Festus 2025/26 with Denise de Cordova

The Winter Solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of the Earth’s poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. It’s the beginning of the astronomical winter.

The Solstice Poem by Margaret Attwood

This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath, the door
of a vanished house left ajar…

The Circle of Illumination: the imaginary line that separates day from night.

Social Thermoregulator Theory: the desire to seek physical warmth and comfort during the dark days of winter.

This year’s Festus is taking place in the dark days leading towards the Winter Solstice. It’s time of long shadows. Across time and geography, the dark days of winter have been seen as both an ending and a beginning:

Saturnalia (Ancient Rome) celebrated misrule and renewal during the lead-up to the solstice.
Yule (Norse & Germanic tradition) involved burning logs, honouring the rebirth of the sun.
Kōmisai (Japanese Shinto) and other purification rituals used water, fire, and white to cleanse the spirit before the new solar cycle.
Pre-Christian and Neolithic cultures aligned megaliths and chambered tombs (such as Newgrange in Ireland and Stonehenge in England) to capture the first light of the solstice dawn. Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels is a site-specific work that builds on this history.

As the days shorten and darkness gathers, humanity has long turned inward—toward ritual, reflection, and transformation. The period leading to the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, has historically marked a sacred turning point: a descent into shadow followed by the slow return of light. Does acknowledging the Solstice still have relevance in contemporary society? How can this be interpreted? How does waking and walking in the dark affect our spatial and temporal understanding of the environments we inhabit? What details and ritualised objects might be part of imaginative thinking that can encompass ideas of misrule, celestial mapping, celestial cycles, and solstice alignments? What is the impact on our bodies and circadian rhythms? How might we perform, and what might we perform with in relation to the darkening of days.

Towards the Dark is a Festus project hosted by the Standpoint Gallery. Standpoint is a vibrant community of artist practitioners, distinguished by its educational programmes, residency opportunities and exhibitions, including the Mark Tanner Annual Sculpture Prize. We will be working in the ceramic studio and education room with RCA Alumni artist and curator Nat Breitenstein, who will act as our host as well as running workshops during the residency period. There will be an opportunity to work with black clay and white slip provided by Standpoint. While the focus will be on hand building, there will be an opportunity to use the wheel too. The resulting works will be fired at Standpoint. The initial planning meeting in October will provide an opportunity to discuss how these works might be incorporated and form part of the exhibition taking place in December. Dialogue and exchange of ideas are a crucial part of this Festus Project.

Timeline & Key Dates

Week 7 - Meeting with Lead Tutor and Festus group
Tuesday 21st October 2pm.
Week 9 - Mandatory session days with Lead Tutor and Guests at Standpoint
Tuesday 4th November (All day).
Wednesday 5th November (All day).
Thursday 6th November (2pm onwards).
Friday 7th November (10am onwards)
Week 10 - Student-led Meeting
Wednesday 12th November 2-3pm.
Week 12 - Student-led Meeting
Wednesday 26th November 2-3pm.
Week 13 - Student-led Meeting
Wednesday 3rd November 2-3pm.
Week 14 - Exhibition Install, Viewing, and Deinstallation
Exhibition Install in the Hangar - Tuesday 9th December 10am - 1pm
Private View and Xmas Party - Tuesday 9th December 5pm onwards
Public Exhibition Days - Thursday 11th and Friday 12th December
Exhibition De-install - Tuesday 16th December 10am