For a while, Larks and Ravens have been creating cardboard ‘gods’ as characterful instantiations of concepts which shape our culture. We’re intrigued by this question: “what are the ‘gods’ which led our society to where it is today and what might be counter ‘gods’ who could take us somewhere different?”

We find the creative act of personifying abstract concepts (e.g. justice, inequality, meritocracy, progress etc) in physical form helps us unravel and explore their essence. It also generates tangible, relatable characters to trigger thinking and conversations. Rightly or wrongly, we loosely call them ‘gods’ in recognition of their invisible power (or, more accurately, the power we humans gift them with) to shape our cultural and political thinking and the narratives we tell ourselves.

With the above questions in mind, we invited 4 Bristol artists to supper suggesting each create a ‘god’ to bring to the table and join the conversation. Co-hosting our gathering were 2 of our own more recent characters – a Nuance goddess and alongside (a work in progress) a Growth god inspired by the UK government’s obsession.

Having prepared the supper, opened some wine and started nibbling crisps, we waited in eager, if slightly nervous anticipation, for our guests to arrive… and soon they did carrying (to our delight) bags and boxes containing guest gods.Once seated, bags and boxes were opened one at a time and a diversity of gods and concepts emerged and were duly introduced … sometimes through interactive performance.

Our conversation around the table was fascinatingly wide ranging often triggered by the complexity of everyday concepts brought physically to life all around us – who are these ‘gods’? is god even the right term? is it offensive or unhelpful? how do they relate (if they do at all) to God or to the ancient gods of Greek myths? What did the things we had created say about us? Do they reflect back to us who we are? And how did they relate to each other? I was particularly pleased when ‘Mother Earth’ (above right) smothered Growth in his rocking chair rather than the worrying reverse.

Sadly, I had to leave the evening to drive home to Wales (along with cardboard Nuance as company) but clearly the discussion around the table wasn’t going to stop for quite a while.

We’d like to thank artists: Jo, Lou, David and Emma & their ‘gods in bags’ for a wonderful evening of exploring with us through art, good food and conversation, the bizarre world we all inhabit.

“World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.”
― Louis MacNeice