CONGREGATION, a new large-scale installation by artist Es Devlin opens at St Mary le Strand
CONGREGATION, a new large-scale installation by artist Es Devlin, opens at St Mary le Strand from 3– 9 October 2024.
Curated by Ekow Eshun, CONGREGATION has been created in partnership with UK for UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and developed in collaboration with King’s College London and The Courtauld.
Over the past four months, Es Devlin has been making large scale chalk and charcoal portraits of 50 Londoners who have experienced forced displacement from their homelands. The drawings will be presented as a monumental projection-mapped tiered structure within the 18th century church of St Mary le Strand adjacent to The Courtauld and Somerset House.
Devlin’s approach to making the portraits is rooted in her research within The Courtauld’s collection of 500 years of portraiture from Albrecht Dürer to Frank Auerbach, and a visit to Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery.
Each portrait sitter is a co-author of the work. Each is depicted holding a box containing a projected animated sequence which they have envisaged. The co-authors constitute a vibrant London congregation whose roots extend across the globe. All 50 voices are included in an accompanying sound sequence composed by Polyphonia. The projected film sequence has been created in close collaboration with film director Ruth Hogben, Treatment Studio and choreographer Botis Seva.
Es Devlin and curator Ekow Eshun are also responding to their research into The Courtauld’s origins, established by a Huguenot refugee, and the origins of King’s College London as a Sanctuary university which continues to provide bursaries to refugees, as well as the Strand’s history more broadly as an ancient processional route from east to west, a foundational migratory artery of the city since AD93.
The sculptural collective portrait will be accompanied by choral music performed outside the church, within the surrounding pedestrianised area of the Strand, at 7pm each evening from Thursday 3 October until Wednesday 9 October (excluding 7th October) to coincide with Frieze London.
The Courtauld has produced a book about the project, an edition of 50 prints and a series of 50 folded postcard portraits in support of UK for UNHCR – available to purchase from The Courtauld Shop – https://shop.courtauld.ac.uk/collections/es-devlin-congregation
CONGREGRATION is free and open to the public daily from 10am – 6pm.
Book your tickets now – https://www.unrefugees.org.uk/esdevlin-congregation/
