THE POROUS line between dreaming and waking worlds is explored in a large-scale chapel installation at Compton Verney,
Speaking in Dreams kicks off a long-term collaboration between multi-disciplinary artist Yulia Mahr and the art gallery.
Elements from the natural world such as charcoal, taxidermy and ash will fill and challenge the pristine white interior of the chapel, offering a unique meditation on anxiety as a defining characteristic of our time.
Working across many disciplines, from lens-based work to sculpture and installation, Hungarian-born British artist Mahr has constantly embraced innovative and experimental creative processes.
Her work has been exhibited and performed around the world.
Her work employs chiaroscuro, monochromatic tones and still-life compositions, and engages with natural beauty as well as her own personal history of geographical displacement.
Now, she will embark upon a deep and personal body of work inspired by and in response to Compton Verney and its 120 acres of art and nature. And choosing the chapel for her first intervention allows Mahr to continue her fascination with spirituality, religion and ritual.
The chapel is a rare entry in the architectural designs of Lancelot “Capability” Brown, the only place of worship he worked on. Brown was tasked with replacing a demolished medieval church in the 1770s and the Palladian-style chapel on the slope to the north of the house is the result.
Inside are carved tombs of Verney family members as well as several brasses, and at one point German Renaissance glass panels decorated the interior but these were sold in the 1920s.
Following restoration work in the last few decades, the chapel was structurally secured and repaired, and Brown’s original interior is still close to how it was three-hundred years ago.
A key element of the work relates to the presence of crows on the site. Crows are prevalent in British and European folklore as mediators between the worlds of the living and the dead, signalling omens and prophecy. Through this installation Mahr creates windows between the worlds that question our modern understanding of society and of the role of the crow within it.
Mahr said: “I was born in an era and in a culture where dreams and folklore were still relevant. Hungary has one of the most symbolically rich and spiritually ambivalent folk traditions in Europe, where dreamworlds are saturated with longing, threat and metamorphosis.
“Actually, throughout my whole childhood – but especially after my mother and I moved to the UK – I lived more in a dream world than the real world. I became semi mute for a couple of years, my dream world becoming a tool of self-preservation that allowed me to navigate a national and linguistic change that I found so utterly overwhelming and alienating. Crows – which appear in my piece – symbolise warning almost universally across folklore traditions. Their urgent call couldn’t be louder.”
Speaking in Dreams runs at Compton Verney Art Gallery from October 8 until November 2.
