These blogs are probably going to read a bit disjointed. I re-entered my second post this morning, and was rewarded with a complete deletion of my entire file on the a-n site. “Is good for meditation” said Wang-Du, a Tibetan hotelier I used to know in India.
For the time being I’ll just continue with the exercise of writing, and keep all files safe until such time as the site is glitch-fee and going again.
During last weeks session my three ladies: Jaswinder, Nosheem and Martine had really got their teeth into things. Having their doors in front of them to work on has made a huge difference to the way they approach the residency.
It’s been very difficult for them. Admittedly this has been intentionally so, but I think it may have been a bit unexpected for them. They signed up to the 10 week scheme thinking it was an art class, and art classes tend to be a bit more linear and predictable. In a situation like that, they would be given a brief, told what to do, and know what is going to happen from start to finish. As mentioned, the aim of this project has been to explore some of the root causes of marginalisation and discrimination. To do this we needed to take control and certainty away from those involved.
After setting up a series of initial conditions, I wanted the participants to respond to this sense of uncomfortable vagueness, and let the project evolve out and away from my directions. This strategy led to a lot of confused and concerned faces during the first few weeks, as the participants were taken through a series of processes that would eventually link up in the final exhibition.
Nevertheless, they have all stuck to their guns, and soldiered on, making endless documentation of each weeks developments, and turning the simple collage and photocopy task into bizarre and lively door-portraits. I’m dead chuffed with them.
