“Witch Hunt is a mass of limitless contradictions. There is nothing subtle about this work, not in its scale or message. Initially, it is like being stuck in a postmodern whirlwind with thousands of voices being articulated by the braying mob. Once the over-stimulation subsides, the phenomenal detail of Delaine’s embroidery and textiles, the high level of attention to every corner of the gallery comes to the fore. The outsider is no longer the outsider, but united in this carnival of exile.”

Debbie Savage, AN, 2010

As part of the UK Romany community (Roma being the largest ethnic minority in Europe), Delaine Le Bas explores many of the experiences of intolerance, misrepresentation, transitional displacement and homelessness that the community continues to face. Witch Hunt is a multimedia project comprising installation, performance and new music. Delaine has created new ecclesial structures reflecting the religious dimension of the ‘Witch Hunt’, weaving within them new work which explores the role of language in identifying the ‘other’.

Witchcraft was built around words, as much dependent on lost ways of speaking as on particular incantations. Witches, like Gypsies, have provoked unmatched levels of hysteria, excitement and persecution. Their tongues may not be forked, but they threaten invisible borders as outsiders camped within.

*All exhibitions and events prior to 2012 are credited to The Context Gallery, our former name.