Opening on 28th October Invisible Cities is the inaugural HARP/Hyde900 visual arts event to take place at St Bartholomew’s Church and the adjacent Hyde Gate/Chamber.

Forming part of the 10 Days Across the City arts festival (starting this week in Winchester), Invisible Cities features work by four local artists, Susan Wood, Alex Hoare, Nicola Harlow and Sophie Cunningham Dawe who are re-uniting following last year’s highly successful contemporary visual arts exhibition, Re-imagining Treasures of Hyde Abbey.

Referencing past inhabitants’ and travellers’ tales, the four artists aim to create a conversation with current events taking place across the city of Winchester and beyond through installations which utilise glass, plastic, found objects and sound – often fragmentary – to explore how we might reconcile traces of past utility in this place – whether knowable or imagined – with its present and future possibilities.

Themes of memory, place and poetic contemplation are all investigated to form interventions within and around the historic architecture of St. Bartholomew’s and the Hyde Gateway/Chamber – almost all that remain of the Norman Hyde Abbey, once a great centre of pilgrimage and learning and the burial place of Alfred the Great.

How to visit:

Invisible Cities is situated in St Bartholomew’s and its rear grounds, in Hyde Gate & Chamber and can be self-guided 10am – 4pm daily (St Bartholomew’s open hours with services at 10am Wed and 9.30am Sun, all welcome). Works outside the Church and in Hyde Gate/Chamber can be viewed at all times.
All are welcome at the official launch event on Friday 4^th November 6.30pm at St Bartholomew’s when the artists will be present to talk about their work. The launch will feature the sole viewing of a projection that forms part of the show.  This exhibition is free and suitable for all ages.