Bring Into Being

Mariam Zulfiqar, the curator of an exhibition of art installations at Chiswick House, says it marks a new chapter for the English Heritage site

Zulfiqar talks to Studio International about this exhibition, which, she says, “marks a new chapter for this house,” while giving us “something to think about in terms of the future”.

Chiswick House in west London, an 18th-century Palladian villa with ornate rooms and Grade 1-listed gardens, is hosting a collection of site-specific works, curated by Mariam Zulfiqar, which explores the history of the property, the transient nature of experience and our collective future.

In the gardens, the Turner Prize-winner Mark Wallinger has created a sundial that uses the visitors’ shadows to tell the time and, in doing so, encourages us to contemplate our position in relation to the daily and yearly cycles of the Earth.

Mark Wallinger with his work British Summer Time, 2021, part of Bring Into Being, Chiswick House and Gardens, London, 2021. Photo: Martin Kennedy.

This work is accompanied by a black stone pillar that plays a familiar waltz as it emits a stream of bubbles. The austerity of the structure seems strangely at odds with its playful nature, but there is an important message at its core. The two works are titled British Summertime (2021) and serve as a reminder of the wonders of the outdoors and the fleeting nature of the moment.

Mark Wallinger, British Summer Time, 2021, part of Bring Into Being, Chiswick House and Gardens, London, 2021. Photo: Martin Kennedy.

Jaimini Patel’s transient work Matter As the Densest Form of Energy – Energy As the Lightest Form of Matter (2021) brings the garden inside, with an arrangement of pressed leaves taken from the grounds.

Jaimini Patel, Matter as the densest form of energy – energy as the lightest form of matter, 2021, part of Bring Into Being, Chiswick House and Gardens, London, 2021. Photo: Thierry Bal.

Created during winter and spring, this organic mosaic sits on the stone floor as a testament to the fragility of nature and our relationship with it. Later in the year, this work will be joined in the house by a second, created from organic material collected in spring and summer.

We Bear the Light of the Earth In Red, Green, Black and Brown (2021) is a work by the Ghanaian-British electronic musician and sound artist Peter Adjaye that spans four rooms of Chiswick House.

Peter Adjaye with Rekha Sawhney creating his soundscape We Bear the Light of the Earth in Red, Green, Brown and Black, 2021, part of Bring Into Being, Chiswick House and Gardens, London, 2021. Photo: Thierry Bal.

Adjaye has collaborated with musicians of West African and South Asian heritage to produce sonic landscapes that highlight the diverse narratives secreted in and around Chiswick House.

Bring Into Being
Chiswick House and Gardens, London
27 May – 31 October 2021

Words by EMILY SPICER
Filmed by MARTIN KENNEDY