Yesterday we had two meetings; one with the person who is responsible for making sure that pupil's rights within the school environment are protected, in relation to showing images, videos etc. of them in the public domain. The other was with our film maker/producer, director Cassius Matthias.
There will be no images of boys shedding tears on this blog (repeat). In my ignorance I assumed that after the moving image had been made, we would do the right thing and request permission from school and parents afterwards, for the images to appear on websites and DVDs for future project development; but we were always going to ask permission. However, not so. We were told that permission needs to be sort well in advance and even then may not be granted. We've already sort parental permission for the boys to be filmed, so that's OK, but because this is for educational purposes only, Faga is the only person who can use the images as part of her teacher training. It's understandable and not such a surprise, after all, even though our pupils are full of enthusiasm and looking forward to being filmed, they are still children and need protecting, and as we all know, an artist's intention can develop a life of it's own.
At the very outset, this collaboration happened because Faga and I had had a conversation in a classroom one day about questions concerned with art and emotions; how does art express emotions? What feelings do colours depict? Is performance art all concept and no feeling? As artists and teachers the questions developed and an exchange of ideas grew. So that we could both explore common questions and shared visions further, we agreed to collaborate within the working environment of school and in fact, to place so much importance on the final outcome of an image is futile, because the blessing has already been received, the questions have a life and ideas are still growing, what more could an artist want.
Our meeting with Faga's friend, director Cassius Matthias, happened at the end of school; after the day's gruelling battles for elbow space in the corridors and thinking space in the classroom, we had a civilised artist's conversation at Faga's. Cassius led us straight into the scenario of a series of portraits, real young people, natural light, the camera's eye following through a domestic action, simply executed. We all agreed that The Cure track 'boys don't cry' was no longer an option, and that an abstract sound is more preferable. We spoke about the mechanics of chopping onions and the safety of the pupils; when I have performed this action during the past before an audience, once the tears start to fall, its almost like becoming blind, the eyes sting, and to continue chopping before an audience doesn't feel safe, chopping would have to stop. The pupils safety is paramount, Faga said she would give a demonstration to the pupils on how they are required to chop the onions in this instance. The pupils already receive food tech lessons in knife skills, and these skills are about the prevention of tears during onion chopping, but we want tears, real ones!
