“HAVEN” is a site specific installation by Sarah van Veen in a yurt in the garden at Venue T2 in Teignmouth
Here’s Sarah’s artist statement:
My grandmother bought this house in 1946. It has long been surrounded by churches of various denominations: the high Anglican church on the seafront, the United Reformed church opposite the front door, the Catholic church behind us on the hill and, more recently, the Jehovah’s Witnesses overlooking the garden. There was even a tiny Assemblies of God Fellowship down an alleyway opposite the garden gate.
“Haven” seeks to address the imbalance of patriarchal religious domination around this small piece of land by offering alternatives, a remembering that all of life is in the image of divinity and that humans are not higher, better or separate from other life forms.
As you walk up or down the lane you will see the remains of female images, Mothers, Mermaids and Madonnas, discarded and broken. Climbing the steps into the garden the images start to regain colour and shape until, inside the circular tent, they become highly decorated and, once again, complete.
