Rabindranath X Bhose
DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN
DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN is a new commission by Glasgow-based artist Rabindranath X Bhose. A bog made up of sculpture, poetry, performance and drawing, DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN has emerged from time spent meditating on bogland in Scotland.
The bog is a historically sacred space, often considered a portal in rituals from the iron age and potentially before. In DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN, Rabi considers what it feels like to be contained in these murky, damp, transitional spaces. The installation’s title is informed by research into the bodies that have been preserved in bogs: those who were bound with rope and sticks, then ritually sacrificed, but also those who were considered ‘undesirable’ and not afforded a proper burial.
DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN brings these rituals into the present day. It dances joyfully through bog space, finding a realm of queer erotics, and kinship with the histories of the land.
DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN was exhibited as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2023.
About Rabindranath X Bhose
Rabi makes work around queerness, spirituality, and death, focusing on ‘crossing over’. The bog is an effective framework with which to hold these messy and fluid explorations, which cannot be contained solely in one medium. His performances weave together subconsciously sourced poetry, gestural drawings, and ritualised objects. His emerging movement practice explores the dynamics of a body in transition, and in his sculptural works, the energy of embodied movement is present in tender gestures and bodily flourishes.
Explore the exhibition
Install images by Eoin Carey.
Body of the Bog
This solo dance, performed by the artist moved from the Hillside gallery space in which the exhibition is being shown, then out and around the Collective site.
Rabindranath danced as one with the body of the bog, encircling the sparkling pools and supporting structures within the exhibition space. The filmed glimpses of dance within the exhibition crystallised in the body of the artist as he moved into the open, taking on the movements of a bog body come to life. This performance created a ritual moment to embody the joy and fluidity of the ‘gender fugitive’, a figure Rabindranath developed for this performance, inspired by the histories of the sacrificed bog bodies.
Images by Sean Patrick Campbell.
