How Do You Feel? Saturday 14 August, 11am to 9pm

This Saturday 14 August Arnolfini, in partnership with arts company The Space to Come, will host a day of intimate and interactive events, inviting visitors to explore the work of painter Frank Bowling using their senses, imagination and memory.

Devised by Gaylene Gould of The Space to Come in collaboration with dance theatre practitioner Raquel Meseguer, Arnolfini, and a range of artists, writers and guest speakers, this relaxed event has been designed to create new, accessible ways to explore visual art.

Image: Gaylene Gould and Raquel Meseguer at Frank Bowling: Land of Many Waters, July 2021. Image by Lisa Whiting Photography for Arnolfini. All rights reserved.

Three ‘Feeling Tours’ during the afternoon will use stillness, reflection, and conversation to help visitors explore their senses of Frank Bowling’s abstract paintings. Visitors will be able to experience the paintings in a peaceful environment, prompted by playful invitations from tour guides, before reflecting on their experiences with others. Afterwards visitors will be able to process their responses through conversations with colour theorist and Director of the Centre for Fine Print Research Dr Carinna Parraman, and a writing workshop with multidisciplinary artist and writer Valda Jackson. Programme co-curators Gaylene and Raquel will also share their thoughts on the relationship between rest and emotional awareness. 

In the evening visitors will be welcomed in to the galleries to experience artist Frank Bowling’s paintings in a restful, relaxing environment either sitting or lying. Visitors will be led by choreographer Raquel Meseguer and musician Jamie McCarthy. McCarthy will interpret different paintings through improvised responses, inspired by Bowling’s own improvisatory painting techniques. Visitors are invited to explore and enjoy the artwork in a new way, whilst sharing in the experience of relaxing and resting together within a public space.

The How Do You Feel? programme began with a Radio 4 documentary broadcast earlier in the year called Transcendence: How Can I Feel Art Again presented by curator and Founder of The Space To Come Gaylene Gould: “Culture plays such a crucial part in our emotional development. If we are allowed to simply feel art, we can deepen our emotional ranges and rediscover parts of ourselves that we may have forgotten. How Do You Feel? is an experiment to see what happens when we use art to help us get us out of our busy heads and back into our bodies, to awaken our senses and our connection to each other. At The Space To Come we use art and conversation as tools to connect and heal us. Frank Bowling’s lush paintings are a wonderful aid.”  

There are three Feeling Tours, available from 11am through to 5.40pm, with two Improvised Rest sessions in the evening, at 6.30pm and 8pm. Each session is £5, £3 concessions. For full details, timings and to book please visit arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/howdoyoufeel/