Living by the Rule: Contemporary Art and the Medieval Monastery
2nd June 2026 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Living by the Rule: Contemporary Art and the Medieval Monastery
A talk by Dr Jessica Barker and Dr Ed Krčma
Tuesday 2nd June 7pm
This talk will be given by the two curators of a major new exhibition, Living by the Rule: Contemporary Meets Medieval, on view at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, 16 May – 4 October 2026. The exhibition and accompanying book explore the structure and priorities of everyday life by putting contemporary conditions in dialogue with a seemingly remote and alien form of life: medieval monasticism, and specifically the Rule of Saint Benedict (6th Century). Ely Cathedral was once a Benedictine monastery, and for the exhibition the curators have been able to loan important objects from its collections: the Ely Cope, and four examples of 14th century choir stall fragments, which not been seen by the public since the 19th Century. In addition, the exhibition includes a rare example of pre-Reformation English panel painting that were originally made for Ely Cathedral, the Etheldreda Panels, which have been newly conserved for the show. These and many more examples of medieval monastic objects and artworks are put in dialogue with works by contemporary artists, including two Turner Prize winners, Elizabeth Price and Richard Wright. This talk will introduce the exhibition and explore some of its highlights, including the objects from Ely.
Dr. Jessica Barker is a senior lecturer in medieval art at The Courtauld in London. Her research focuses on sculpture in northern Europe and Portugal, and she is particularly interested in questions relating to materiality, gender, and the history of emotion. Her first book, Stone Fidelity: Marriage and Emotion in Medieval Tomb Sculpture, was published by Boydell in 2020, and won the ICMA Book Prize in 2021.
Dr. Ed Krčma is associate professor of Art History at the University of East Anglia. His research focuses on modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on drawing, the relationship between art and literature, and the transactions between recent art and its longer histories. His first book, Rauschenberg / Dante: Drawing a Modern Inferno, was published by Yale University Press in 2017.
Tickets £8.50
Gates open at 6.30pm
