Performance
Guadalupe Maravilla with Penpa Tsering Healing Sound Bath for Cancer
Related Exhibition What Matters: A Proposition in Eight Rooms
Thursday, Jan 25, 2024
6 p.m.
Floor 4, Gina and Stuart Peterson White Box
This sound bath is tailored to those in the cancer survivor community.* Tickets to the sound bath are free and include museum admission. Reservations are limited; please confirm your availability before booking.
Please note: ticket includes admission to the entire museum except Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love.
Artist Guadalupe Maravilla learned about the healing properties of sound baths during his treatment for colon cancer. Now a cancer survivor, he regularly offers free communal healing sound baths as a form of mutual aid and care. Maravilla and trained healers play gongs, bells, and percussive instruments in hypnotic sequences that build into an immersive soundscape in and around his Disease Thrower sculptures. For this healing sound bath for the cancer survivor community, Maravilla will activate the sculpture Disease Thrower #15 (2021), accompanied by the healing vibrations of throat singer Penpa Tsering.
He explains, “Human bodies are over seventy percent water, and the vibration of the gongs can help balance emotional, psychological, and in some cases physical pain.”
*Please note: This special program is tailored to the cancer survivor community, including family members of someone who has survived cancer, who is currently being treated, or who has passed away from it.
What to expect
The sound bath will last one hour. Participants will be invited to sit or lie down in the White Box. Yoga mats and chairs will be available; participants may bring their own yoga mats, if desired. Wearing an extra layer of warm clothing is recommended. Please note that the White Box floor is hardwood, and the sound baths involve sustained noise that can get loud or intense. Visitors of all ages are invited to participate.
About sound therapies
Sound healing is one of many alternative or complementary therapies experiencing a resurgence of interest. There are abundant examples of the healing properties of sound in the earliest recorded histories: Greek physicians used flutes and lyres; ancient Egyptians described musical incantations. Western medical researchers began to study the application of sound and music in healing beginning at the end of the 19th century. They found that sound therapies can induce deep relaxation states in the brain, vibrate cells in the body, and produce a host of positive outcomes, including pain relief, reduced stress, and improved sleep.
Accessibility Information
Please email publicengagement@sfmoma.org if you have any questions about the accessibility of this event.