June’s session promised to be fun! “Wearing protective overalls, you will become either a painter or a canvas. As the music plays, we’ll move together and gradually turn one another into living artworks. Expect splashes of colour, creative chaos, and more than a few moments of laughter.This is contemporary art at its most playful: part workshop, part performance, part social experiment. No artistic experience required – just curiosity and a willingness to embrace the absurd!”
– oh no! I have just cleared my wardrobe of all “clothes that do not matter”! So I returned to the Charity Shop to buy a garment that “didn’t matter”. And I decided to take two plastic bags to cover my shoes plus a shower cap for my hair.
Our session was led by Avril, who is a “movement practitioner”. Avril played gentle, calming music as she took us through breathing exercises. Then we worked in pairs to introduce some “movement to music”. Finally we took a coloured pen and a sheet of a card on which to make marks as we responded to yet another piece of very bland music. At one member’s suggestion, Avril played a different track. Yes! Much more inspiring. The rousing tones of Pavarotti soared out and we swung our markers in response. (I think it was “Donne E Mobile”)
So now it was high time to get down to the purpose of this session: PAINTING. With the temperature outside being so high, some members opted to paint their hazmat suits without actually wearing them. I retired to the Ladies so that I could remove my trousers first. And once the suit was on and zipped up, I did not need my plastic bags nor my shower cap. The hazmat suit covered all. When I read the desciption, I had imagined that we would be “moving to music” while wielding loaded paintbrushes to splash on one another. As it worked out, the painting was much tamer. My painting partner and I tried daubing on paint and then hugging.
The original blurb had suggested that we all went outside at the end, wearing our decorated suits, to join in the activities FPG had laid on for the opening night of their latest exhibtion. I carefully loosened my hazmat hood, praying that wet paint would not be transferred to my hair, then I ventured outside. Oh! where was everyone? I peered into the crowd of revellers, ears assaulted by the loud music from the bandstand. (You can tell my age!!) Anyone? Ahah! I joined a couple of members and we went to buy ourselves an ice-cream from the van. Then we sat and listened to “Dean Rodney Jr and the Cowboys”. No-one else had kept their hazmat suit on. So I went back inside to change. When I returnd I spotted another Contemporary Elder who told me that a Japanese Group were due to perform, I am so glad that I stayed to watch them. “Frankie and the Chickens” is a Japamese punk rock band. Their performance was lively, animated, and such fun as they pranced about the stage. While introducing the group, their leader made a couple of subtle jibes at the current controversial opinions about refugees.
The revelry continued on onto the evening, but I did not stay. After Lady Neptune took the stage the crowds moved indoors for the opening night of Rosie Ridgeway’s show, “Phantom Power.”
I always enjoy my sessions with Contemporary Elders. I went home happy. On reflection, I should have liked the session to have been a bit more creative with more moving to livelier music and more imaginative painting – but it was a very hot afternoon.

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