(image courtesy of Julia Bauer)

How to Hold, Behold, and Be Held 

4 January 2021 – 28 February 2021

Rhiannon Armstrong brings together offerings from collaborating musicians, artists, and members of the public that explore how we navigate this time.

During autumn 2020, artist Rhiannon Armstrong and her collaborators created three interwoven artworks. For many the year was characterised by feelings of loss, loneliness, and distance. In response, these works reach out, seeking to consider together how we hold ourselves – and each other – against the unpredictability of existence.

How to Hold, Behold, and Be Held will be released on Wellcome Collection’s Instagram and explores three questions:

image description: a person sits cross legged on a carpet and is shuffling cards. In front of them are nine tarot cards laid out in a three by three grid.
image courtesy of Sacred Song Tarot

How do we behold the future and our place within it?

Every Monday for a month, view tarot readings by Daniella Valz Gen (Sacred Song Tarot) and Rhiannon, responding to objects from Wellcome Collection’s holding on Tarot, folk practices, and the occult.

4, 11, 18, and 25 January 2021

image description: white tex on a black background. The text reads The International Archive of Things Left Unsaid. The words Things Left Unsaid are stricken through.

How do we hold someone else’s experience alongside our own?

Every day for a week, experience a selection of testimonies from anonymous contributors reflecting on love and longing, from The International Archive of Things Left Unsaid.

26-31 January 2021

image description: A singer on stage holding a microphone, mouth open, eyes shut. Surrounded by 4 people who are holding parts of the singer: hands on their sternum, cheeks, and around their neck. There is a pixelated projection on the wall behind.
image courtesy of Ben Gregory

How do we allow ourselves to be held and comforted?

On demand for all of February, listen to a new work of sound art exploring how we use music to comfort ourselves. This collection of new music responds to anonymous contributors who have offered lyrics, a riff, or a musical hook that they use to calm themselves in tough times. Created with Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Cutter/Nash, dmf (Sop), and Katy Rose Bennett.

1-28 February 2021

After each part of How to Hold, Behold, and Be Held is released on Wellcome Collection’s social media, they will be archived below. 

How to Be Held

This collection of new music responds to anonymous contributors who have offered lyrics, a riff, or a musical hook that they use to help themselves through tough times.

In response to these personal starting points, to repetition and looping, and to ideas around self-soothing and lullabies, tracks were created by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Cutter/Nash, dmf (Sop), Katy Rose Bennett, and Rhiannon Armstrong. You can find out more about these individual artists in the information on each track.

How to Hold

How to Behold