Artist Dryden Goodwin explores drawing as a means to re-animate and revivify the presence of individuals from St Giles’ notorious past. Realised as a series of etched metal plates installed among the throng of contemporary St Giles streets, Goodwin’s studies of heads and faces reference and reinterpret depictions by historic visual artists and ballad-mongers who once chronicled the area.

This part of historic London close to St Giles-in-the-Fields Church – filled with drama, danger, vice, poverty, and hidden lives – was infamous for public executions, street entertainment and overcrowded living conditions. Goodwin’s work becomes a study in revival, where the etched line becomes breath, and passed lives stir once more. Through drawing, he quickens the past, tracing its pulse in ink and shadow.

Presented by Bloomsbury Festival as part of the Strange Doings in London Heritage project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Read more about this project here.