“the sensation of which was only ever more joy” | Jamie Crewe’s ‘Defiling Rain’

In June 2026 LUX Scotland and the University of Edinburgh Art Collection took part in Glasgow International presenting a new experimental work and performance by Jamie Crewe. Taking place across two days at Tramway​’s T1, Crewe’s collection of 30 short audio-visual vignettes – ​‘Defiling Rain’ – played in an endlessly randomised order, glowing behind a darkened stage which anticipated the performance that concluded the presentation.

‘Defiling Rain’ is a new and ongoing artwork. It is a collection of short audio-visual vignettes which take the opinionated animals and personified weather of medieval fables and abandon them in a city struck by disaster. Each vignette is a song and their lyrics describe fraught and fantastical scenarios that fall short of offering advice. They are fables with the tails lopped off, or the heads removed.

Using a diverse range of visual techniques, including animation, puppetry and collage, these stories without morals are lit by strange light, and are screened in an endlessly randomised order. In ​‘Defiling Rain’ authority has fled, or been overturned: the materials of commentary and instruction are deranged, and with their remains the work stages the awe, horror and joy of disintegration.

–Jamie Crewe on ​‘Defiling Rain’

‘Defiling Rain’ currently contains 30 vignettes, but Crewe’s aspiration is to make many more. These further vignettes will be added to its randomised order, so that vignettes from across the various tranches of the project will eventually intermingle. What is currently elusive will, in time, become overwhelming.

At the presentation during Glasgow International ​‘Defiling Rain’ looped endlessly in a random order across Friday and Saturday. On the Saturday evening we welcomed audiences to Crewe’s concluding event ​‘I Plied my Poesy’.

Accompanied by Richy Carey, Liam Chapman and Ross Taylor, Crewe presented an artist’s talk against the backdrop of live images of her detailed, vibrant, diaristic and process driven sketchbooks. Crewe reflected on this first iteration of ​‘Defiling Rain’ – a multiplicity of references and influences including writers Bruce Boone and Robert Glück’s poetry in ​‘La Fontaine’ (1981); 13^th century poet and philosopher Berechiah ha-Nakdan’s ​‘Fox Fables’; Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ​‘Memoria’ (2021) and its exploration of Exploding Head Syndrome; Crewe’s childhood remembrances of the Peak District’s house-like rock formation ​‘Mock Beggar’s Mansion; and the unique aesthetic proposals in Longman Video’s 1983 anthology series for children ​‘Nursery Rhymes’.

The performance was punctuated by live versions of the songs that form the soundtracks to each vignette in ​‘Defiling Rain’. Both ​‘Defiling Rain’ and its concluding performance reflect Crewe’s ongoing and characteristic exploration of genre, form and their undoing. Crewe’s fables are stories without morals, and Crewe is likewise both particular and elusive with the information given to her audience – no ​‘duration’ is listed for ​‘Defiling Rain’, singing voices are varied and unidentified, and a randomised arc leaves viewers with scattered words, sounds and images. The themes, memories, references and Crewe’s language are as varied as the material processes they used to create the work: behind them all are deeply felt personal, political and civic convictions, presented to an audience as vivid and ambiguous experiences, rather than lessons.

Crewe concluded ​‘I Plied my Poesy’ with a rendition of a song that sees a mouse enter a ruined city to live a life of violence. The musicians left the stage one by one until only the beat of Chapman’s drums accompanied Crewe as she repeated the closing refrain: ​“I am lost.” Crewe left the microphone and the stage still singing, their voice moving from artificial to natural amplification, and refusing a conclusion.

Interested curators and organisations can request a link to a recording of ​‘I Plied my Poesy’ by contacting Edward Gwyn Jones, LUX Scotland Project Manager at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

‘Defiling Rain’ included: bass guitar and musical production by Richy Carey; drums and percussion by Liam Chapman; keyboards by Ross Taylor; and vocals by Luki, Colin Self, and Jamie Crewe. The music was recorded at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, and engineered by Erin Sinead McHugh and Daniel Morrison Neil. The music was mixed and mastered by Richy Carey at èist sound. Open captions were provided by Valery Tough with Jamie Crewe, and live captions for ​‘I Plied my Poesy’ by Louisa McDaid. ​‘Defiling Rain’ has visual finishing by Daniel Hughes; and creative coding created by Considerate Digital. All writing, composition, props, camera, edit, and direction are by Jamie Crewe.

Between 2024 and 2026, the University of Edinburgh Art Collection and LUX Scotland worked with Crewe to support the development of this ambitious new artwork, and the shaping of an innovative production and partnership model.

This project built on the ongoing relationship the Art Collection has with Crewe after working with her on the 2022 commission and acquisition of ​‘False Wife’ – an offline website and moving image work produced as part of UoE Legal academic Dr Chloë Kennedy’s AHRC Research Fellowship on ​‘Identity Deception: A Critical History’. In addition, the Collection commissioned the corresponding publication ​‘False Wife Comments’ which acts as a reflection on the moving image work, and an insight into Crewe’s research. Crewe was also recipient of LUX Scotland’s Margaret Tait Commission in 2019, for which she made ​‘Ashley’, a semi-autobiographical rural horror film, and has since produced an online commission for LUX Scotland (a filmed artist’s talk titled ​‘PEOPLE HAVE COME’, 2020). In 2023, Crewe led LUX Scotland’s Winter School in partnership with Hospitalfield, programme a residential weekend centered around ​‘False Wife’. Crewe’s work is also now distributed by the LUX Collection.

‘Defiling Rain’ was co-commissioned by the University of Edinburgh Art Collection in parternship with LUX Scotland, with a copy of the artwork joining the Collection upon completion.

The University of Edinburgh Art Collection has supported the first two years of this project, and LUX Scotland welcomes interest from national and international partners for future partnerships to support the next stages of the project.

Images descriptions:

1. A large stage hosts four performers – a singer, bassist, drummer and keyboard player. Behind them a large screen live streams a colourful sketchbook spread from a small table on stage.

2. In a darkened theatre space a large screen on stage features a still: A close-up of a pencil drawing of a horse’s eye in shades of orange-brown and grey-teal.

3. Jamie Crewe stands on stage holding a microphone and gesturing with their other hand. In front of them, sketchbook lay open on a small table.

4. A photograph of a large projection screen showing close ups of a highly detailed sketchbook. a hand with neon green nails points to text in the sketchbook’s pages.

5. In a darkened theatre space a large screen on stage features a still: A fluorescing wooden puppet with a huge eagle’s head is seen through a monochrome window frame.

6. Jamie Crewe stands on stage holding a microphone and points to a sketchbook laid out in front of her, behind Jamie is a large projection screen live-streaming a close up of her hand and sketchbook.

7. A still shows a loose and milky sketch of a figure in profile, cheeks barely flushed, atop a scowling and eroded sandstone face, with a caption that says ​“condoms in the abattoir.”