Across the 2024-25, Grand Union has collaborated with MA students from the University of Birmingham’s Art History and Curating course to produce a programme of work entitled ‘Comfort near me’.
The internet provides endless answers when we search for comfort. Often, they rely on clichés, driving isolation and disconnection through the vague language of self-care. Typically, we are instructed to comfort ourselves through solitary actions like having a bath, making some tea, or practising mindfulness, but how can we make connections through comfort?
‘Comfort near me’ explores personal practices of comfort within Grand Union’s community. By working with studio artists and the Minerva Group, the programme aims to encourage sharing comfort found not just in physical places but in intangible forms. The programme intends to invite visitors to consider how and where comfort can exist further afield, explored through reflection and connection.
This project is inspired by artists Khairani Barokka, who explores space as a sanctuary, and Bella Milroy, who is interested in depicting the public and private, alongside the practices of Grand Union’s studio artists. Comfort near me offers multiple perspectives on how we create, seek and experience comfort in our daily lives.
‘Comfort near me’ screening and installation at May Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union, 2025. Image by Nina Bailie.
Graphic design by Sofia Niazi, 2025.
Graphic design by Sofia Niazi, 2025.
‘Comfort near me’ is a programme of work, featuring a film that reveals how Grand Union studio artists, Roo Dhissou, Sarah Taylor Silverwood, and Nilupa Yasmin, create comfort within their studios; a workshop hosted by Nilupa Yasmin with Grand Union’s Minerva Group stitching together personal narratives of comfort to make a unified artwork; and an immersive installation situated in The Bothy (public artwork by Alberta Whittle, 2022) brings together these components to reflect on and continue the conversation around comfort.
This project is sustained by the connections formed between people, the conversations sparked, and the questions we invite you to consider – how do you find comfort, and how do you create it?
‘Comfort near me’ is a programme of events curated by Niamh Davies, Katie Lansbury, Prakasit Prasertsuk, Kate Roden, Firuza Rodrigues, Lottie Sowerby, Megan Tolputt, and Lulu Wright from MA Art History and Curating in collaboration with Grand Union, supported by University of Birmingham.
‘Comfort near me’ screening at May Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union, 2025. Image by Nina Bailie.
‘Comfort near me’ screening at May Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union, 2025. Image by Nina Bailie.
‘Comfort near me’ screening at May Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union, 2025. Image by Nina Bailie.
‘Comfort near me’ screening at May Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union, 2025. Image by Nina Bailie.
‘Comfort near me’ screening at May Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union, 2025. Image by Nina Bailie.