ARCHITECTURAL ECHOES Stacey Coughlin

Calm Harbour of Retreat

Installation Space
2017

CALM HARBOUR OF RETREAT

Life is big and scary. Sit down for a moment in this secluded spot. Rest a while. Contemplate.

Imagine your happy place.

The difficulty is that the 'big things' in life like happiness, appreciation, love are approached as cliché, shallow or superficial. These are words difficult to share with meaning in intellectual or social arenas. We can discuss death, depression and darkness and the challenges they hold, yet their opposites provoke recoil and distance – yet are they not what we want to experience?

WE // TOGETHER PRESENT

While you are here, you can help to adorn our temporary harbour of retreat with the things we appreciate.

Write down something you are grateful for. It can be bigger than a house or as small as the satisfying click of a light switch. Everything and anything/one/where that you experience as part of your everyday.

Write or draw this on a strip of paper. You can add it to the strings in the space, or, if you like, you can wrap it around to make a paper bead.

ME // ONE FUTURE

Now, while you are feeling calm and distant from your responsibilities and challenges, write down something you would like to work on, improve or consider on a strip of paper.

Now, make this into a bead. Take this with you to remember your calm harbour of retreat when thinking about your task.

If you don't want to take it with you, add it to the outside of the space.

Images for Calm Harbour of Retreat, by Stacey Coughlin