Imaginal Objects | Diane Eagles

Monday 3 February – Friday 14 February 2025. 10.00 am – 5.00 pm daily. Diane Eagles will be invigilating the display in person on Friday 7 February and Friday 14 February. Free admission. No booking required.

Gardiner Room, Swedenborg House, London, WC1A 2TH

The display shows objects from the Swedenborg House archives which were used during Diane Eagles’ object handling event, Imaginal Objects, for her MA with the University of the Highlands and Islands in Contemporary Art and Archaeology. At the public events, the group participants explored how our physical and emotional connections with objects can deepen our understanding of their meaning and value, using our sense perceptions, unconscious creative responses and deep reflection.

Inspired by the concept of Swedenborgian correspondences, participants brought their personal narratives, metaphors, and associations to the collective conversation. Alongside audio, objects, and photographs of the event are Diane Eagles’ and participants’ response artworks to the Imaginal Objects event narratives and discussions. There are also extracts from the Imaginal Objects discussions, which have been rendered into prose poetry. Audio and written transcripts can be made available.

Diane Eagles will invigilate the display in person on the Friday 7 and Friday 14 February 2025, which will provide an opportunity to handle some of the objects.

(Please note that object handling sessions do not take place on any of the other dates, with display materials being housed in vitrines.)

Diane Eagles is a London-based artist and NHS Art Psychotherapist, interested in William Blake. She is currently studying for an MA in Contemporary Art and Archaeology with the University of the Highlands and Islands, investigating emotional investment in objects. Her work is inspired by ritual, emotional and spiritual investment in objects, healing and power, and the historic/her/theirstory resonance. Ideas closely related to her professional career. She has contributed to the William Blake journal Vala, and to the Swedenborg Review. She has recently had work in the Hetain Patel Artangel exhibition, Come As You Really Are, The Hobby Cave, at Grants, Croydon. For more visit @edens_clay.