The Invisible Sphere is a body of work initiated from a residential period at Augustiner Chorherrenstift Monastery in Bodensee, where a group of international artists were invited to research and develop a work responding to Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum — an allegorical morality play composed circa 1151, in which virtues and the devil are depicted in their wrestle for a single soul. What emerged from this period was a performative exploration in themes of identity, renunciation and rebellion: expressing an interpretation of Hildegard’s life-work through movement, sound, poetry, installation, film and photography.

Following an interdisciplinary performance in June 2024, the installation now features works created during this phase by Imogen Mansfield, who has since developed and printed the analogue materials in the darkroom and continues to expand and explore the project.

Hildegard von Bingen was a radical artist and visionary, who explored far beyond the usual limitations of spirituality, art and imagination – and whose works still today transport the mind toward places and forms that challenge and inspire our ever evolving relationship with the supernatural. Grappling with conflict, disobedience, madness, and the erotic – themes so intrinsically associated with religious experience, yet so rarely permitted to be explicitly depicted or engaged – this project is an adventurous and contemporary interpretation of feminist theological history and iconography.

The Invisible Sphere is supported by Kultur.Konvent.Öhningen, project for the cultural revitalisation of the former Augustinian canons' monastery in Öhningen, Germany. Developed in close collaboration with the artists Britt Angus, Tanit Graffelman Brucart, Alexander Weber, Wolke Milena Wilke. With silk pieces by Gemme Atelier.