House of Mercy Project exhibition 2023

Aim

The House of Mercy project is an international arts project created during lockdown. Please help us raise funding for its exhibition

The House of Mercy Project has its origins in the first lockdown period when musician/photographer Phil Curry and artist/singer Jeannie Clarke recorded their debut album at their kitchen table and released it online. One of the songs they recorded was House of Mercy, a powerful song written by Grammy-winning bluegrass and roots musician Sarah Jarosz.

The idea then emerged to invite six dancers from Spain, France, India, Romania and the UK to devise a dance piece to the House of Mercy song. The principal intention was to explore how artists can stay creative despite being isolated with the limited  space and resources

The six dancers videoed their dance in their home location, using the space and the light available and sent it to Phil who made stills photographs and to Jeannie who used screenshots as inspiration for paintings of the dancers.  As the project progressed over the Lockdown periods it went through a number of iterations as we discussed developments to the dance with the dancers via FaceTime and Zoom meetings.

We now have over 40 artworks and hundreds of photographs. Phil has also recorded interviews with the dancers where they describe how they personally dealt with the isolation of lockdown and how they developed their dance. The result is a 15-minute documentary, edited by Can Aksoy, with additional music by Phil.

All of this was done online and apart from one, we have still never physically met our talented dancers!

We now have our exhibition space in Margate, but still need funding for important elements such as extra framing, PR material, AV resources etc. We believe that as well as its creative power, our project has social relevance as it documents an extraordinary period not only for creatives but for society as a whole.

So, please help us raise £5,000 to help us realise our exhibition.

The dancers and where they danced - and a bit of the story

Note on photography: Photographing dancers from a computer screen isn't easy and some of the videos they sent us weren't of a particularly good quality due to lack of natural light. A a result, I took som creative decisions and manipulated some to give a more dramatic effect.

This didn't matter so much with Jeannie's paintings and she would often prefer a poor shot for its movement or position.

Rut Nache is Spanish. We met her via an online workshop that we were invited t participate in as artist and photographer. Jeannie subsequently painted her from one of my photographs and when we came to develop House of Mercy, she was one of the first dancers we asked. When the pandemic struck, she went home to Spain and during the hiatus between lockdowns was lucky enough to dance on the beach and actually in the sea near her home in Tarragona.

Erin Pollitt is English and from Manchester. We met her via a dance workshop we participated in as artist and photographer. Like Rut, Jeannie painted her from one of my photographs. We subsequently worked on another pre-pandemic project with her, so she was also one of the first we asked. She danced in her sitting room.

Corina Andrian is Romanian but lives in London. She is a dancer and film director. We encountered her at a Ballet Rambert Playground workshop but contacted her following a Rambert online workshop at the beginning of the pandemic where she was doing a session about dancing in an armchair. Corina danced early one morning down by the Thames near Greenwich. 

Pranali Kalkar from India. Pranali was doing a session on Indian classical (Kathak) dance. I love the way Kathak dancers use so much drama in their dance, so I asked her if I could photograph her online in a traditional costume. She agreed and we did a session on the roof of her father's office near Mumbai. When we asked her to be part of House of Mercy, she danced in her living room with all the furniture removed! She also showed us her vegetable garden growing in pots on the balcony.

Marine Tournet is from France but lives in Cardiff and dances with National Dance Company Wales. We saw her at a workshop session at the Royal Opera House. We visited NDC Wales to deliver a large painting Jeannie had done of one of their dancers. Marine wasn't there at the time but we wrote to her at the beginning of the project and she agreed to take part. She danced in her sitting room in Cardiff.

Cat Lawther is English and was studying at Trinity Laban with Rut Nache. Rut put us in touch with Cat and she also agreed to be part of House of Mercy. She managed to get home for the pandemic and danced in her bedroom with the mattress up! 

Some of Jeannie's sketches and paintings

Cat - watercolour sketch          Rut - watercolour sketch

Corina - pencil sketch               Erin - watercolour sketch

Marine - oil on board                       Erin - oil on board

                                             Pranali - large canvas, oil.

                                          Marine - large canvas, oil

So, what's in it for you? Depending on the donation:

Signed photographs from the exhibition, boxed sets of photographs, Fine Art prints of Jeannie' paintings, the opportunity to own one of Jeannie's large canvases, have your own portrait painted by Jeannie, if you're a musician or singer, a session in 7:28 Studios. And other goodies tba.

Paintings of Cat (L) and Rut (R) by Jeannie Clarke, photographs of Pranali (L) and Corina (R) by Phil Curry.

All music by Phil Curry & Jeannie Clarke.

Promotional video edited by Can Aksoy.

See Can's personal response to the project brief here.

This project successfully funded on 15th November 2022