Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties

St Martin-in-the-Fields, together with the Chinese Speaking Congregations of St Martin's, is organising an occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art.

The fourth lecture in this series will be on ‘Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties’ and will be given by Yi Chen on Thursday 6 June 2019, 6.30pm in St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields. This will be an illustrated talk (in English). Yi Chen is Curator: Early Chinese Collections at the British Museum.

The talk will be held in St Martin's Hall, within the Crypt of St Martin's, and will begin at 6.30pm for one hour. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association and Community Centre.

All are very welcome – for further information contact Jonathan Evens – t: 020 7766 1127, e: jonathan.evens@smitf.org. There will be a retiring collection for St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Tickets for the event are free by registering at the Eventbrite page for this talk: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pots-and-thrones-ritual-bronze-vessels-of-the-shang-and-zhou-dynasties-tickets-60604042322.

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Kitaro - Mercury.

Silks from Imperial China: Ming & Qing dynasty costumes & textiles 1368-1911

Silks from Imperial China: Ming & Qing dynasty costumes & textiles 1368-1911
Monday 15 January 2018 6.30pm - St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields, together with the Chinese Speaking Congregations of St Martin's, is organising an occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art.

The first lecture in this series will be on Chinese Textiles and will be given by Jacqueline Simcox on Monday 15 January 2018. Jacqueline will talk about some of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) textiles and some of the imperial costumes and festivals and show how they changed when the Machu from the north took over the country from 1644-1911 (Qing dynasty).

Jacqueline Simcox has written numerous articles on Chinese textiles, catalogued private collections and contributed essays to museum exhibition catalogues, such as ‘Celestial Silks’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, in 2004. More recently she has co-authored, with John Vollmer, a book on the imperial Chinese textiles in the Mactaggart Art Collection, University of Alberta, in Canada. ‘Emblems of Empire’was published in 2010.

The talk will be held in St Martin's Hall, within the Crypt of St Martin's, and will begin at 6.30pm for one hour. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association and Community Centre.

Sponsored by Bonhams Chinese Department.

All are very welcome – register on Eventbrite or contact Jonathan Evens – t: 020 7766 1127, e: jonathan.evens@smitf.org.

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Joshua Band - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail).

Light the Well installation

‘Thirty Enterprising Years’ is the theme for celebrating our patronal festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields this year. The service on Sunday 12 November starts at 5.00pm and is followed by the unveiling of the plaque for Canon Geoffrey Brown at 6.00pm and party in the Crypt until 9.00pm (£5 tickets
available from the Vergers and Parish Office). The lantern installation (Light the Well), that many people across St Martin’s have taken part in, will be in situ in the lightwell and there will be the opportunity to view this during the evening. All are welcome.

Artist Anna Sikorska, who has created Light the Well, our community art project writes:

'This installation to be set in the Light Well from 11 – 17 November has been made by the hands of people at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Individuals from across our shared life - Church congregation, Chinese community, clergy, staff, clients from the Connection and members of our International Group - have, over some time, gathered together over tables of clay and carefully formed the pieces which fill the Light Well.

Each porcelain ‘lantern’ is filled with light from a simple string of lamps. They will sit together in-situ for one week, during which we celebrate the Feast of St. Martin and also the 30th anniversary of the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Centre.

Conversations around the tables touched on “cracked pots”, Jesus’ story of searching for the 100th sheep, the continental tradition of “St Martin’s day” paper lanterns, networks of sea buoys, St Paul describing light inside clay vessels, faces, the fragility of our lives and bodies, “broken but not crushed”, and Leonard Cohen: “Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in.”

From the 17th November you are invited to be part of changing the gathered constellation into an expanded field, dispersing the pots/lanterns amongst our community and beyond. You will be able to buy a piece to take away and light a small candle inside. Proceeds to the New Art Studio and Art Refuge UK, both charities working with art therapy in the context of migration and displacement.

This installation has been the work of Anna Sikorska, Jonathan Evens, Katja Werne, Jim and Sarah Sikorski and everyone who accepted a lump of porcelain and gave it a form. Thank you.'

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Leonard Cohen - Anthem.