A Pause in Perception

with

Tereza Stehlíková - artist / researcher

&

Yasmin Watts - sculptor

Join us on Thursday 9 October for an evening of thought-provoking conversation with Yasmin Watts and Tereza Stehlíková who will be exploring the experience of place from two different perspectives.

London-based sculptor & architect Yasmin Watts works at the intersection of memory and material, creating a world of spatial poetics. She’ll be talking with us about how her life as a British-Indian of Zoroastrian heritage has led her to experiment with diverse forms, traditional techniques and the language of place-making to create what she calls ‘micro-spaces’: moments of architectural stillness that can be found in the overlooked creases, corners and thresholds that exist between languages, cultures and histories. As she says “these aren’t spaces to pass through, they’re places that pause you” - they invite us to stop and reflect upon our own relationship with the world and consider the way we live within it.

Then Prague-based artist, researcher & educator Tereza Stehlíková, asks us: “In an age where digital devices increasingly mediate and flatten our perception of reality, how do we hold on to the textured richness of the embodied experience?” Exploring the tension created between the allure of the screen and the immediacy of our physical senses, she’ll show how our dependence on virtual spaces contributes to personal and ecological alienation and suggests that the arts can do more than just reflect technological mediation – they can subvert it, providing new ways to address the multiple crises we're currently faced with by helping us return to our bodies and come back to our senses, both literally and figuratively.

What makes Tickbird&Rhino two-speaker evenings such a good time is never knowing how different worlds will collide until the conversation begins. So, grab a seat and join the fun, this is bound to be an inspiring night.

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Tereza Stehlíková is a Czech/British artist, researcher and educator. She is the head of the Visual Arts department at VŠKK Prague and teaches artistic research to PhD and MA students at the Academy of Performing Arts as well as the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. Tereza holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art, London, and is engaged in artistic research focused on investigating the role our senses play in conveying meaning. Her practice spans moving image, installation, and participatory performance and is driven by cross-disciplinary collaboration. She collaborates with scientists, particularly experimental psychologists and neuroscientists, investigating sensory perception and embodiment.

Tereza's book Exiled from Our Bodies: How to Come Back to Our Senses (Routledge, 2025), consolidates her artistic research journey. She is the founder and editor of Tangible Territory, an art, science and philosophy journal exploring sensory perception and embodiment, in the context of our increasingly virtualised world.

Journal: tangibleterritory.art

Website: cinestheticfeasts.com

Instagram: tereza_stehlikova

Linkedin: terezastehlikova

Yasmin Watts is a London-based, British Indian sculptor and architect of Zoroastrian heritage whose multidisciplinary practice explores the emotional, cultural and spatial intersections between sculpture and architecture. Trained at Cardiff University and the Royal College of Art, she draws on her architectural background to create immersive environments that reflect on identity, migration, memory and belonging seen through the lens of her own diasporic experience. Her practice is rooted in a sensitivity to space and form often beginning with structural frameworks that evolve into sculptural settings designed to hold emotional presence. Human figures frequently appear within these settings, rendered in gestures. Material, light and rhythm are central to her process.

Yasmin has exhibited across the UK, including the Vanner Gallery, Beaconsfield Gallery, Cooke Latham, and the Saatchi Gallery. She holds degrees in Architecture and Fine Art and has been awarded the Richard Sharp Sculpture Prize and the Sculpture Rosette Award .

Website: yasminwatts.com

Instagram: yasminwatts_sculptor

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image © Yasmin Watts