Nocturnal Creatures 2019

Saturday 20 July 2019

6pm until Late

For the second consecutive year, Sculpture in the City was an associate programme partner for the Whitechapel Gallery's free festival, celebrating the East End's vibrant arts scene with installations, moving image works and performances.

For one night only, special guests and select artists from Sculpture in the City 9th Edition activated the exhibition and brought to life at night the Square Mile with temporary activations, including dance and live art performances, workshops, participatory activities and sound installations. Guided tours accompanied the free evening of events.

Shaun C. Badham

Artwork: I'M STAYING, 2014
Event Title and Type: The will to proceed - participatory walking tour
Location: Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LT
7 to 8pm

To coincide with the artist's ongoing participatory artwork/project on view, the event asked visitors to determine the artworks they would see on his walking tour from Sculpture in the City 9th Edition. The artwork initially travelled around the city of Bristol for two-and-half years travelling via democratic vote. It arrived at Leadenhall Market in 2018 as part of Sculpture in the City 8th Edition and remained for another year for the 9th Edition.

In maintaining the democratic essence of the project, Shaun’s tour required participants to vote repeatedly to determine the group’s movements throughout the event. He started by describing two artworks to the group, while not revealing the artists name, title or medium. His description focused on the ideas behind the artworks and what feelings they instilled in him. The group then voted which sculpture they would visit. Once at the artwork, an informal conversation took place with the group about the artwork's meaning, truths and descriptive accuracy. The tour encompassed five artworks in total.

Clare Jarrett

Artwork: Sari Garden, 2018
Event Title and Type: The Fabric - Participatory performance
Location: Heneage Lane, London EC3A 5DQ
7 to 8pm

The audience was invited to join a participative performance by the artist, evoking the mundanity of daily tasks and burden of toil experienced by many women around the world.

Nina Saunders

Artwork: Abstract Mass, 2008
Event Title and Type: A Really Cosy Little Home – Performance
Location: Undershaft, London EC3P 3DQ
8 to 8.10pm & 9 to 9.10pm

Nina Saunders in collaboration with performer Salv Scarpa, music by Midori Komachi

During the performance, the performer became part of the furnishings of a rose-and-peony patterned upholstery to recall the feeling of settling down in a comfortable armchair or collapsing on the sofa after a long exhausting day.

Graeme Miller

Event Title and Type: On Air
Location: St Botolph’s without Aldgate, London EC3N 1AB
6pm to 1am

Graeme Miller’s On Air was a broadcast work, staged between an aerial vantage point and an audience at ground level. The landscape was translated into words by a team of commentators and relayed to the remote audience at St Botolph’s without Aldgate, where an act of faith between listeners and speakers ensues.

This event was commissioned for Nocturnal Creatures 2019.

Reza Aramesh

Artwork: Site of the Fall – Study of the Renaissance Garden: Action 180: At 9:15 am Sunday 28 May 1967, 2016
Event Title and Type: Scramble, 1967 – Dance performance
Location: Bury Court, London EC3A 8EX
8 to .30pm

Reza Aramesh in collaboration with Joshua Smith

The event connected two significant events that happened in 1967: Merce Cunningham's dance recital called ‘Scramble’, which explores the infinite possibilities of movement that the human body can possess, and Reza's artwork on view, which depicted a subjected body sourced from reportage images of the Vietnam war and referring to a particular event that took place at 9:15 am, Sunday 28th May, 1967.

Guillaume Vandame

Event Title and Type: Notice Me – LGBTQIA+ Walk
Departure point: Aldgate Square, Londn EC3N 1AF
8 to 10pm

Participants were invited to join the artist at a peaceful walk among LGBTQIA+ individuals of all ages and backgrounds, as well as queer allies seeking to support the cause of equality and free love. Participants were encouraged to dress in one of the seven colours – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink – and, together, form a rainbow.

This event was commissioned for Nocturnal Creatures 2019.

Marisa Ferrera

Artwork: Series Industrial Windows, 2018
Event Title and Type: Untitled – Public Talk
Location: Cullum Street, London EC3M 7JJ
7.30 to 8.30pm

Marisa Ferrera in conversation with Richard Wentworth
The two artists reflected on how we remember our cities through their buildings.

Leo Fitzmaurice

Artwork: Arcadia, 2019
Event Title and Type: Detourist - Walk and Talk
Departure point: Plaza outside Fenchurch St Station, EC3M 4AJ
6 to 7pm

Leo Fitzmaurice in conversation with Rebecca Morrill
The artist was joined by Rebecca Morrill of Phaidon Arts to wander the City streets along the sites of his exhibited artworks (in three locations).

Midori Komachi

Artwork: Full as Deep, 2019
Event Title and Type: Full as Deep – Solo violin performance
Location: Undershaft, London EC3A 6HX
6.30-6.50pm

The Singaporean musician performed her new sound piece, commissioned by Musicity x Sculpture in the City 9th Edition and inspired by the location of this performance. She also accompanied Nina Saunders’ performance.

This performance was part of the Musicity x Sculpture in the City 2019 new commission programme.

Mixmaster Morris

Artwork: Mixmaster Morris, Untitled, 2019 – inspired by 70 St Mary Axe, London EC3
Event Title and Type: Silent Disco - Participatory dance party
Location: Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LT
8pm, 9pm, 10pm

To celebrate a new soundwork by Mixmaster Morris, commissioned by Musicity x Sculpture in the City 9th Edition and inspired by 70 St Mary Axe, one of dance music’s most beloved DJs headlined a silent disco in the historic Leadenhall Market, near the renowned Lamb Tavern pub and Chamberlain’s.

This performance was part of the Musicity x Sculpture in the City 2019 new commission programme.