Performance commission by Oreet Ashery featuring Woolf, Leah Borromeo, Owen Glyndrwr Parry, Edd Hobbs, Alice MacKenzie and The Emancipated, and The Un/Clean

Swedenborg House, 2014
Curated with Jaime Davis

Part catwalk, part punk-rock concert, part emancipated choreography, the event moves between threads of poetic resistance, musical declarations, and a foil of chaotic revelry. Historical moments summoned from humble materials of the great hall will be regenerated, as the evening culminates with an auction of the Swedenborg Carpet.

Ashery’s expansive body of work often confronts ideological, social and historical constructions within the fabric of personal and broader contemporary realities. This new work weaves together ideas the artist has been exploring since the beginning of the century. Guests had a chance to bid on and own a piece of this legendary collection, in exchange for incremental measures of freedom.