A toy poodle called Lunar arrives at the door of Ben Edge\u2019s studio in a furry blur of excitement. There\u2019s also a full-size fibreglass horse, already halfway through the door. It\u2019s being ridden by a mannequin who is wearing a garland of artificial flowers and, under that, a shirt patterned with green men, Uffington White Horse references and oak leaves. It\u2019s identical to the one worn by the living, breathing artist standing next to me.<\/p>\n
A highlight of Edge\u2019s upcoming exhibition at London\u2019s Fitzrovia Chapel, the sculpture is titled Where Must We Go in Search of Our Better Selves. It\u2019s a self-portrait like no other, riffing on the magnificent equestrian monuments of the Renaissance, and honouring the Garland King, a figure from the recesses of British folklore, who each May rides through the Derbyshire village of Castleton. \u201cThe Garland King has become a symbol for me,\u201d Edge says. \u201cI see it as representing a process of finding your own nature, of going inward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, Edge stumbled across a druid ceremony at London\u2019s Tower Hill. It was the spring equinox, it turns out: \u201cAs I came out of the station, I saw in the distance this line of people in white cloaks walking past a red phone box, a KFC, a Wetherspoon\u2019s. They assembled in a circle, and started talking about this idea of reconnecting to nature, and that London will one day be reclaimed by nature. They were putting seeds on the ground. It was a real awakening for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s a myth that our folk culture is in trouble\u2019 \u2026 Edge with some recent paintings. Photograph: Sylvie Tata Photography<\/p>\n
Since then, Edge has become a leading light in the British folk renaissance. It\u2019s an artistic movement drenched in the storytelling, crafts and beliefs that sought to bind communities to nature. From wassailing in January to morris dancing at the spring equinox, discovering and documenting such time-honoured practices rescued Edge from chronic depression, and provides inspiration for works that combine poetic mysticism with social realism.<\/p>\n
In a climate of far-right politics driven by what seems like a national identity crisis, Edge\u2019s folkloric quest inevitably overlaps with those lamenting the passing of Merrie Olde England. \u201cThere\u2019s a myth that our folk culture is in trouble,\u201d he says. In fact, he adds, it\u2019s thriving. What has changed is that now people are talking about it.<\/p>\n
Children of Albion, the epic quasi-altarpiece that gives Edge\u2019s exhibition its title explores the richness of Britain\u2019s history in fabulous detail. Fusing the grotesque topsy-turviness of Bosch\u2019s The Garden of Earthly Delights with the surreal humour of Terry Gilliam, it\u2019s the culmination of a body of work that began after the double crises of Brexit and the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Stone island \u2026 Orkney by Ben Edge. Photograph: Sylvie Tata Photography\/Copyright the artist<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this post-Brexit era, we\u2019re all grappling with who we are as a country,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to paint Children of Albion because I needed to puzzle it all out.\u201d The result is a visual survey of the people and events that have shaped the British Isles, with refugees in boats, Stonehenge, Viking raids, and the miners\u2019 strike taking their places alongside morris dancers and the slave trade.<\/p>\n
The paper umbrella in this volatile cocktail of ingredients is \u201cAlbion\u201d, the ancient word for pre-Roman Britain. These days, it\u2019s more readily associated with white supremacy than the universal vision of humanity proposed by the Romantic poet and artist William Blake. But Edge, inspired by Blake, represents Albion as a beneficent figure, presiding over the vast oil painting like the risen sun. \u201cIn Blake\u2019s personal mythology, Albion was a sleeping giant,\u201d Edge explains. The painting shows the moment of his awakening: \u201cThe idea is that this happens by truly accepting who we are as a nation and finding a way to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
My only connection to the environment was putting my recycling in the right bin<\/p>\n
If our mishmash of regional customs seems ill-equipped to bring tolerance and unity to our stressed-out, fractured society, Edge disagrees, pointing out that folk traditions the world over are rooted in universal concerns \u2013 birth and death, the changing seasons. He believes that reconnecting with ancient customs offers a radical strategy to address the crises of our age. \u201cWhen I was really clinically depressed, I had no connection to nature,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d been living in the city for 10 years and my only connection to the environment was putting my recycling in the right bin.\u201d For him, restoring this fractured relationship with nature is the key to addressing the climate emergency.<\/p>\n
The lockdowns were transformative, he says. \u201cCovid brought a fundamental shift in people\u2019s mindsets about Britain and the climate crisis \u2013 even Black Lives Matter came out of it. It was obviously a huge tragedy, but people had time to think. They started falling in love with their immediate landscapes and feeling a sense of pride. It was probably a bit confusing at first, because post-Brexit a lot of left-leaning people felt almost done with the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edge alludes to our warped relationship with nature in the plastic flowers of Where Must We Go in Search of Our Better Selves, but they are also a nod to the people who each year make folk traditions happen, improvising costumes and props with whatever comes to hand. His own operation is similarly independent in spirit. \u201cThere isn\u2019t a gallery that\u2019s going to come along and save you \u2013 you need to build your own art world,\u201d he says. \u201cThe minute I had that realisation, everything started going pretty well for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A toy poodle called Lunar arrives at the door of Ben Edge\u2019s studio in a furry blur of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-246200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}