Art / folk
Pervasive Media Studio resident tours new folk ritual artwork ‘Tender Exchange’
Becca Gill is a local artist and resident of Pervasive Media Studio, whose work has been commissioned by Bristol City Council, Mayfest, Green Man Festival and Wellcome Trust among others.
Gill is also the CEO and creative director of Radical Ritual – an inclusive organisation that explores “living, breathing, evolving folk traditions”, through “democratic, sustainable, and deeply participatory” public art projects.
“Folk is how we remember, how we gather, how we resist, and how we imagine the future”, asserts Gill. Folk is not static. Folk is alive, messy, joyful, and full of magic.
Becca Gill and participants in Tender Exchange
“It is shaped by the people, carried in communities, and reinvented to meet the needs of each generation. Reweaving connection in a fragmented world, we explore how folk practices can be reimagined to strengthen bonds with nature, each other, and the places we share.”
Soon to be touring English festivals through the summer of 2026, Tender Exchange is a new artwork from Radical Ritual that is based around this idea of building hope and trust through connection with others.
The hearts for Tender Exchange are created by woodworker Ollie Finn from FSC-certified or locally sourced reclaimed wood
The project is centred around a carved wooden heart, into which participants whisper something that matters to them, be it “a hope, a truth, a memory” – before passing it along to someone they trust, and the cycle is repeated.
“The heart beats gently in their hands, and as more voices gather inside, its rhythm shifts, signalling when it is full and ready to be returned to its chamber”, explains Gill. At this point, people join together back at the chamber to listen back to the stories (after which they are deleted, and sent out once more).
A participant whispers a ‘hope, truth or memory’ into the carved wooden heart
“Through this simple act of exchange, the work creates moments of shared listening, intimacy and care within everyday public life.”
Tender Exchange has been conceived in response to our time of increased polarisation and isolation, offering instead an alternative way of being that holds “slowness, gentleness and mutual responsibility” at its heart.
View this post on Instagram
Tender Exchange is touring from May-September. To find out more about the project, visit www.radicalritual.co.uk.
All photos: Becca Gill/Radical Ritual
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
