I can’t start to explain how quickly this year is running. It’s just sprinting along and I’m caught on its laces. Somehow, I’m meant to keep up, but I’m certain it’s impossible.
But, before you have to read the cry for help that almost became… there are things happening this month that will (actually) help with that.
If you’re feeling just a little overwhelmed, or a touch out of control…
The Plant That Stowed Away at Tate Liverpool’s current home in RIBA North is a spectacle of the small stuff. It’s a celebration of everything that nearly wasn’t, with a context on colonialism that makes it worth the time.
Then there’s Landlines at the Williamson, offering actual, real life, magic, in the form of alchemy and material science that will have you in complete awe.
Or Di Mainstone’s Subterranean Elevator, in the same gallery, that is literally designed to take you away from the world and deeper into a subconscious shared between you and the earth.
Meditation, magic and mindful moments (even those ones on Springwatch – they count) are integral to a healthy understanding of art, and what it can do for you. In a charged world, where time is passing faster than you notice, those moments of absolute wonder should always be had, so three months into the year, maybe stop for a bit, and find time to be in spaces that help you do you.
Or engage directly. Take a course. Build your skills. Build a new career, or take a new path in one you’re already in. There’s an entire world of craft, contemporary art, theory, thought and imagination that might open up. It might be a day course in ceramics or casting, pigment production or darkroom photography, painting, life drawing. Something. Each of them will change your life because for an hour, that’s got your entire attention.
You’re a quarter of the way through the year. Take the break. See something, do something, new.
Happy March. Let yourself be quiet.