Performance, Friday Lates, The National Gallery, London Room 8, 20 February 2026, 6.30 and 8.00 pm Projection on 2x4m concertina screen, live performer, whisper choir in 3 voices. ‘Still thinking, sinister thuds through sombre thrashings soon shall suffice amongst those seemingly sensuous silences once secretly sewn.’ Inspired by the multifaceted symbolism of serpents in the galleries, artist Wiebke Leister and movement director Vanessa Ewan developed a performance of interconnected poses, images and whispers, into a multimedia portrayal of the interaction between humans and snakes. Echoing the satyr entwined by snakes in Titian's painting ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’, the performance uses motifs of shadowing, slithering, entwining, doubling, and other acts of 'snakelation' to isolate and connect the different figurations by means of photography, movement and spoken word. In Renaissance philosophy, snakes embodied paradoxical tensions between science, myth and symbolism: they were at once natural beings, moral agents and vehicles of transformation. Although Titan's twisting composition of undulating snake movement appears fantastical in context, it is anatomically convincing and reflects contemporary theories that nature can be empirically observed, morally charged and allegorically interpreted. Based on a transformative snake-study, the projection embeds body shapes in contrastive studio settings with the detailed texture of X-rays of paintings by Titian, Garofalo and Poussin. As the live performer and her shadow interact with the projected figure and its shadow in abstracted layers, the soundscape emerges from the fringes of the sibilant tongue-twister quoted above. Visuals & text: Wiebke Leister; Movement direction: Vanessa Ewan; Performer: Rebecca Kleineidam; Whisperers: Emily Orley, Beverley Carruthers, Sharon Young; Curation: Joseph Kendra; Musical advisor: Cameron Graham; Projection structure: Jeroen van Dooren.