Into The Wyld will feature a residency by the Material Matters Collective, and work from over 20 invited artists across the region. There is also an associated programme of performance art, poetry readings, children’s workshops, film screenings and a symposium.

Material Matters’ artists will respond to key themes in the Gawain poem across three exhibitions:

• Nature curated by Patric Rogers from 2nd August – 13th September

• Chivalry curated by John Elcock from 19th Septemer – 25th October

• Spirituality curated by Angelo Madonna from 7th November – 21st December

• Weavers a parallel programme of performance, talks, workshops and readings will be curated by Silvia Battista.

Gawain is a masterpiece text of the Middle Ages. The poem tells the story of King Arthur’s headstrong young nephew who after a dramatic bargain with a mysterious figure faces a long journey in which he must, quite literally, keep his head. Sir Gawain’s quest ‘into the wilderness of the Wirral’ is a fourteenth century narrative that will be given a radical 21st century interpretation by the artists.

Featured artists for Into the Wyld include: Angelo Madonna – Silvia Battista – John Elcock and Patric Rogers in collaboration with Amodali – Abbie Bradshaw – Nick Ball – Alice Colquhoun – Kris Darby – Will Dickie – Ryan Gauge – Anna Jane Houghton – Adrian Jeans – Oak Luca – Brendan Lyons – Izzie Major – Piotr Marchewka – Paul Mellor – Margaret O’Brien – Attila Olah – Nicky Perrin – Eleanor Rees – Sarah Jane Richards – Andrew Shaw – Craig Sinclair – Camille Smithwick – Pierce Starre – Angela Stringer – Serah Stringer – Catherine Swire and Niamh Tam.

Material Matters is an artists’ collective and co-operative engaged in artistic and curatorial practices that explore the inter-relationship between materiality, aesthetics and performativity under a collaborative praxis the artists call ’emotional minimalism’.