AMY POOLE
MEDITATIONS
Live Art Experiences and Installations
As part of Amy's meditation and spiritual practice she offers consultation or tailored commissions of mindful events and experiences for your group or community. Please get in touch for more information.
Slowing Down
A meditation to observe time passing, being aware of the rhythms of your body and the world around you, and becoming aware in detail of your immediate environment.
This meditation was written during COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, finding positive reflection within self-isolation. However Amy also wants to stress the importance of this shared experience for those with disability, mental illness or other conditions or situations, where isolation within the home is a familiar experience outside of this pandemic. Amy hopes that this meditation can be used during and after the crisis for positive reflection.
Amy has created this piece in two formats, one is an audio meditation that has been set to a visual. Or you can read the text here.
Part of Amy's practice includes creating alternative forms of worship and reflection. However all meditations are created without religious affiliation so that it is accessible to those with or without faith of any kind.
This particular meditation was originally published on Sunday 10th May 2020, for St Luke's Prestonville in Brighton and if it is of interest, the whole service can be viewed here.
In addition this work is also featured on The Wim Project website, as part of it's launch on 23rd May 2020.
The Wim Project is a not for profit arts organisation dedicated to celebrating and working through mental illness by using creativity. Offering support and guidance to individuals who have lived experience of mental illness.
Grounding
A meditation reflecting on grass, grounding and new life.
The piece is an audio meditation that has been set to a visual. You can either watch the video, or Amy would recommend listening to it while lying down.
Part of Amy's practice includes creating alternative forms of worship and reflection. However all meditations are created without religious affiliation so that it is accessible to those with or without faith of any kind.
This particular meditation was originally published Easter morning on Sunday 12th April 2020, for St Luke's Prestonville in Brighton and if it is of interest, the whole service can be viewed here.
WEIGHING UP A MIRACLE
An audio-interactive performance, focusing on thankfulness and the miracle of human life.
Through an interactive exercise with Amy, you are asked to reflect on the negative or stressful elements in your life and compare them on weighing scales to that which you are thankful for.
This exercise is accompanied with a 6-minute audio dialogue describing and celebrating the miracle of life and revelling in the capabilities of our intelligence and sensory receptors.
For today and into the future, we strive for thankfulness to outweigh the struggles in our lives.
This installation was first staged at Rich Mix, London 2018 as part of Body, Sense and Well-Being: A Live Art Event curated by Amy Poole.
SIT WITH ME
An interactive performance that encourages the participant to sit with the performer in silence, to find a comfort and companionship in this silence.
Providing company and space where there is no pressure or judgement. You are encouraged to take your time, this time is for you.
This performance was created by Amy Poole and first performed by Sofia Murwadon at Rich Mix, London 2018 as part of Body, Sense and Well-Being: A Live Art Event curated by Amy Poole.
PEBBLE
Pebble is an audio-installation, set on a beach and in the participants own imagination. The piece explores the tactile and sensory elements of this seaside landscape drawing on Amy’s personal experiences there, ranging from early childhood to the present.
This work aims to connect remotely with this natural environment as a mindful visualisation, creating an opportunity for escape, to question and explore the artists mind alongside your own response.
Please send Amy your address through the contact page if you would like take part in this artwork.
This artwork was first presented at Rich Mix, London 2017 as part of Scratch It! curated by YoPro Collective
WAITING FOR PATIENCE
A durational experience, watching paint dry as a meditation exercise.
For 6 hours, which is the time it takes for the paint to become ‘touch dry’ participants are tasked with watching the paint for an hour or more. Nothing else is allowed in the space, no talking, phones or even looking at other people.
Buddhists spend hours trying to achieve “a deep state of trance” (D Keown, 1996, 92) one such method would be to stare at an object for a long time, till you could recreate every detail of the object in your mind, “engrossed in the object until the awareness of subject and object dissolves in a unified field of consciousness.”
(D Keown, 1996, 92)
The piece makes people think about their use of time, and forces them to be still. To take a moment, because “Now is never just a moment. The Long Now is the recognition that the precise moment you’re in grows out of the past and is a seed for the future. The longer you sense of Now, the more past and future it includes.”
(A Heathfield 2000, 93)
This installation was first presented at the University of Chichester 2014.
LASER POD
Amy created two Meditation pods. Both 'A' frame tents with the capacity to fit one to three occupants at a time. Laser Pod is made from marathon runner foil and is lit with lasers. This creates an immersive environment for reflection.
This installation was first presented at the University of Chichester 2013.
MIRROR POD
Amy created two Meditation pods. Both 'A' frame tents with the capacity to fit one to three occupants at a time. Mirror Pod is made from thick white fabric and broken CD shards. The tent is lit from the outside. This creates a refracted environment for self-reflection.
This installation was first presented at the University of Chichester 2013.