At the Graves Gallery for February's Sharing the View: philosophy in the gallery session we looked at Bridget Riley's Rise I Then, as well as enquiring into the ideas arising (ahem) we played at making coloured lines with tape on a table.
I'm not sure in what way adding in creative play changed our thinking, but I'm pretty sure it did.
It doesn't cost anything to visit the Graves Gallery (although donations are welcome), and there's a bit of effort involved in getting to the top of the Central Library (although a lift is available). Very much worth visiting to enjoy all the art that's available to you there.
I also made the effort to get to London last month and was rewarded with free art there too. This sliver of video is from an installation space next to Tottenham Court Road tube station that I happened upon by chance.
Incredibly high quality massive digital screens were showing a host of beautiful imagery. My favourite was a few minutes given to being carried through images of a painting into the actual cosmos but I've got no video because I spent the time being blown away by the experience.
The free art I went to on purpose, was at the Tate Britain, chosen because I've never been before and it's a good excuse for a trip on a river boat bus.
There was an overwhelming lot of art there and I got a bit disoriented. But I did enjoy this sculpture by Barry Flanagan who set up the plan for the curator to choose how to arrange the sand filled blue pyramids and rope. It made me want to play too.
I also co-facilitated a weekend philosophical enquiry event with 48 participants aged from two to over seventy, some of whom made a bag out of old map paper.
I've got a big stash of old maps that I inherited when we cleared my parents house out, so they were free to me. I'm sharing the photo of them because it was very pleasing to see them made into something new and I think they're beautiful, although I'm not sure if they're art.
It feels important to me to appreciate having the opportunity to engage in creative play and the pleasures of visual experience. I think both gave me a fresh perspective to stimulate my thinking. Or maybe it was just fun. That would be ok too.