell read poetry inspired by the work of Francis Bacon and also by the annunciation. The experience inspired him to write a prose poem 'Faint Echoes' based on that event, which also included a lecture on 'The crucifixion in modern art'.

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Belle & Sebastian - I Want The World To Stop.

St Stephen Walbrook: New website

St Stephen Walbrook has a tremendous new website which can be found at https://ststephenwalbrook.net/. On the site you will find details of our regular weekly services and upcoming events, live sermons as well as many articles about the rich history, heritage and features of this unique church, described by Sir John Summerson as ‘the pride of English architecture’.

The Events calendar on the site is powered by Churchapp which enables you to create a MyChurch account providing on-the-go access to our calendar and other useful information such as rotas. Churchapp also enables our online giving facility.

We have included on the homepage this prayer, written by Bishop Thomas Ken, which is at one time thought to have been inscribed on the door of St Stephen Walbrook: “O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship, narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and strife. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling-block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the tempter’s power. God make the door of this house the gateway to Thine eternal kingdom.”

As part of our commitment to cultural programming, the site also includes two artist's perspectives on the interior of St Stephen Walbrook. Paul Raftery and Dan Lowe's time-lapse video of the church was recently premiered in the Sacred Geometries exhibition at the Anise Gallery. Daniel Bourke is undertaking a digital residency with St Stephen Walbrook re-creating the building as a virtual environment. His video on the website is one of his initial imaginative responses to the space.

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Daniel Bourke - St Stephen's.

Sacred Geometries and Circling the Square

St Stephen Walbrook features in two exhibitions during March. Sacred Geometries at Anise Gallery features the first time screening of Paul Raftery and Dan Lowe's latest film of St Stephen Walbrook, while, for Circling the Square, we have loaned our architectural model of St Stephen Walbrook to a RIBA exhibition exploring Mies van der Rohe's unrealised Mansion House Square project, alongside its built successor James Stirling Michael Wilford & Associates' No. 1 Poultry.

Inspired by trends in contemporary photography and the diverse writings of Plato, author Robert Lawlor and architectural historian Peg Rawes, Anise Gallery is marking its fifth birthday with an exhibition of photography based on themes found in the sacred geometries.

Geometry in aesthetics are unavoidable when traversing through the city, whether this is in grand scale such as skyscraper architecture, to the tiny backs of ladybirds. Intricate design can be located in both complex, constructed design patterns and in the minute details in nature. Aesthetics and mathematics come together in geometry, and have done since ancient Egypt, where geometrics were viewed as a visual manifestation of law and order. Later in ancient Greece, they had sacred and scientific properties in helping to solve earthly mysteries.

Through the curation of an exhibition of film from Paul Raftery and Dan Lowe, and photography by Dennis Gilbert, Doublespace, Fernando Guerra, Hélène Binet, Hufton and Crow and Jim Stephenson, Anise Gallery hope to inspire and instigate a conversation surrounding Sacred Geometries (9 March - 15 April). In collaboration with Miniclick an evening of short talks and discussion will take place on 6 April 2017.

Mies Van Der Rohe and James Stirling: Circling the Square is at The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from March 8 – June 25 2017. The exhibition is open Monday - Sunday 10am to 5pm and Tuesdays 10am to 8pm.

The exhibition sees the projects presented together for the first time, offering a unique opportunity to trace the continuity in purpose and approach that unites two seemingly dissimilar architectural creations.

Commissioned by architectural patron and developer Lord Peter Palumbo, Mies van der Rohe designed his proposal for Mansion House Square at the very end of his career, between 1962 and his death in 1969. After a protracted planning process, the scheme was finally rejected in 1985. Lord Palumbo then approached James Stirling, to conceive an alternative vision for the site. James Stirling, Michael Wilford & Associates' No. 1 Poultry was completed in 1997, two years after Stirling’s untimely death. It is often cited as a masterpiece of the post-international style and has recently been awarded Grade II* listed status; while it still divides opinion, the building was designed with an acute understanding of both its historic surroundings and Mies's earlier design.

The exhibition features newly restored models and materials about the Mies' scheme on loan to the RIBA by Lord Palumbo, along with significant items from the No. 1 Poultry archive.

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Pierce Pettis - Gravity & Grace.