Last Saturday was the pre-liminary event – the talk/discussion, soup and Book of Debts session. After accidentally setting fire to the toaster in the Blank kitchen just beforehand (It’s burning the books Alinah, not burning the bread!) I was somewhat in shock – as was Johanna (though the alarm system stood up to the test as did her response to the situation). We had prepared the Gallery with Gertu, with the red line and a text I wrote last week sitting above it… felt good and somehow safe to be surrounded by that text when I gave the talk, like we have landed in the project and are in it now, on site. There were around 15 people by the end – a small crowd but everyone engaged and full of pertinent and thought provoking comments, questions and feedback. Some had already given debts and a few did so afterwards.
There are so many levels of preparation to this project in the lead-up to this Saturday. From face to face encounters in the local area – via a wonderfully supportive community worker, Lorette Mackie, who took me around Emmaus with my book and sent me to several other places including a Freedom Club where I sat with a group of elders, reading them stories of debt from The Book and scribing debts – mainly social – into the project. I’m aware of not sharing stories here, even though I have the impulse to – because they belong in The Book itself, their dedicated space. But they can all be browsed online at www.burningthebooks.co.uk. They have been coming in slowly but steadily – currently there are 45 entries – and I am aware of how low profile this cycle of gathering is in Portslade, compared to what it might be in a city/festival context with a marketing/PR campaign around it, but it is handleable and also showing me a lot about which contexts might work best for the work – which remains a diverse mix. I am also aware that it is a confronting subject that a number of people are very wary about engaging with. Yesterday I noticed that what makes the difference between a bemused but suspicious attitude of reticence to engage and a much more open and forthcoming one was I being able to sit and read aloud form the book, and also the (general and not too specific) referencing of myself as a debtor.
Friend and fellow artist Jared Louche, who has been giving me some very helpful coaching around the development of the performance of The Book and the choosing/editing of the gallery wall texts, told me: ‘That it elicits…negative responses reassures me deeply that you’re on the right track’. I am in new territory here in some ways. I am used to making work that asks important questions about confronting subjects – around death, for example in The Gifts (2010). But in a soft way, mediated through objects, gallery spaces and installations (some of them involving books, its true). This work is a but more head on and has less lying between audience, and me and so feels more high risk! Today I had my last mentoring session with Ju. Giving feedback about the process of adding an emotional debt via the website., she put her finger on what it is that people find confronting about it;
‘ I found that being really honest with myself was quite upsetting actually ..But that’s a good thing. That’s the power of the work really … that it cuts across a number of levels – whether its financial or emotional or psychic – I think it cuts through to people asking themselves really important questions.’
I am fortunate to have these human mirrors around me, it would be easy to feel like it isn’t catching on quick enough, or getting an immediate enough, full enough response. But this feels like a young shoot of a project, and so much is being learnt which I am noting down for the next phase.
The Book of Debts is open to entries until Saturday 4pm. Anything submitted after this will go into Volume III, open from Sunday.
O, and a nice news story from Pippa at AN on the project.
