In House: Ree Bradley and Pete Gomes is the fourth of our series of duo exhibitions curated by Studio Voltaire's onsite community of Studio Artists.
This exhibition asks, "How can you translate the experiential?" Through sound, film and image, the artists seek to translate dynamic and intimate group experiences as they explore alternative ways of being together and inner psychological states through improvisation and somatic practices.
Ree Bradley’s The Mind is a Group Muscle, (2025) is a social project exploring alternative body-based therapies through group workshops and filmmaking. For this iteration, a group of men (including the artist) came together to explore the somatic practices of Re-Birthing Breathwork, Emotional Freedom Tapping and Dance Movement Psychotherapy. These practices led the group into unconscious and childlike states often buried in the body and breath. For the artist, such bodily states offer alternative spaces to question the relationships between constructs of masculinity and mental health. The project’s title references Yvonne Rainer’s 1968 performance, The Mind is a Muscle, drawing a link between histories of experimental dance and the use of body therapies to deconstruct notions of masculinity. Exhibited here is a version of the artwork, showing 16 mm footage and drawings from two of the four workshops the group participated in together. The wider social project included a somatic consent session for the group in response to the footage. Each member of the group owns a 10% financial share in any distribution of the resulting artwork.
Pete Gomes’ Does the river listen to the trees?, (2025) explores improvisation and states of extended flow at The Grand Gathering, hosted annually in rural Wales by musician Maggie Nicols. Originating from London Musicians Collective in 1989, the event was organised by Nicols to be inclusive to musicians and participants of any level. The Grand Gathering creates an open and inclusive social space for transdisciplinary improvisation over a week in a shared environment. Gomes chooses to translate his own experience of attending The Grand Gathering as image sequences, spontaneously improvised in-camera, using physical analogue techniques and an instant camera. The artist intuitively responds to the unfolding relational dynamics of performers, natural surroundings, more-than-human influences and his own changing psychological state. The photographs are presented as imaginary sequences emulating film strips. Ten photographs are used as material for a visual score, Does the river listen to the trees? The responses to this feature new improvisations made for the exhibition by Maggie Nicols and the band Siapiau (Maggie Nicols, Fran Bass, Phil Hargreaves and Richard Harrison) who regularly attend the event.
At the opening preview, two live events will take place, related to each of the artist’s practices, including improvisation by Pete Gomes (flute and Macumbista Benjolin) and Petri Huurinainen (guitar).
Ree Bradley
The Mind is a Group Muscle, 2025
16 mm, 10 min
Ree Bradley
The Mind is a Group Muscle, 2025
20 Oil pastel drawings
Each 21 x 29 cm
Pete Gomes
Does the River Listen to the Trees?, 2025
Visual score, 10 mins
Sound various
Pete Gomes
Does the River Listen to the Trees?, 2025
5 photo sequences
This edition of In House is curated by artists and studio holders Ain Bailey and Alicia Reyes McNamara.
