Workshops
Bookable wellbeing workshops and a live art piece based around themes of touch, resourcing, the natural world and what we hold close.
Held
During Lockdown a lack of touch from others pulled my attention to what else I could touch, what touched me and where my kin or community lay now. Already deeply engaged with nature I began to notice how much I used touch to gain sustenance from, closeness to and a further knowing of (intimacy with) the natural world. And using our sense of touch and smell has been shown to increase wellbeing and engagement with nature 3 or 4 times more than passive encounters with nature such as a walk.
These workshops are designed to help retrieve our sensitivities of touch and cultivate a sense of intimacy with nature whilst also exploring ideas of the reciprocity of touch and plant intelligence. The knowing of plants also supports the knowing of ourselves. We will note shifts in our bodies in relation to nature and what stories or images arise as we quietly spend time with our natural environs. We will use photography, writing or drawing to document our experience or any other form which feels right for you.
My next workshop: “Held: cultivating touch, attention and intimacy with nature” is on 9 October in St Anne’s Wells Gardens, Hove. Please see here for more information and to book.
And these explorations are not just for the health and sustenance of humans but for that of our ‘more than human’ kin too. Encouraging kinship with nature not only gives us a greater sense of belonging and wellbeing but also makes it harder for us to continue to do or to witness harm to the natural world.
“Held” workshops are currently run outdoors but also work well indoors with houseplants or the natural artefacts and items we have in our homes so this workshop can be delivered online too, ideal for people with disabilities or health problems or have difficulty leaving their home.
I’m also happy to support people therapeutically on a one to one basis or deliver this workshop to your group or organisation indoors or out.
Please join my mail list (link) or check back here for upcoming workshops. Feel free to contact me: clare@clareplumley.co.uk
Touch hunger
Touch Hunger part live experience, part workshop run in partnership with Ali Hannon which brings us into the felt experience of eating, digestion and fermentation, developed to illicit an embodied response around our perception of touch, connection and ingestion. Expect eating meditation, fermented soda-making, spoken word, free writing and a one to one improvised encounter from Ali exploring human intimacy. We are currently delivering this workshop online for groups of 6 people.
“I talked to lots of people about yours and Ali’s piece, it was so special...felt like one of the few online performance experiences I’ve had with online work where the makers made genuine performative magic out of the platform and it’s conditions, and a sense of connection that was unique to that situation. Really got me thinking. Thank you so much for inviting me into it.”
E.Mallin Parry. Trans*disciplinary artist, designer & performance-maker.