Q: Are the movements/gestures important in reflecting on libraries?
I find I have come a full circle in thinking about movement in response to words since first dreaming up the lost library project (in 2015, which coincides with the inception of the Bathing In Ignorance series of paintings) – back then I was thinking of dancers responding to the texts within the library, a turning the text into physical movements and now I am responding through movement, if requested to on the registration form.
In The Lost Library I am mute, new members fill in a registration form, they get a membership card and a word from me. The registration form has space for them to list words that resonate with them and to ask me a question. They can opt for me to answer in a movement &/or in a new blog post. (For the question at the top only a gesture was requested, but it’s an excellent question, so here it is!)
The movements I am using in response to the questions are an intuitive, unfurling response to written words, in a similar way to how I responded to individual words in the 254 paintings in my Bathing In Ignorance series. Doing something social and communicative is important in reflecting on how our society is functioning, rather than leaping straight into solutions. The allowing time for as many people to be involved in the thinking about things, not just the debate is important, as a collective stepping back.
Reading benefits me personally and furthers my own understanding of the world, but what is the use of this if I don’t do anything with what I’ve picked up?
I’m interested in how a particular place, the landscape and the people in it, influences the gestures and the words we each use? And, if there is a strong influence – how do we find our individual voices with all this exterior pressure going on? How to resist being persuaded by vocal individual of this and of that?
The only way I know of finding my voice is by talking, writing, moving and doing, even, and especially when I’m uncertain. Certainty has no place here.
I have many questions I’m trying to find answers to in relation to The Lost Library and I know there is a really important underlying question, much more specific than I’ve formulated so far, question improvement in progress!
