Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
[enlarge]
Kathleen Herbert, ‘Stable’, installation view in Gloucester Cathedral, super 16mm film, 2007.
Courtesy: the Artist.
Gloucester Cathedral
2-28 May
Reviewed by: David Trigg
Kathleen Herbert’s new film Stable was produced during her residency at Gloucester Cathedral. Its genesis lies in a throwaway comment made by one of the cathedral’s tour guides who mentioned that horses were once kept there. After further research Herbert discovered that during the English civil war Lord Levan’s army kept their horses inside the cathedral as a bold and defiant gesture against the Royalist cause. For Stable, Herbert brought horses back into the space and filmed them roaming around the ancient architecture. However, the film was not intended as an historical re-enactment; rather, by introducing something incongruous into the cathedral, Herbert wanted to encourage a contemporary questioning of the space.
The horses in Stable seem ambivalent towards their environment. At one point we see them licking the cold stone floor as if searching for grass. They become restless, two wander away. The remaining horse is suddenly spooked and bolts, its hooves create a thunderous clatter that echoes throughout the vast space. For many people, their experience of the cathedral will resonate with that of the horses: “How should I behave here? Do I belong here?” In some ways this also parallels the experience that some have upon encountering contemporary art, especially outside the gallery context; indeed, whilst I was watching the film several people peered in but seemed unable to connect with it and, like the horses, wandered off restlessly.
Perhaps for those visitors the presence of contemporary art in the cathedral may be as much an intrusion as the horses. During the Puritan period, which Stable evokes, iconoclasm was rife and the art in many churches and cathedrals was wantonly vandalised; Gloucester Cathedral still bears the scars of that tumultuous time. Thankfully, art was not banished forever from the church, and it is to the Cathedral’s credit that it is willing to host residencies such as this and support the creation of new work as rich and poetic as Stable.
Writer detail:
David Trigg is an artist based in Bristol.
Venue detail:
Gloucester Cathedral
, Gloucester
No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?
To post a comment you need to login
Back to top