Curating Contemporary Art (MA)
Hetian Guo
Screenshot 2020 07 01 at 12 13 01
Quincunx is an artist-led cross disciplinary research project in which artist Rachel Pimm has collaborated with four other practitioners across disciplines – Lilah Fowler who weaves, composer HP Parmley, poet Daisy Lafarge, and chef and designer Peiran Gong – on an exploration of medicinal plants, sounds and breathing.
Starting with the figure of the herbalist or apothecary, project considers the interconnection of art, medicine, and plants via the number five and the quincunx pattern. Quincunx is a set of five objects arranged so that four are at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth is at its centre – as the five on a dice – and is embodied in the motif of the lozenge from Thomas Browne’s 1658 text The Garden of Cyrus.
Originally planned as a project for some of the shared spaces of London Bridge, Covid-19 meant radically adapting to new conditions of communication, production, and site. In its current form the project stands as a Work-in-Progress. Audiences will be able to engage with research from the project – a positive series of exchanges between isolated individuals and a foundation for future work when possibilities emerge.
Starting with the figure of the herbalist or apothecary, project considers the interconnection of art, medicine, and plants via the number five and the quincunx pattern. Quincunx is a set of five objects arranged so that four are at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth is at its centre – as the five on a dice – and is embodied in the motif of the lozenge from Thomas Browne’s 1658 text The Garden of Cyrus.
Originally planned as a project for some of the shared spaces of London Bridge, Covid-19 meant radically adapting to new conditions of communication, production, and site. In its current form the project stands as a Work-in-Progress. Audiences will be able to engage with research from the project – a positive series of exchanges between isolated individuals and a foundation for future work when possibilities emerge.