How dark it is before dawn
10am-6pm, Fri 23 - Mon 26 May
We asked you to take a seat and watch the horizon, pick up a blank page, or participate in artist-led workshops with brochure cover artists Doyel and Neil to draw your own New Dawn. Now see the final installation ...
Final installation
Drawings from around the world come together. They form a quiet chorus, a symbol of collective strength—individual lights converging into something greater. Gathered in The Old Courtroom in the centre of Brighton, the drawings stand as a living artwork, an accumulation of gestures, a ritual of devotion, celebration, and resilience. A reminder that even in the darkest times, a dawn is waiting to break.
Opening Times:
Fri 23 May, 12–4pm
Sat 24 & Sun 25, 10am–6pm
Mon 26 May, 10am–4pm
Watch the horizon
Take a seat and watch the horizon from one of our 108 Red Chairs popping up around Brighton & Hove
Various times, various locations - discover them in key sites around the city
Workshops
Join brochure cover artists Doyel and Neil of Howareyoufeeling.studio for a free workshop and draw your own New Dawn, culminating in an immersive, participatory art installation at the end of Brighton Festival. Limited places, first come first served
Sat 10 May, 2.30–4.30pm, Jubilee Library
Sun 11 May, 10–11am, 12–1pm & 3–4pm, Brighton Dome Founders Room
Sat 17 May, 10–11am, 12–1pm & 3–4pm, Brighton Dome Founders Room
Alternatively pick up a blank sheet from Brighton Dome Welcome Area on New Road and draw your own!
About the project
Artists Doyel Joshi and Neil Ghose Balser of Howareyoufeeling.studio were invited by Anoushka Shankar to create the Brighton Festival 2025 brochure cover and art installation, reflecting on the meaning of a New Dawn. They were inspired to capture the power and potential in the darkness before the dawn and the breaking of a new day.
The duo conducted a series of workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds drawing their version of a New Dawn, resulting in the series of images you see on our brochure covers this year. You will find more of these drawings appearing across the city throughout May. As more and more drawings from around the world come together, we celebrate this movement and symbol of bringing individual light together to become part of a collective strength.
About Doyel Joshi (b. 1991) / Neil Ghose Balser (b. 1991)
Doyel Joshi and Neil Ghose Balser are a Mumbai based artist duo. They run @Howareyoufeeling.studio, a multidisciplinary art space and studio founded with an approach to investigate emotion in relation to a subject. They create extensions of these in large scale installations, performance and interventions. Their work is rooted both in personal heritage and traditions whilst questioning the ideas around provenance.
Working on new formats of public engagement and challenging contemporary practices, the studio works in an experimental format and attempts to expand the scope of what art can do outside of traditional gallery spaces.
Their work in their own wedding in Rajasthan with tradition meeting contemporary and future motifs in installations was picked up by VOGUE India and covered in a large feature in their December issue. Since then they have had commissions including India Art Fair (2024), Hermes, Gucci, Architectural Digest, Sa Ladakh Art Festival (2024), German Embassy Delhi, Contemporary Museum Palma Mallorca (2024), Volkswagen, Lovebirds, Mugler, Herstory, Mercedes, Nowness, Vogue i.a.
Both hold a B.F.A from Parsons, The New School / New York in Fashion Design, Sculpture (Doyel) and Performance and Sound Design (Neil).
