To See, To Feel, To Speak, To Dare, 2018

Commissioned by Arnolfini as part of Now or Never

To See, To Feel, To Speak, To Dare hung outside Arnolfini, Bristol, for 18 months and was the culmination of a 6 week residency with Year 9 students from Bristol Metropolitan Academy, commissioned by Arnolfini’s young persons creative studio, Now or Never.

Over 6 weeks, we explored issues that mattered to the group and imagined new futures. Futures where we promote self-expression in schools rather than have rules to prohibit it; where policy is designed around compassion for the whole world rather than focusing on economic advantage; where people are not isolated from one another but brought together; and where effective rebellion is not just a dream. Each flag is a call to arms or an act of protest for the artists who created them.

Project devised and led by Bryony Gillard.

Photography workshop by Ailsa Fineron.

Source material from Arnolfini’s archive and Feminist Archive South.

With thanks to Sarah Durand.

Flags:

EXPRESS YOUR STORY by Amelia Balasco, Ana-Maria Anghel, Rowan Cochrane, Tasmin Woodsmith, Thea Povey, Lara Cheal.

EQUALITY by Alex Klik, @halle.belle19, Zehra, Aneesa, Vlada Slynko.

COMPASSION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT by Eleanor Day, Sabina Rahman, Yunci Chen Zhang, Morgan Aylife.

GRUMPY TRUMPY’S WALL by Clive the roof tiler, Jayden Weyman, Otis.

Now or Never is a creative studio that exists to amplify incredible ideas that challenge the way things are.  Playful, serious, bold and public, Now or Never initiates cooperative spaces for 13–18 year olds to work with artists. Together they create impactful prototypes for new ways of living. Our aim is to create a free space to discuss what to do when the world is slow, freezing or responding incorrectly.

*the title of this project is taken from Audre Lorde’s seminal text, Poetry is not a Luxury (1977)