Jonathan Michael Ray: The Voice in the Shadow

Ray takes his inspiration from a variety of sources such as ancient alphabets, archaeological collections, and sacred sites, but also science-fiction, fantasy and modern abstraction. Titled The Voice in the Shadow (19 May – 24 June), the site-specific project in the converted Methodist church, consists of mixed-media works, exploring the multi-layered histories, fictions and beliefs assigned to artefacts through craftsmanship and the markings of time. Fascinated by archaeological discoveries, the artist gives these objects new voices, new functions that blur between dream, myth and memory, and creates an atmosphere of the esoteric, a symbiosis of the secular and the sacred. Of his method, Ray says: “Collecting is at the heart of my practice. Objects, materials, ideas, process, words. This is my world-building; A complex and vague amalgamation of everything that helps me question and understand existence.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a new sound work, Reliqua, which incorporates music played on the church’s organ, created in collaboration with sound artist Benedict Mortimer.

Ray's work was recently the subject of a two-person presentation with Wilhelmina Barns-Graham at Tate St Ives in Summer 2022 and he completed a commission for Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens in Spring 2023.