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.
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.
DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN will be exhibited as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2023.
A dance work accompanying the exhibition will take place on Thursday 10 August, DANCE IN THE SACRED DOMAIN: Body of the Bog.
Satellites is Collective’s development programme for emergent practitioners based in Scotland. The 2022/23 participants are Thomas Abercromby, Rabindranath X Bhose, Kaya Fraser and Matty Rimmer.
