Slow Looking
‘Slow Looking’ is a term I came across last year when I was on the Tate Gallery’s website, it intrigued me, what exactly was it? I have mediated and practised mindfulness on and off over the years, but I had never heard of ‘slow looking’.
Spending time in an art gallery can feel overwhelming sometimes, there is usually lots to see, and the urge to rush around can take over. According to Tate Modern, ‘’studies have found that visitors …spend an average of eight seconds looking at each work on display’’
That is quick but I can believe it. ‘Slow Looking’ is the idea that we need to spend time with an artwork to really get to know what it’s about, we can give ourselves the chance to become more personally connected to it and find out so many things that we wouldn’t have otherwise. What would happen if we spent five minutes, twenty minutes, an hour or even a whole day looking at the same artwork?
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So, how do we do it?
There are many ways to think about this, various people, gallery websites and even podcasts recommend slightly different approaches, but here are some things that I would usually ponder whilst Slow Looking at artworks:
- What do I think about the colour or lack of colour? What do I think about the mark making? What are my thoughts on, Tone, Texture, Imagery, Material, Light & Shadow, Patterns & Motifs or Layers.
- Is there a story in the artwork?
- Can the hand of the artist be seen? I’m interested in seeing brushstrokes, chisel marks and fingerprints if appropriate to the piece. This is something artist Bharti Kher also enjoys, she said ‘‘to see fingerprints in her artwork is like showing the marking of time.’’
- Where is the artwork placed? What is the conversation between the artwork and its surroundings?
- How does the artwork or image make me feel?
- You could keep revisiting an artwork, to really get to know it, do you feel differently about it on different days or see it differently?
- You can find a way that works for you, there is no right or wrong. Lose yourself in an artwork and have fun with it.
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The National Gallery in London released 5-minute-long art meditation videos on YouTube during the Covid 19 lockdown in 2020 to promote mental wellbeing among the public. The videos show paintings such as Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’. There is nothing for you to do except sit back and relax and allow your eyes to explore the painting as the video slowly zooms in on areas and moves around the painting in an immersive way, allowing you to get up close and personal with art.
As a contrast, Shari Tishman in her book ‘Slow Looking’ says that looking at art doesn’t always have to be a meditative experience, if art is looked at in groups it can also be a lively and energetic activity.
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I am certain that spending more time Slow Looking will help my art practice in so many ways, it will help me to get under the skin of things, to think and reflect more. It will be interesting to find out where it takes me, and I look forward to passing the ‘skill’ of Slow Looking onto others so it can help them too with their Health and Wellbeing. A recent group I took to Bristol Art Gallery really enjoyed the experience, one participant said:
‘‘ I like the slow looking because I don't usually do it. So it’s really good to just take that time. I wouldn't normally do that ever. I just look at it quickly, so to me it was, really amazing. I want to study every detail, so it was good to make us stop and look and look again.’’
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Like many of us, I am a person who gets swept along with the fast pace of life. To slow down in general is such a worthwhile thing for all of us, but to take time to ‘look slowly’ at a single artwork is advantageous in many ways for our health and wellbeing.
Museums and galleries should be celebrated as places of not only creative inspiration but wellbeing too.
There are programmes set up for people with dementia that prove that engaging with art can help them exercise their memory, use their imagination, and create meaning for things to name but a few.
I encourage visiting art galleries and being enveloped in that environment but also to embrace this practise at home too, using something like the meditation videos on the National Gallery website, or joining an online workshop.
The more you look, the more you see.
SLOW IS THE WAY TO GO!
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