Ashes to Ashes is a group exhibition of contemporary art curated by SWANFALL ART, presented at Asylum Chapel, London.
The exhibition is staged within the 19th-century chapel, a sacred site that experienced bombing during the Second World War and has since been restored and repurposed as a cultural venue.
“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Book of Common Prayer (London: Edward Whitchurch, 1549)
Genesis 3:19. “… for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
The Holy Bible, King James Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1769).
The title, Ashes to Ashes, is drawn from Genesis and introduces a thematic focus on finitude, material processes, and human experience. Bringing together sculpture, installation, and moving image, Ashes to Ashes considers how time, change, and impermanence are addressed through artistic practice.
The validity of human experience is often most palpable through contrast. Works in the exhibition adopt a range of materials whose physical properties reference duration and transformation. These include the juxtaposition of industrial and organic materials, the use of combustible elements alongside more enduring substances, and the permanent encasement of everyday objects. Through material strategies, the exhibition examines how abstract concepts of temporality can be expressed in physical form.
The environment of the deconsecrated Gothic Revival Chapel as venue is integral, its weathered space acting as a resonant backdrop that frames the artworks within a tangible narrative of time and impermanence, and the relationship between the contemporary works and the historic setting situates the exhibition within broader considerations of material history and place.
Ashes to Ashes forms part of a live experiment exploring humans responses to materiality and time. It is not merely a statement of finality but an affirmation of each vivid, present experience. The setting seeks to remind us that in the face of inevitable dissolution, what we possess and can truly grasp is the richness, specificity, and profound experience of ‘being here’ itself.
Exhibiting artists: Ana Ionescu, Anaïs Öst, Chen Weirui, Chen Xinxing, Jason Kwong, Ji Chai, Li Shuangqiang, Luo Guangyi, Lyu Ruofei, Shavonne Yang, William Lowry, Yang Yang, Zhao Yuchu.
on Canvas, 60 x 50cm
Ashes to Ashes, 15th – 19th December 2025 Asylum Chapel, Caroline Gardens, Asylum Rd, London SE15
Curated by | Swanfall Art
