Bat, Moon, Womb by Tump
25th - 28th April 2024
The Old Music Centre, 49 London Road, GL5 2AD
Over yonder
Over mound and moon
Lead me to death
Where I am born
- Automatic writing by Milligan Beaumont
Sacred Thing is thrilled to present Bat, Moon, Womb, the debut exhibition by Tump.
Tump was founded by artists Alex Merry, Flora Wallace and Milligan Beaumont, as a means of connection with the local landscape and of playful inquiry into the enigmatic megaliths of Gloucestershire and the South West. Bat, Moon, Womb is the first in a series of exhibitions and happenings to be organised by the group.
The exhibition’s starting point is Hetty Pegler’s Tump, a Neolithic chambered burial mound in Uley, near Stroud. The artists have spent time inside the long barrow, creating automatic drawings and writings (a technique developed by the Surrealists in the 1920s as a way of tapping into one’s repressed psyche), assimilating its environment and carrying out a sensory archaeology through a combination of intuition, soil samples and field recordings. It is accepted that the tump was used as a place for burial, but we will never know the full extent of its significance. It is this unknowing that Tump have found to be fertile with inspiration, imagining histories and reconsidering their own connections to life, death and the land.
Bat, Moon, Womb is an expansive multi-media exhibition that probes and playfully reimagines how the tump may have been used, not only by those who constructed it more than 5,000 years ago but also by other human and non-human beings in the many succeeding years.
The title of the exhibition is taken from an observation made during the artists’ first visit to the tump that felt significant as a triad of interconnected symbols. Upon entering the tump, the artists were met with a sleeping bat, a creature that in many cultures is seen as a messenger from the spirit world for its ability to sense what it can’t see. In shamanism it is symbolic of death and life, endings and beginnings. The moon is widely recognised as a symbol of femininity and the embodiment of life cycles. It is intrinsically and mysteriously connected to the female reproductive system and there is even anecdotal evidence to suggest that more births occur during a full moon than other phases of the lunar cycle. In mythological lore, long barrows hold a special significance as gateways to the domain of the goddess, their entrances are interpreted as symbolic representations of the goddess's vagina, with the interior likened to her womb.
Alex Merry is an illustrator, portrait painter and folk artist. Her work ranges from intricately painted pet portraits to large scale folk creatures and masks. As a founding member of Boss Morris, she breathes new life into ancient customs, reinvents rituals and has carved a unique niche for herself in the world of morris dancing. Her art conjures dream-like worlds of fantasy and magic, drawing from her deep connection to folk traditions and family creativity. Alex’s clients including Gucci, Shirley Collins, Bridget Christie, Sam Lee and with Boss Morris she has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival and the Brit Awards.
Flora Wallace is a ceramic artist, ink maker and illustrator. Much of her work is inspired by observing natural forms and the behaviour of plants, animals and fungi. She creates a variety of ceramics using porcelain, raku and clays that she gathers from the area around her home in Gloucestershire. She experiments with the materialities of places through her work by transforming seasons and moments in time into inks, pigments and glazes. She also uses automatic drawing, writing and dream analysis to explore the relationship between the subconscious and creativity. Flora regularly collaborates with musician Cosmo Sheldrake and together they make music as Don’t.
Milligan Beaumont is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and stylist. Her work is inspired by ancient cultures, contemporary subcultures and a love of tiny creatures. Working across a broad variety of mediums, from hand embroidery to sculpture, she tells stories of imagined characters and personal experience. Milligan is known for her maximalist and highly embellished style that permeates every medium she turns her hand to. Milligan’s work has been worn by the likes of Grayson Perry, Helena Bonham Carter and Lulu Guinness. Her entire graduate exhibition was acquired by Christina Aguilera and worn throughout her 2019 stadium tour. Milligan’s work is exhibited in Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, the blockbuster touring exhibition that launched in 2020 at London’s V&A Museum and continues to tour to museums around the world.
