TIME'S THIN VEIL

I forbid you to enter a church, or a monastery, a fair, a mill, or a market.

I forbid you to leave your house without leper's clothes.

Do not wash or drink in a stream or fountain.

Do not walk in narrow lanes lest you brush against a stranger.

If you are accosted by anyone on your way,

go downwind of them before you answer.

Never touch children or give them any single thing.

I forbid you to eat or drink in company, save the company of lepers.

 

-Excerpts from the Mass of Separation. First recorded in 643 CE, the Mass effectively ostracised someone believed to be a leper from their community.

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For Time’s Thin Veil (September 2025) I brought together five artists to explore themes of health, isolation, exclusion and the passage of time. The venue was a 12th century chapel, originally built for lepers.

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Emma Sheehy, Oliver McConnie, Telemachus, Temsuyanger Longkumer, and I all made work specially for the show. Some of us drew from personal experiences of ill health and its social ramifications. My approach to curation was collaborative: decisions were made collectively and we all gained inspiration from shared conversations as well as from each other’s work.

 

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