Into the Sublime: The Eidophusikon Reimagined

Monday 21 October, Wednesday 23 October, Friday 25 October, Monday 28 October and Wednesday 30 October 2024 | Wynter Room, Swedenborg House, London WC1A 2TH

Doors open from 6.30 p.m.

Performances start at 7.00 p.m sharp and last approximately 45 minutes.

‘Into the Sublime: the Eidophusikon Reimagined’ is Dr Gillian McIver’s reconstruction and reimagining of the iconic Eidophusikon.

It was created by the eighteenth-century French painter Philip James de Loutherbourg RA, who served as a stage designer for David Garrick at Drury Lane, creating sublime stage effects that astounded audiences. The original Eidophusikon, widely regarded as a crucial forerunner to cinema, was a small-scale stage set that combined dramatic paintings, lights, gauze, coloured glass, and smoke to create scenic effects. McIver’s Eidophusikon will follow de Loutherbourg’s plan of a five-scene performance while incorporating current contemporary art (by a number of London and international artists) to explore Swedenborg’s ideas about art and science, material work and the afterlife, and his vision of the Divine. De Loutherbourg knew Emanuel Swedenborg and likely painted his portrait which is currently on display at Swedenborg House.

The performance will take place in Swedenborg House’s Wynter Room—a beautiful period library—as part of a contextualized exhibit. The Wynter Room will be open to the public; the Eidophusikon itself will be activated with timed and ticketed performances. This booking is for one of these limited-run performances.

About Gillian McIver

Gillian McIver is an artist, art historian, filmmaker and curator based in London. Her residency at Swedenborg House explores the life and work of Swedenborg’s follower and acquaintance, the artist, stage designer and occultist Philip James de Loutherbourg—culminating in a creative restaging of Loutherbourg’s groundbreaking Eidophusikon (1781), an antecedent to cinema. Loutherbourg painted the portrait of Swedenborg which hangs prominently on display in Swedenborg House.

Though renowned in his time, Loutherbourg has been largely ‘written out’ of art history. Gillian is working on a graphic historical fiction about Loutherbourg, with the aim of drawing attention to this remarkable figure. Investigating Loutherbourg’s occult practices, theatre work, paintings, friendships (with Cagliostro, Gainsborough and others) and his groundbreaking inventions, Gillian’s discoveries and collaborations will be manifested in exhibitions and live performances at Swedenborg House during the residency.