4/ BUILDING A COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP: A DAY IN THE STUDIO (part 2)
With no clear plan of how to begin and where it would all lead, the collaborative day at last arrived. Siobhan and I had previously considered ways of communicating to Linda where she would be going and what she would be doing on what was normally her gym day. Rather than showing her photos of the space and of myself prior to the day, which may have been rather confusing, it was decided that it might just be best to welcome her to the studio with Siobhan’s familiar face, adhering to her normal studio routines as much as possible, to make her feel at ease. I knew that Linda occasionally had periods when she would suddenly become sad and cry for no apparent reason. Usually showing concern and comforting her would allow these moments to pass but there was really no knowing how she might feel on the day.
To my relief Linda immediately looked interested in the materials, and, following her usual cup of tea before starting, was keen to take a closer look. While she often needed prompting, as if giving her permission to do something, it was clear when she made a choice of her own. I wanted to avoid feeling as though we needed to create a finished, quality artwork that in some way validated the process. This was an opportunity to focus primarily on the way in which we could interact, each of our choices and actions ‘leading’ the other. I was conscious that as a facilitator or ‘artist tutor’, I would have focused on Linda’s material choices and established a method of working that she was happy with to enable her to work independently as much as possible, only intervening when necessary. I felt that it was important to continue this ‘conversation’ with the materials, to build a confidence and understanding that could feed back into the process itself.
There was quite a lot of passing materials backwards and forwards, with Linda pointing at me to do something and me pointing back at Linda, encouraging her to do it herself. I wanted our interaction with the materials to be playful which Linda obviously enjoyed although it was clear when a process or material did not receive her continued interest. I had some very tactile wools and threads that she had been interested in using from the outset, which we kept returning to, with other materials such as rubber, chain and coloured foam matting also clear choices.
After initially moving from one area to the next, experimenting with a range of different processes, some more successfully than others, we sat together at the table, adding a selection of materials to a circular polystyrene block that I had mounted onto a frame. We seemed to have settled into a more fluid method of working, with Linda gaining more confidence, happy to add materials of her choice. Having both enjoyed working within this tight focus, I felt that it was time to open up the process, to enjoy the freedom of the space, exploring a wider range of materials. I looked for Linda’s approval, when connecting the multi-layered frame to the vertical perspex rods, which we began to weave with a selection of colourful fabrics and transparent acetates, wrapping them around the base and interconnecting structure. We flattened some pie tins by playfully jumping up and down on them, glue gunning them onto the back of the structure. While engaging, it was obvious that Linda wasn’t interested in doing more, so we moved our focus to the frame made of acrylic rings that she had shown an interest in when first coming into the studio. We chose a colour roll of cellophane that we stretched between us, twisting it around to weave through the rings, adding some of the tactile wool and steel chains.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/121986263@N05/sets/72157643251975133/
