On a very cold night last weekend I went to The Telling Part 11 in Doncaster. The Telling (http://forthetelling.wordpress.com/tag/doncaster/) is the brainchild of Warren Draper, a writer, artist and photographer based in Doncaster, (byline on his website is LETS MAKE SHIT HAPPEN http://warrendraper.wordpress.com/) who wanted to pull together a series of self created/directed events linking with, and drawing from, the ideas and themes of the Dark Mountain movement; “Fairytales for a modern age.” The events are held at the former Church View art college in Doncaster, in the courtyard space(which features an amazing painted mural by artists Run and Phlegm) and also utilising some makeshift indoor spaces.
It was brilliant. Musicians, artists, and poets told stories, sang songs around open fires in the courtyard. A troupe of Fox drummer-dancers did ritualistic dances with fire sticks. There was art to be found in the bricked up window ledges. A popup cinema showed short films about activism. Gorgeous vegan food was being served by the cheeriest but surely coldest women in Yorkshire. We stood around with friendly strangers, drinking hot mulled wine, listening to songs and stories, hypnotised by the fire.
This event, based as it says in the information was dependent on the gift economy. There was an all pervading spirit of co-operation and open-ness. This is the kind of arts event which feeds my soul; reciprocal, giving, magical.
Last week I had been reading Charles Eisenstein’s ‘Sacred Economics: Money, Gift and Society in The Age of Transition’ and struggling to understand some of the economic terminology (which he doesn’t explain very clearly to money dummies like me). One of the terms ‘externalised costs’, I couldn’t get my head round. Then, I see a short 20 minute animation at The Telling (part of a series called The Story of Stuff – about the ‘consumerist society’ http://www.storyofstuff.org/) and I get it in seconds. THANKYOU!
Another gift, my new found collaborator, Helen Harrop was there. There have been some serendipitous happenings with Helen recently. I know Helen ( a York based creative) through Twitter and we have met once in real life at an artist dinner in Bradford about a year ago. Last week I was struggling to come up with a proposal for the upcoming PANDEMIC Leeds weekend (‘linking art, performance and talks to the state of capitalism, economies and society’). One morning I woke up to some of her tweets (http://www.twitter.com/iamcreative)
“what can we do to overthrow loneliness and isolation? our own, as well as that of strangers?” #occupyhumanity
“how can we occupy our own families & redistribute wealth and power? Do you have power/wealth you can cede to the undertrodden in your home”
I loved these questions Helen was asking, about community and connecting – ideas I have been thinking about a lot. On an impulse I messaged her and asked if she fancied doing a collaborative proposal for PANDEMIC. She said yes, and within the space of couple of days we came up with an idea ( we are still waiting to hear so more in a future post!) It was joyous to work with Helen on this. We hardly know each other but seem to have a synergy and common understanding. I hope we can do the project. I’m super delighted Helen is going to be joining myself and Leeds artists Louise Atkinson and Debi Holbrook on 11th Feb in the next of our informal meetups to talk about gift/barter/exchange. Here are a few of the gift projects Helen has done
1) The Guild of Nossit Givers: http://www.flickr.com/groups/664864@N22/
2) I Saw This and Thought of You: http://istatoy.blogspot.co.uk/
3) Give Blood Get Art: http://givebloodgetart.blogspot.co.uk/
Also delighted that artist Emma Bolland, another Twitter- found kindred spirit is joining us too.
All these conversations and exchanges through this project are giving me so much. All the time , it feels more and more like a communal endeavor So, inspired by taking part in Louise Atkinson’s cross cultural print collaboration project ‘Borders and Crossings” http://artistasexplorer.wordpress.com/about-the-project/ I ‘ve had the idea of setting up a multi-author blog on gift and generosity so these exchanges can grow and be shared and continue and belong to all involved.
More next post.
