Birmingham residents invited to contribute to revival of long-lost British ceremony.
People of all ages from across Birmingham are invited to contribute to a long-lost British tradition that will be revived in Erdington this summer.
Dating from the 16th Century, the tradition of Clipping the Church will be revived and reinterpreted by Birmingham-based artist Tereza Buskova in new performance and video work exploring motherhood, the meaning of rituals, family ties and relationships with the local community.
Derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘clyp-pan’ meaning ‘embrace’ or ‘clasp’, the ceremony is often associated with Mothering Sunday. Clipping the Church took place once a year when young apprentices and women in service were allowed to visit their families and their ‘mother’ church. Church-goers would join hands and move around the outside of the church in an unbroken ring, often singing a traditional hymn. Although there is evidence that the ceremonies took place in Birmingham, it is unknown where.
Birmingham residents are invited to make salt dough decorations that will be paraded as part of the ceremony in workshops at Kingstanding Food Community, Loaf Bakery & Cookery School and St Barnabas’ Church Centre in the run up to the event. Further decorations will be made in workshops for patients in John Taylor Hospice and members of the Birmingham Czech and Slovak Club.
The Clipping the Church ceremony will take place on Saturday 11th June 2016 at St Barnabas’ Church, Erdington. Members of the local community and elaborately costumed performers will join hands and move around the church. Baked goods made in the community workshops will be paraded and displayed on the outside. Following the filmed public event, there will be an exhibition of the newly commissioned video work.
Artist Tereza Buskova said: “This project will unite Birmingham’s diverse communities including some its fresher arrivals from Central & Eastern Europe, like me. It will help us to see how people from all different backgrounds can enjoy and revive British traditions. Most importantly it will celebrate Birmingham’s mothers through baking, which in the era of the Great British Bake Off we all know is a popular Great British custom. Like some of the showstopper bakes, the final product of this project will literally be a work of art that might challenge a few assumptions.”
Tereza Buskova is a multi-disciplinary visual artist who celebrates and reinterprets long established customs with performance, print and video. Reinventing old traditions and rituals with collaborators and local communities, her performances depict improvised portraits of rites of passage, which reflect change of season, sexuality, fertility and the powers of rural mythology.
For more information on the project and associated events please visit: www.clippingthechurch.wordpress.com