Thoughts of the thoughtful, Landscape Two
A performance piece, developed at Somerset House and performed at AMP Gallery, 2025
Shanti Bell’s Thoughts of the thoughtful is an observation of what stems from within and utilises experiential sculpture, movement, and audience perception to provide a 360 view of our minds, thus making the internal external. The project investigates the freedom of consciousness - our patterns of thought and how self-awareness manifests itself. What comes naturally and what is learned? How does an inner monologue morph into a critical voice? How do the constant echoes of this voice erode our insides? How does the way we treat ourselves in the privacy of our bodies impact how we move through the world?
Bell’s approach to her work injects life into a medium that is traditionally static - the art process can have an entity of its own as the project matures from the birth of an idea to completion. Here, she has found magic residing in the stages between. There is high value to be discovered in the rawness of ideas in motion, and Bell has cultivated a live space in which questions can arise and answers may be found. The themes of this project provide the explorative bounds, but the visuals, movements, and sound are driven by real-time interaction with the sculpture. Promoting authenticity and honesty, Thoughts of the thoughtful is deeply personal and wholly relatable. It is vulnerable, but a vulnerability that we all share.
Landscape Two offers an intimate view inwards, voyeuristic in nature. Privy to the private. The basic human need to fit in contrasted by the ever-changing forms encased within a box. The intimacy of self-consciousness laid bare and exposed, revealing that although it is a personal experience, it is a mutual one. Perception is powerful and yet transient, as our minds constantly change and shift — wrong turns to right and illusion becomes fact. However consuming thinking and thoughts can be, there is beauty in the release and power in letting go. If the body is a sculpture, the mind is architecture. Our mental space is free for us to create. “As children, the first things we become consciously aware of are our physical bodies and the bodies of those around us.” To be self-conscious requires an activation of acknowledgement of the self. Aware of your skin, the gaze of another person, attuned to your breath, flickering between being observed and being the observer. These thoughts slowly become inflated and swollen as you begin to morph and transform your physical and mental being into false realities. Self-consciousness manifests within the walls of our mind but is activated by a reaction to outside perspectives.
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Shanti Bell’s Thoughts of the thoughtful is an observation of what stems from within and utilises experiential sculpture, movement, and audience perception to provide a 360 view of our minds, thus making the internal external. The project investigates the freedom of consciousness - our patterns of thought and how self-awareness manifests itself. What comes naturally and what is learned? How does an inner monologue morph into a critical voice? How do the constant echoes of this voice erode our insides? How does the way we treat ourselves in the privacy of our bodies impact how we move through the world?
Bell’s approach to her work injects life into a medium that is traditionally static - the art process can have an entity of its own as the project matures from the birth of an idea to completion. Here, she has found magic residing in the stages between. There is high value to be discovered in the rawness of ideas in motion, and Bell has cultivated a live space in which questions can arise and answers may be found. The themes of this project provide the explorative bounds, but the visuals, movements, and sound are driven by real-time interaction with the sculpture. Promoting authenticity and honesty, Thoughts of the thoughtful is deeply personal and wholly relatable. It is vulnerable, but a vulnerability that we all share.
Landscape Two offers an intimate view inwards, voyeuristic in nature. Privy to the private. The basic human need to fit in contrasted by the ever-changing forms encased within a box. The intimacy of self-consciousness laid bare and exposed, revealing that although it is a personal experience, it is a mutual one. Perception is powerful and yet transient, as our minds constantly change and shift — wrong turns to right and illusion becomes fact. However consuming thinking and thoughts can be, there is beauty in the release and power in letting go. If the body is a sculpture, the mind is architecture. Our mental space is free for us to create. “As children, the first things we become consciously aware of are our physical bodies and the bodies of those around us.” To be self-conscious requires an activation of acknowledgement of the self. Aware of your skin, the gaze of another person, attuned to your breath, flickering between being observed and being the observer. These thoughts slowly become inflated and swollen as you begin to morph and transform your physical and mental being into false realities. Self-consciousness manifests within the walls of our mind but is activated by a reaction to outside perspectives.
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The completion of this project wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team of collaborators to bring it to life.
Creative Director and Maker
Shanti Bell
Dancers & Movement Collaborators
Archie White
Hannah Joseph
Sound Artist
IRIS & AODHAN
Lead Production Assistant
Rooya Rasheed
Production Assistant
Suhas Kambhampati
Performance Photographer
Buster Grey-Jun
Movement Direction Collaborator
Ayanna Birch
Creative Film, Film Director & DoP
Reuben Bell
Writer
Saffron Cann