Seeking Utopia
Linen square - Original linen section
Panacea
Panacea explores the intersections of belief, ritual and materiality through a research-based, interdisciplinary practice. The work examines the Panacea Society, a women-led millenarian religious community that was based in my hometown of Bedford and remained active for nearly a century, until 2010. Central to their practice was a unique system of healing involving small squares of blessed linen.
Healing was achieved by the distribution of transcendent power on small pieces of linen, which when soaked in water provided a healing drink. The value of the blessed linen was promoted widely and distributed free to over 122,000 applicants from 102 countries. The linen squares were also carried for good financial as well as physical and spiritual health.
This project investigates the symbolism and materiality of these healing rituals, alongside the Society’s core tenets: the presence of the feminine within the divine, the belief in Britain as a chosen nation, and the role of spiritual healing in personal salvation. Through this lens, my work engages with broader questions surrounding Englishness, nationalism, and faith in a post-Brexit cultural landscape.
Protection Preparation I, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm
Protection Preparation II, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm
Protection Preparation III, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm
Protection Preparation installation, Intimacy Spills, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London, 2020
Panacea, 2019 - Installation, Postgraduate Interim Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London
Panacea, 2019 (detail) - Installation, Postgraduate Interim Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London
Royal Domain
In 1925 the society created a Royal Domain 12 miles radius centred on the campus in Bedford, by burying linen squares at the cardinal and inter cardinal points on the circumference. Each sector was visited on a different day when the linen was buried and recorded with a photograph.
Royal Domain - original Panacea Society map
How We Built Jerusalem
The Panacea Society published an official history written by Rachel Fox in four volumes (c. 1921, 1927, 1931, c.1934). The society had its own press and was prolific in publishing a wide range of literature.
Linen planting
October 1925
With thanks to the Panacea Society Museum archive, Bedford, for access to archival material
North 52°18’4.44”N 0°27’52.70”W
North East 52°14’58.01”N 0°16’2.80”W
East 52° 7’45.78”N 0°11’25.85”W
South East 52° 1’32.10”N 0°15’28.95”W
South 52°58’0.58”N 0°28’44.66”W
South West 52° 1’17.95”N 0°40’21.53”W
West 52° 8’10.14”N 0°44’43.65”W
North West 52°14’45.72”N 0°40’47.03”W
The Power Within, 2020.
Image created using a Carl Zeiss EVO 25 Scanning Electron Microscope.
With thanks to the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s Wolfson Archaeological Science Laboratories
Perplexity I, 2019
Blind embossed etching, 210mm x 297mm,
Edition of 25 + 3AP