Following the exhibition ‘Whales – A Deeper Dialogue at Messums West, the installation will tour to Winchester Cathedral where it will be shown in the nave from 22 January until 26 February 2025 to launch their season on ‘The Word’ and the celebration of the 250th year anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.
Campbell Fraser comments: “Both venues bring their own special magic to my subjects: the awe- inspiring oak roof timbers of Messums West resemble the inside rib cage of a vast whale. The barn itself was built by female abbesses using fossilised stone that was once beneath the sea. I couldn’t ask for a more appropriate or associative setting for my three resting female whales to sleep in. The magnificent Winchester Cathedral, on the other hand, reminds us of The Biblical parable of Jonah and the Whale, a story of redemption: the whale ultimately saving Jonah from the error of his ways, delivering him from a storm onto dry land to serve God’s will.”
The presentation at Winchester Cathedral enables the direct alignment between art, making and spirituality and is one of a series of exhibitions which will run between Messums West and Winchester Cathedral that will offer ways to see and experience art in different contexts and to a broader audience.
Campbell Fraser comments: “To have been given the nave of the cathedral for exhibiting them is an honour and a fitting context to contemplate the whale’s message: the very word ’nave’ comes from the Latin ‘navis’, meaning ship. Suspended, as if sleeping, within this vast vessel, the whales invite us to commune with them in a language that mankind is on the very brink of understanding.
The Very Reverend Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester comments: “Bringing Tessa Campbell Fraser’s Whales to Winchester Cathedral will connect the awe and wonder of God’s creation with a building expressing human longing for connection, human and divine. We will inevitably be led to reflect on our connection with creation and all God’s creatures and the call to live in harmony and justice. Whales are familiar yet mysterious and wonderfully ‘other’. The Whales at Winchester Cathedral will create a richly evocative and unforgettable experience for us all.”
