... to attempt to cram the work of more than 30 artists into such a relatively small space as the Walcot Chapel. But instinct told me that the work  submitted via an open call was diverse enough -and the chapel was flexible enough- to make this a feasible enterprise. After all, this was never going to be a white cube sort of show but something much more intimate and personal.

 

As the works arrived into the space I started to realise that this exhibition was going to be more a series of quiet conversations than a set of big, expressive statements. And I was further helped in my exercise in compression by the fact that several of the artists were performers, who only entered the space temporarily or concentrated their presentations on the city streets and the surrounding graveyard.  

 

There was one artist involved in Love & Death who we never saw at all - although Catherine Phelps apparently had a very productive time engaging with the people of Bath, and visitors to the city, through her travelling shrine.

 

As for the rest, there were installations that were confrontational in several different ways, expressing grief or unalloyed reality, or provoking political discussion. There were a number of installations that offered visitors the opportunity to participate, and to communicate their most profound feelings of loss, despair and hope. Painters, photographers and sculptors brought a range of disparate but somehow complementary perspectives to the theme. And performers opened up the subject in similarly contrasting ways.

 

I expect any subsequent exhibitions and events to expand the project further.