Future Ancestors COOP tutor Rory Pilgrim writes us: "Dear Friends ~ I hope you are all well as Autumn comes to the north and Spring to the south. I am happy to share the opening of my exhibition this Saturday, 29thOctober 2022: RAFTS, andriesse-eyck galerie, Amsterdam. From 29thOctober - 17thDecember. Travelling from Serpentine Gallery, London the exhibition will show my most recent film and series of paintings, drawings and objects, featuring work also by those I was lucky to work with over the last 2 years to create the film. Furthermore I am also happy to share a special one-off concert in London of RAFTS: Live......." (read more)
Cadogan Hall, London Saturday 26thNovember, 7:30pm.
Narrated by Hugh, Carina, Liam, Butterfly, Katy, Dee, Mark and Eddie from Greenshoes Arts,
this special concert will bring together poetry, stories and animation that share stories of support in our everyday lives and what the symbol of a raft means to them.
Interweaving around a 7 song oratorio, the concert will also bring together singers Robyn Haddon (Sheffield, UK), Declan Rowe John (Boise, Idaho) and Kayden Fearon (London, UK) accompanied by Choir and the London Contemporary Orchestra.
More information can be found in the email and tickets can be booked on:
It would be lovely to see anyone who can make it to Amsterdam or London
Rory
x"
rory pilgrim
RAFTS
andriesse ~ eyck gallery, Amsterdam
29 October - 17 December 2022
opening: Saturday 29 October 5-7 pm
In moments of change and transition, what supports us and keeps us afloat? A raft is the simplest and most fragile vehicle of survival on open water. Ancient as human language, rafts are still needed during urgent crossings. From the Abrahamic story of Noah’s Arc to the idea of Earth as a lonely life raft floating in space, the symbol of a raft has often represented the ultimate preserver of life.
andriesse ~ eyck gallery is proud to present Rory Pilgrim’s new film RAFTS (2022). Developed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, RAFTS is an ode to human courage and resilience in times of crises. At the heart of RAFTS is a concert broadcast that interweaves stories, poetry, and reflections, narrated by the voices of Hugh, Carina, Liam, Butterfly, Katy, Dee, Mark, and Eddie, who are residents of the London Borough Barking & Dagenham and members of the Green Shoes Arts community. Each in their own way, they reflect on what the symbol of a raft means to them and what supports them in everyday live.
The personal and intimate reflections bring poetry, stories and animation that interweave around a seven-song oratorio that makes connections between work, mental health, home, recovery, and our environment. RAFTS is inspired by the original BBC’s Radio Ballads from the late 1950s and early 1960s, a series of ground-breaking radio documentaries weaving the voices of rarely heard communities with songs written from and about the recorded experiences of the interviewees. With RAFTS, Pilgrim has co-created a stage with some of the ‘greatest minds and biggest hearts in London’ that take you on a journey to contemplate what ‘rafts’ could be needed to navigate the future in times of change and uncertainty.
Alongside the film, we will furthermore be showing a series of new drawings and paintings by Rory Pilgrim, as well as some artworks made by Eddie Paggett and Mark Jones, two of the participants in RAFTS. Using drawing and painting as a form of visioning, the exhibition gives insight into Pilgrim’s personal iconography to develop a rich series of metaphorical anchors. With the recurring motif of a purse passing between generations, the falling of rain and the earth enabled rest, Pilgrim invites us to reflect on the ultimate preservers of life that carry us all.
The personal and intimate reflections bring poetry, stories and animation that interweave around a seven-song oratorio that makes connections between work, mental health, home, recovery, and our environment. RAFTS is inspired by the original BBC’s Radio Ballads from the late 1950s and early 1960s, a series of ground-breaking radio documentaries weaving the voices of rarely heard communities with songs written from and about the recorded experiences of the interviewees. With RAFTS, Pilgrim has co-created a stage with some of the ‘greatest minds and biggest hearts in London’ that take you on a journey to contemplate what ‘rafts’ could be needed to navigate the future in times of change and uncertainty.
Alongside the film, we will furthermore be showing a series of new drawings and paintings by Rory Pilgrim, as well as some artworks made by Eddie Paggett and Mark Jones, two of the participants in RAFTS. Using drawing and painting as a form of visioning, the exhibition gives insight into Pilgrim’s personal iconography to develop a rich series of metaphorical anchors. With the recurring motif of a purse passing between generations, the falling of rain and the earth enabled rest, Pilgrim invites us to reflect on the ultimate preservers of life that carry us all.
RAFTS was commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery in London, as part of their programme Radio Ballads (Serpentine North, March – May 2022). Music and lyrics are composed by Rory Pilgrim in collaboration with singers Declan Row John, Robyn Haddon and Kayden Fearon, and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra.
On the occasion of this exhibition, andriesse ~ eyck gallery is also presenting Rory Pilgrim’s new catalogue Tomorrow in Your Hands. Sharing work produced from 2008 to 2020, it includes sketchbooks, scores, song lyrics, and poetry, and explores connections between activism, spirituality, music, and the formation of community both behind and beyond our screens. It is published on the occasion of the exhibitions Where The Tide Takes Us, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany, and Radio Ballads, Serpentine Gallery, London.