And did those feet in ancient time?

a solo exhibition from Caitlin Hazell

Private View: Friday 5th September 2025 17:00 - 19:00Opening Hours: Thursday 4th, Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th September 2025 12:00 - 18:00Friday 5th September 12:00 - 16:00Location: Nunhead Cemetery Chapel

BOOKING IS NOT ESSENTIAL

This exhibition is part of the Summer series from the FLP x Friends of Nunhead Cemetery Exhibition Program 2025.

‘And did those feet in ancient time?’ imagines the lives of those who might have existed in the cemetery grounds long before it was built in 1840. Drawing on the site’s layered histories, its inbuilt symbolism, and the aesthetics of fakery, the exhibition presents a series of fictionalised relics, artefacts, and objects from an imagined ancient past.

The cemetery itself, was built with winding paths designed to imitate “country lanes of a bygone era” and a chapel built in a neo-gothic style, looking much older than it actually is, the exhibition aims to interrogate the romanticism of rural England, the construction of nostalgia and myths of bucolic bliss, bringing the ‘bygone era’ back to life…

Through installation that weaves together multiple narratives, the viewer is positioned not only as a visitor to an exhibition, but a living history museum, activated with performances and a fictionalised 'gift shop' at the private view. Medieval pilgrimage becomes the starting point where the audience is invited to encounter the stories of peasants searching for the noseless saint, workers of the land and their tools, figures caught in battle, and the power of nature taking over the land.

The exhibition draws on archaeological methods of display, comprising reconfigured objects across a range of materials, including beeswax, bread, bronze, sea kelp, and stone. Referencing English folk rituals, Medusa, queer theory, and Western museological systems, the work also aims to draw parallels between absurdities of the present: bodily fads, queuing at the bakery, the psychology around souvenirs, and the dystopia of modern technology.

Supplementary Events

MAKE YOUR OWN ARTEFACT WORKSHOP

Thursday 4th September, 16:00 - 18:00

Booking not essential

A discussion through making on material and object meaning, imagining the ancient past of who could’ve existed on the land before the existence of the cemetery…

Join Caitlin in an open invitation to create and contribute objects, artefacts and relics to the chapel installation using found materials and other unusual supplies including bread dough. Some tools and materials provided, but feel free to bring any of your own, as well as any inspiration from existing or false objects.

LIVE PERFORMANCE

PV Friday 5th September, 17:00 - 19:00

An activation of the exhibition in the form of a living history museum, meet some of the speculative characters that might have existed in the land before, interact with some of the objects and explore publications and objects on the night!

Accessibility Notes

There are 3 small stone steps into the chapel and a ramp can be provided. The chapel is at the end of a gravel path and the stone floors can become slippery, especially in wet weather. This is an outdoor exhibition as there is no roof on the chapel, so please remember to bring weather appropriate apparel.

The nearest train station is Nunhead which does not have step free access. Buses 484, 78, P12 and 343 stop near the cemetery entrance.

About the Artist

Caitlin Hazell (they/them) is an artist, researcher, and clown college dropout, with a practice that intertwines imagined and exaggerated aspects of everyday life with myth, folklore, and ritual. Using absurdity to draw parallels between real and speculative narratives, Caitlin makes false historical objects, sculptures, installations, and performative characters, emerging in a range of everyday and ancient materials. Using bread, beeswax, and bronze, references are made to the Western museological system, archaeological digs, unusual things seen whilst walking around, or the latest viral fads.

Caitlin studied BA Fine Art at Kingston University in 2017 and recently completed the 2024 MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. They have shown in exhibitions at the Art Workers’ Guild, Block 336, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and Platform Gallery (Finland). They are currently grinding metal souvenirs and flour, working both as a metalsmith and miller in London’s last windmill, researching historical bread, and trying to make a good babka.

INSTAGRAM: @caitlin.hazell

WEBSITE: caitlinhazell.com