London Agenda: Generalized Anxiety Relaxation Centre

Saturday 11th February, 16:00 – 17:30 

Annka Kultys Gallery
472 Hackney Road
Unit 3, 1st Floor, E2 9EQ

In the closing event of ‘Cacotopia’ at Annka Kultys Gallery, Ruth Waters’ Generalized Anxiety Relaxation Centre is hosting a series of guided relaxation exercises by artists Mariana Echeverri, Katie Hare, Victoria Sin and Madeleine Stack. Each class utilises the unique power of the relaxation exercise to explore a variety of topics, from the encroachment of corporate wellness rhetoric and healthy living ideologies into the realm of sexual pleasure to the anxiety of the awkward silence.

Ruth Waters, Generalized Anxiety Relaxation Centre courtesy of the artist and Annka Kultys Gallery

«Inspired by women’s magazines, the capitalisation of self love and the wellness industry, Ruth Waters’ immersive installations use humor to engage the practice of individualised healing in a way that is at once critical and highly self aware.

Generalized Anxiety Relaxation (2016), presented at Annka Kultys Gallery as part of Cacotopia, a group show featuring five recent 2016 MFA graduates, is made up of a series of bookable workshops in meditation, relaxation and self love. Through guided sessions, the artist exerts control over the participants, reflecting the problems of individual therapy towards creating complacency in relation to achieving greater societal change.

Devising a logo and appropriating the ridiculous mantras of Jennifer Aniston’s personal trainer, such as “I love what I have, and I want more”, Waters demonstrates the way in which the wellness industry has corporatised often necessary processes of rehabilitation.»

– words by Ruth Waters, artist

 
Generalized Anxiety Relaxation
Annka Kultys Gallery
Free, no booking required