The Bacchae: And In Their Companies Deep Wine-jars Stand, Forever and Anon.

Mixed media sculpture and digital video.

​Our House of Common Weeds

Verity Birt (London, UK), Fourthland (London, UK), Carl Gent (London, UK), Anna FC Smith (Wigan, UK), Andrea Williamson (Montreal, Canada). Curated by Nathalie Boobis

Res. London. 2017. New Bridge, Gateshead. 2019. 

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​The Bacchae are five singing sculptures, simultaneously ancient wine jars and contemporary disco balls inspired by the specific setting of The Bowling Green pub in Wigan and its regular karaoke nights. Developed with the regular patrons of the night and the pub’s landlady, Nancy Jones, who donated videos they had taken on their phones to the artist. The work posits overlooked spaces of celebration, intoxication and community within our present time as worthy contenders for speculative futures. The videos sit within the open mouths of the character jugs singing karaoke and engaging in jubilant revelry. The jugs are made from bright, glittering fabrics that evoke the costumes of party goers as well as referring to the maenads, female followers of wine cults in Ancient Greece often depicted on pottery, who wore animal skins around their shoulders on the occasion of their ecstatic full-moon ritual gatherings. They are lit by disco lights which cast their colour throughout the exhibition and produce an atmosphere synonymous with communal festivity and the Greek concept of kephi - the energy of joy and passion.​