Sriwhana Spong is represented in New Zealand by Michael Lett, and currently lives and works in London, following her residency at Gasworks in 2016.
As part of the annual Edinburgh Art Festival Commissions Programme, Sriwhana Spong's new film castle-crystal is featured alongside new projects by Nathan Coley, Alfredo Jaar, Rosalind Nashashibi and Corin Sworn at sites across the city, exploring Stories for an Uncertain World.
Spong is interested in the relationship between the body and language. castle-crystal begins with the writings of the 16th century mystic St Teresa of Avila (the subject of feminist Julia Kristeva’s novel Teresa: My Love), whose book The Interior Castle imagines a castle-crystal, a fictional space that gives Teresa the courage to write. Spong is interested in how Teresa’s imaginary castle creates a free space for the imagination and discourse, and offers an image of a vast interiority, a space in which women can authorise their own speaking.
The idea of text as architecture or architecture as text, is further explored in relation to a 12th century Javanese poem, the `Bhomāntaka, alongside the personal tale of a family bathroom. The film traces these intimate dwellings to consider fictional spaces as important sites for sparking visions of possible futures and future bodies.
Spong’s new work is accompanied by a special display of sculptures in the intimate neo-classical architecture of St. Bernard’s Well.
Commissioned with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Supported by the PLACE Programme, a partnership between Edinburgh Festivals, Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and Creative Scotland. With additional support from Creative New Zealand, Institut Français d’Ecosse and Museums & Galleries Edinburgh.
Opening Hours
- Daily, 10am–5pm
Address
- Institut Français d’Ecosse
- West Parliament Square
- Edinburgh, EH1 1RF
Sriwhana Spong is represented in New Zealand by Michael Lett, and currently lives and works in London, following her residency at Gasworks in 2016.
As part of the annual Edinburgh Art Festival Commissions Programme, Sriwhana Spong's new film castle-crystal is featured alongside new projects by Nathan Coley, Alfredo Jaar, Rosalind Nashashibi and Corin Sworn at sites across the city, exploring Stories for an Uncertain World.
Spong is interested in the relationship between the body and language. castle-crystal begins with the writings of the 16th century mystic St Teresa of Avila (the subject of feminist Julia Kristeva’s novel Teresa: My Love), whose book The Interior Castle imagines a castle-crystal, a fictional space that gives Teresa the courage to write. Spong is interested in how Teresa’s imaginary castle creates a free space for the imagination and discourse, and offers an image of a vast interiority, a space in which women can authorise their own speaking.
The idea of text as architecture or architecture as text, is further explored in relation to a 12th century Javanese poem, the `Bhomāntaka, alongside the personal tale of a family bathroom. The film traces these intimate dwellings to consider fictional spaces as important sites for sparking visions of possible futures and future bodies.
Spong’s new work is accompanied by a special display of sculptures in the intimate neo-classical architecture of St. Bernard’s Well.
Commissioned with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Supported by the PLACE Programme, a partnership between Edinburgh Festivals, Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and Creative Scotland. With additional support from Creative New Zealand, Institut Français d’Ecosse and Museums & Galleries Edinburgh.