Field System: The Art of May Day Mischief
Something uncanny is happening in Ashburton…
If you find yourself there this Beltane, don’t be surprised to see drag kings with bells on their boots, ritual bears crashing an art gallery, and an entire town moving to the beat of something older, stranger, yet somehow joyfully new. Field System’s Mayday Celebration returns on Thursday 1st and Saturday 3rd May with a heady mix of art, folklore, activism, and sheer revelry.
For art seekers, group exhibition Lore and Land III opens Thursday 1st May at 6pm in Field System’s West Street gallery. This year’s show brings together four South West artists:
Conjurer of a world where roadside breakdowns require both jump leads and incantations. In The Museum of Roadside Magic, folklore meets the MOT: think ceramic charms for safe travels, performance costume relics from a parallel Albion, and archival whispers that feel just real enough to believe. Is it fact? Fiction? Bove’s answer: “Why not both?”
Libby Bove, Rituals of the Roadways
Libby Bove, The Museum of Roadside Magic.
Photo Credit: Dom Moore - Karst Gallery.
Mischief-maker of the museum corridors. Drawing inspiration from ethnographic collections across Europe, she reimagines historic artefacts as clay characters and textile oddities, letting them speak in strange tongues to contradict their dusty captions. The result is a kind of speculative archaeology - joyfully unacademic, wildly alive.
Asha Uneroi, Egyptian Doll, Figuration 1, 2023 - 2024
Asha Uberoi, Ancient Tile, 2024
Bringer of botanical spells, beetle-wing shimmer, and wild collage to the party. With one foot in the printing press and the other deep in the woods, she draws on nature, history, and photography to remix mythologies. As the editor of The Myconauts, her mycology mag turned cult favourite, she’s no stranger to fungi-fuelled lore.
Gemma Dunnell, Trees Awaken Once More, 2024
Gemma Dunnell, Mossy Picnics, 2023.
Abigail Tinnion
Here for the gods, bones, and ruins. Her work is a whisper from the dark places: dreamlike, gritty, ancient, and unknowable. Expect ghosts in the undergrowth, river-washed memories, and the occasional spirit beast blinking from the canvas.
Abigail Tinnion, A Far Eyrie, 2022.
Abigail Tinnion, Am I the White Figure?, 2022
But this is no hushed gallery show. George Radford, stitcher of the soundscape, fills the gallery with field recordings, ghost songs, and ambient hums. Close your eyes and you might hear the breath of a hill, the song of a lichen, or the radio static of another realm. Later, the opening night unleashes the Lunatraktors - masters of “broken folk” - and their legendary Hazard Bears. This may be the only exhibition opening where you’ll rub shoulders with a vocalist-drummer duo, a dancing bear in hazard tape, and someone quoting William Blake over cider.
For those seeking song, dance, and a story or two, the weekend is also packed with folkloric delights. On Saturday 3rd, the streets spill over with radical Morris dancers MAYDAY Morris and the fierce queer joy of Molly No Mates, with visitors encouraged to join in the bell-shaking revelry. Plus, a film screening of Dartmoor Calling and a public storytelling salon hosted by Lisa Schneidau, a storyteller-ecologist who knows exactly how to charm the leaves off a tree.
Come for the art, stay for the myth, and leave with a strange new superstition (and maybe a mossy talisman in your pocket).
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Event Information:
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Lore and Land III - Field System gallery.
13 West Street, Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7DT
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Summer is Ready! Field System’s May Day Celebration.
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Further Information:
Field System Gallery
Ashburton Arts Centre
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Image Credits:
Lead Image: Libby Bove, The Spirit of Summer. Commissioned by Nik Slade for the Evercreech Jack in the Green event. Photo by Mark Pickthall.
All other images as credited in photo captions.