B & H Buildings, London, 6 March 2017

The Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings basement always appears to me somehow crudely reminiscent of an Ottoman Empire interior. Notwithstanding the concrete floor and ceiling, metal girders and French tapestry print on thin cotton sheets that line the walls – for me, it’s the low cushioned benches covered in patterned fabric that extend continuously round the room, and the rows of small holes that emit a kaleidoscope of pastel-tinted light from behind the tapestry prints…

When I arrived, all the artists present were young women – I felt as though I’d walked into the wrong hammam.

By the time a few more artists joined us, including some men, there were 18 in total. Gareth was running the show on behalf of Adrian Dutton. He explained his plan for poses: after 10-minutes standing, I was to rotate through four poses of 2.5-minutes, descending a little with each move. I would next rotate through four 5-minute poses, all sitting on a low cushioned cube, and then stand again for a single pose up to the interval – for this I grasped one of the girders for 13-minutes.

The second half began with 5-minutes standing, followed by two reclining poses each of 15-minutes, aligned east to west, then south to north. The session concluded with two 12-minute seated poses – one on the floor, the other reprising an earlier pose on the cube that Gareth had particularly liked. What an enjoyable evening! This venue is far from being a favourite but the format and times of poses fitted my style perfectly. I could be both expressive and comfortable – the artists seemed well pleased too.