FROM ANCIENT WATERS TO ARID LANDSCAPES
Lucie Kordačová & Miroslava Večeřová
GLOAM gallery, 160 Arundel St, Sheffield City Centre,
Sheffield S1 4RE
Curator: Thomas Griffiths
Opening of the exhibition: 7th Feb 2025 6-9pm
Exhibition open: 8-9th & 15-16th Feb, 11-4pm


From Ancient Waters to Arid Landscapes is an exhibition by artists Lucie Kordačová and Miroslava Večeřová drawn from an ongoing project. The project has migrated across landscapes, shapeshifting into a body of wor that traces echoes of ancient history, folk traditions ocean ecology and the cosmos. Now circling back to GLOAM, where the project originated on Hromnice (2nd February 2024), the exhibition will see the expansive works transform the post-industrial gallery space, inviting us to recognise our entanglement with the
more-than-human world.

The artists explored the merging of traditions and mythologies, welcoming the sun through rituals which celebrate the dawn of Spring. The passing of the Sun is the core of Arietis Sisters and The Sun, a performance brought to life at St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings. Five figures dressed in costume - a Sun figure is surrounded by four stars, a Slovak song ‘Na jarný veselý čas’ (To the Joyful Springtime) is sung, and a ritual in the sea occurs.

Alongside the digitised performance, inspired by the sun's passage through the Aries constellation, recurring symbols and mythologies emerge through motifs, using horns to represent Aries, and circles remind us of unity, connection, time cycles and continuation. The conglomerate of themes presented through From Ancient Waters to Arid Landscapes explore the astronomical to the microcosmic. The wider context can be brought home to the heritage of the artists’ migratory past, as we explore the interconnection between people, land, sea and sky.

Singer: Adelaide Percy, Performers: Lise Boucon, Hannah Collisson, Jess Mabel Jones, Santi Sorrenti 
Camera and sound: Atom Inions Morton, Props fabricated by Studio Hadaikum and Glynde Forge
Photos: Lucie Kordacova and Miroslava Vecerova
Graphic by Matus Buranovsky

Supported by GLOAM and Czech Centre in London.