Staffordshire St presents Festival of Community | The Way of the Roadwytch opening

Staffordshire St is pleased to present The Way of the Roadwytch, the first solo exhibition in London by Somerset based artist Libby Bove. The exhibition explores the practices and rituals of a Roadwytch; a recovery operative within Bove’s folk-fiction world of Roadside Magic, and forms the central exhibition of our annual Festival of Community, 4 weeks of art, workshops, performance and communal culture. 

Join us for the opening - a chance to explore the exhibition, view the art, meet the artist, and enjoy a cold drink. 


Info:

Thursday 10 September
19:00 - 21:00

Tickets:
Free but RSVP essential

If you are financially able, please consider donating, to keep Staffordshire St events accessible to all.


About the exhibition:

Within Bove's magical realm, plant knowledge and ritual form essential roles in the repair and maintenance of everyday vehicles. Inspired by Albion's rich history of folk magic, alongside the artist's own lived experience of life on the road, both professionally and domestically, the Roadside Magic seeks to re-establish the valuable role of everyday ritual. Through it Bove posits that folk customs are just as deeply embedded within urban landscapes and on road verges, as they are within a flowering meadow.

The exhibition unfolds as a series of quasi-artefacts and documentary style imagery, with Bove’s ROADWYTCH film, recently commissioned by Exeter Phoenix, forming the backdrop. Within the space sculpture, photography and moving imagery, masquerade as historical and archival material creating an intimate portrait of a skilled practitioner seemingly existing in a world that could have been.

Libby Bove | @libby.bove.arts
Libby Bove is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and folklorist. Her work is centred around ideas which reposition folk custom and magical practice back at the forefront of daily life. Drawing on archival methodologies and documentary, her work slips between fact and fiction. By employing traditional craft processes, plausibility is woven into constructed myths; transposing ideas of ancient customs, traditions and rituals into incongruous contemporary settings, non-existent pasts, and speculative future landscapes. Working across a range of media including ceramics, textiles and found objects, she creates sculptural works, masks, and wearable costume pieces. Authenticity, and the potential for the work to be believable, is integral to her practice; physical works are often accompanied by ‘field’ recordings, ‘documentation’ of folk songs, and descriptive ‘historic’ texts, all aimed at crafting a palpable form of surround sound storytelling.

Libby Bove. b.1991. Graduated from Bath Spa University in 2024, with a BA in Fine Art. Awards include, Henry Moore Foundation Artists Award (2025), New Contemporaries (2024), The Hari Art Prize (2024), The Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize (2024), Spike Island Studio Fellowship (2024) and The Porthleven Prize (2022). Notable Exhibitions & Commissions include: New Contemporaries, I.C.A. (2025); Reimagining the Archive Commission, The Box Plymouth, (2025) Lore & Land, Touring (2024/25); The Museum of Roadside Magic (2024-ongoing).

Accessibility: There is step-free access to the gallery via the door to the left hand side of the main entrance. There is a wheelchair accessible toilet. The event will be taking place in the exhibition space, which is a large open room with bright lighting and some seating available. Our accessibility rider is available here.

Staffordshire St is an independent project space in Peckham, South East London. The venue facilitates arts and cultural events and provides affordable studios for artists, makers and designers. ​

Staffordshire St is not-for-profit and all income is invested into developing our public programme which launched the summer of 2022. The venue was established as an art gallery in 2017, before then it was vacant for many years after a community centre closed. Originally it was built as a Methodist Hall. We intend to support a range of cultural events for the local community.

Staffordshire St will build on the established record of these histories, opening up again to the neighbourhood and developing a welcoming interdisciplinary arts space. More information on upcoming events at : info@staffordshirest.com or @staffordshirest

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