Word of the Month for October 2023
DESIGN
Third Thursday
at St Mary Abchurch, Abchurch Yard, London EC4N 7BA
on Thursday the 19th of October at 6 p.m.
We are grateful to Art+Christianity for facilitating this event.
The event is free, but we would be grateful if you would register your intention to attend
DESIGN
Wren and his impact on artists and designers
A panel discussion between the architect Biba Dow, architectural historian Luka Pajovic, and designer Moritz Waldemeyer. Chaired by The Very Rev’d Andrew Nunn, a trustee of A+C.
In the 300 years since Christopher Wren’s death, we examine his impact on artists and designers working in his churches. How does Wren’s imagination and skill give rise to creative responses in others? And what do their interventions in Wren’s churches look like today?
Biba Dow co-founded Dow Jones Architects in 2000 with Alun Jones. She has led many projects including Grand Junction at St Mary Magdalene, Bevis Marks Synagogue, and the crypt at Christ Church Spitalfields. She was short-listed for Architect of the Year for the Women in Architecture Award 2018. She is a member of the Cathedral Fabric Committee at Coventry Cathedral, as well as several design review panels. She is an external examiner at various schools of architecture including Cambridge University, London Metropolitan University and Queens University Belfast. She is an architectural assessor, writes about architecture and culture, and has lectured widely on the work of her practice and on architecture and design.
Luka Pajovic is a PhD student in architectural history, with a particular interest in classical vaulting, its conception and reception by the architectural public from the 15th Century onwards, and its central, if often unacknowledged, role in the evolution of the classical tradition down to our time. His current research focuses on the construction of domes in Post-Restoration England, from the unexecuted designs of John Webb and the young Christopher Wren, to the latter’s mature triumphs, carried on in the work of Hawksmoor and Gibbs. Drawing on precedents both ancient and modern, and displaying a range of different attitudes to construction, surface decoration, and the organisation of the “space beautiful” (kallichoros) beneath the dome, these structures embody many of classical architecture’s central preoccupations. Far from exhausting themselves in early modern England, these themes continued to inform the work of classically inspired designers well into the twentieth century – from Joze Plecnik and Erik Gunnar Asplund to Rudolf Schwarz, in whose work Luka maintains an active scholarly and personal interest.
Moritz Waldemeyeris a designer whose practice (Studio Waldemeyer, founded in 2004) was built on a philosophy of playful experimentation by forging links between technology, art, fashion and design. The Studio has created bespoke installations for clients such as Audi, Rinascente and Bicester Village, as well as light-studded costumes for the likes of U2, Rihanna, Jamiroquai and the London Olympics Handover Ceremony. His specially created work Halo was installed at St Stephen’s Walbrook (one of Wren’s churches) for London Design Festival 16-24 Sep 2023.
Andrew Nunn was Dean of Southwark Cathedral until July 2023. Before becoming Dean in 2012 he had served at Southwark Cathedral since 1999 as Sub Dean and Precentor. Andrew trained for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. Whilst Dean he established various art projects at the Cathedral including the Lent art installation working with David Mach, Nick Fiddian-Green, Angela Wright and others. His interests are around spirituality and liturgy and the interplay with them of art and architecture.
(We regret that due to unforeseen circumstances Elizabeth Deans can no longer participate in this event.)
Halo
Moritz Waldemeyer, Halo, 2023 at St Stephen’s Walbrook (photo by Moritz Waldemeyer).
From the Book of Proverbs
[Wisdom speaks]
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race. (Proverbs 8:22-31, NRSV)
Art+Christianity
We are grateful to Art and Christianity for organising this event.
Art and Christianity is the UK’s leading organisation in the field of religion and the visual arts
Through events, publications and consultation, we offer:
.+ education, enquiry and exchange with regard to the relationship between art and fait
+ collaboration and partnership with galleries, art institutions and places of worship
+ advocacy for and advice on commissioning works of art
+ awareness-raising of the diversity of historical and contemporary art in churches.
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