Reciprocity

A week in reciprocity, part one:

1. “Slavery never ended in the nineteenth century, it was merely re-branded and marketed to us in a different packet. The monetary economy doesn’t serve us, we serve it” Mark Boyle, The Moneyless Manifesto”.I got this book from the library and read it this week. It details the author’s decision to live without money, the philosophy he developed on the way and how he went about it. It is a thought-provoking, eye opening look at living without (or being less dependent on) money which is totally non-pious and also pretty entertaining. It’s making me think a lot and given me ideas for possible projects. You can read the book for free here.http://www.moneylessmanifesto.org/

2. Our friend, public artist Martin Heron (http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=4855) came to stay last weekend. Martin lives in France but works in the UK, currently on a collaborative public project with a residential community in Hull. We had a very interesting chat about the politics of participation, touching on ideas of permission, authority, and hierarchy. It’s given me much to think about.

3. I did a daily mini zine exchange project with my nephew Oisin, age 10, when he visited us for a few days over half term with his dad and sister. We each made four zines. We agreed that we wanted to continue the project so we are going to make a zine each week and send it to each other for the next 5 weeks. Fun.

4. A letter arrived from Cruse Bereavement Care, thanking me for my donation of £75 and asking me to fill in an evaluation form for the one to one sessions counselling sessions I had recently with them. (This is a free service, provided by a trained voluntary counsellor ) These sessions were invaluable to me at a time when I was feeling overwhelmed by the losses of my grandmother and a close friend who both died last summer. I am so grateful to Cruse for their support http://www.crusebereavementcare.org.uk/

5. An email from fellow a-n blogger Stuart Mayes (www.a-n.co.uk/p/377860/). Stuart emailed me directly to answer a question I had asked him via the comments section of his blog about the ‘Art and Social Context course’ he did at Dartington College of Arts. In his email Stuart explained the ethos and philosophy of the course. Since I started blogging on a-n last year, Stuart has shown me a lot of generosity, taking the time to encourage and support my work and my blogs. I really appreciate this.

6. Studio day, working with some photographs from my Nana’s archive. I am just about to start the process of scanning and sharing the archive with my extended family who are scattered across Scotland, England and Australia. Hopefully this will also involve sharing stories and memories and making a booklet to distribute among all the family. I’ve also applied for a photographic residency in Glasgow to collaborate with family there in response to the archive. Fingers crossed. This week I emailed a couple of my cousins in Australia and one in Manchester about sharing the archive. I haven’t been in touch with them for a while but all were really positive. I’m excited about what this project might bring us all.

7. Vantage art Prize, Thursday 21^st February: a new cross arts prize, by and for Leeds artists, curated by live artist Adam Young for Departure Arts Foundation () 45 artists living and/or working in Leeds were shorlisted, including me, for my text work ‘Recipe For Reciprocity’ which I showed as two A1 posters. The vibe of the night was very supportive and celebratory. – a great sense of excitement and goodwill abounded. Adam is just great – very proactive in artist-led activity in Leeds and full of energy and good humour. I chatted with artist and a-n blogger Alice Bradshaw about value and money (www.a-n.co.uk/p/2334120) who told me about a book on the gift economy she had been reading and thought I might be interested in – she tweeted me the link next day: ‘The Social Life of Things’ ed. Arjun Appaduri ( ) Thanks Alice!

Inaugural ‘Art Coven’ meet up last week in Leeds with artist Louise Atkinson (http://louiseatkinsonblog.blogspot.co.uk/) Debi Holbrook (http://debiholbrookartist.wordpress.com) Helen Harrop (http://letcreativitybegin.co.uk) and Emma Bolland (http://youwillhearmecall.wordpress.com) -getting together to talk loosely about ideas of gift/exchange/value/reciprocity

Three happy and lively hours spent talking, listening, laughing.

Here’s is a very partial snapshot of stuff we talked about. There were so many ideas and conversations flying it was impossible to keep track of everything (so apologies to the others for stuff I’ve missed out) but here are some of the things that have stuck in my mind:

Value and worth of artworks (Helen) Pricing work. Ambivalence for some of us around the market: comfort/discomfort with naming a price for an artwork. Is it easier to put a price on your time as an artist than a piece of work ?(depends who is paying) Attachment to artworks we make- not wanting to let them go (Lou)

Grizedale Arts Honesty Shop http://www.grizedale.org/ Selling locally produced produce, crafts and baking… Pay what you want. The shop contains artworks and other donated items objects become re-contextualised/aestheticised as a consequence of the nature of the space. The local community are involved and support it. (Emma)

Debi: exchange/ gift economy going on informally in her neighbourhood in Leeds.. thinking documenting this via blog..

Thinking about the possibility of running a temporary popup free shop in one of Fabric Bradford`’s temporary shops http://www.fabricculture.co.uk/blog/fabric-takes-m… (Jean) discussion about how this would work.. How would people use/engage with it? do you impose rules on how much stuff you can take? Can people donate? How clear should this be made? Like the idea of no rules.. an experiment.. but giving stuff away is difficult.

Everyone is an artist.??? professional vs amateur..

Giving attention: (Simone Weil: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity,”)

Idea of project offering attention. (eg offering to meet for coffee) What, if any limits do you put on this? Is putting any kind of limit ungenerous? Discussion about sharing/oversharing –

http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/08/why-we-overs… (link via Lou)

Talking about the framing and documenting of relational/participatory art projects. The artists documents, controls, frames the experience? Then owns the experience and calls it art? Power, hierarchies. Is it art or isn’t it? Keep it ephemeral?Our experiences are always filtered through our own perceptions (Helen) each person will have a a completely different experience of an encounter – so documenting is problematic.

‘The relationship economist ‘ applying economic principles to love http://m.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/09/r… (link via Lou)

Alain Badiou’s ‘In Praise of Love’ ( Emma) about the commodification of love

Finishing with a quote from a David Whyte poem Helen tweeted me after the meeting

“Innocence is what we allow/ to be gifted back to us/ once we’ve given ourselves away.”

A great, thought provoking, social meeting – we all clicked – looking forward to the next gathering.

A couple of discoveries today:

“Ways of Knowing” an experimental year long project “exploring the different registers, values and subjectivities of collaborative research”

http://waysofknowingresearch.wordpress.com/

I found out about the project because I follow one of the participants, Sheffield University academic Kate Pahl on twitter. (http://twitter.com/KatePahl) I came across Kate’s work via enthnographer Irna Qureshi who works with Kate. I’m extremely interested in collaborative research practices so discovering this project at this stage when it is just beginning is great timing for me.

Secondly a pretty fine blog article on participatory art, “Beuys’ Concept of Social Sculpture and Relational Art Practices Today”, discussing the work of Joseph Beuys, Jeremey Deller and Thomas Hirschhorn

http://rosswolfe.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/beuys-co…

I’m also thinking about a possible popup project for one of Fabric (http://www.fabricculture.co.uk/) empty shop spaces in Bradford. Fabric have recently aquired seven new spaces in the city centre and are offering people the opportunity to run events/popup projects in them. An exchange project? A free shop? Reading Eisenstein discussing historical examples of alternative currencies such as the Worgl experiment in Austria http://www.lietaer.com/2010/03/the-worgl-experimen… and the WIR in Switzerland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIR_Bank is getting my brain whirring.

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 11^th 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.

A busy week, reciprocity wise.

Been reading Grant H Kester’s “Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially Engaged Art” (downloadable pdf: www.grantkester.net/…/Conversation+Pieces_+The+Role+of+Dialogue+in+Socially-Engaged+Art.pdf) in which he talks of the artist’s role in participatory art of ‘creative orchestration’ – which seems like a good description of what I’m aiming to do with this project. I really like how he writes and plan to seek out more of his writing.

I’ve also been investigating the work of US artist and writer Suzanne Lacy (http://www.suzannelacy.com/) who works with performance, collaboration and activism. She developed the idea of ‘new genre’ public art in her essay collection ‘Mapping the terrain: new genre public art’, about the impact of performance art in public spaces. An early seminal project includes “Three Weeks in May”(1977), which was an event which combined a performance piece on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall with self-defence classes for women in an attempt to highlight sexual violence against women.Lacy revisited the theme of rape for a commissioned work for last year’s Liverpool Biennial:

“As part of Liverpool Biennial, Lacy extends her project to raise awareness and debate around the problem of rape and domestic violence. At the Cunard, she will present a screening of Storying Rape, a performative conversation that took place between seven civic and cultural leaders at the top of Los Angeles City Hall. Shaped by literary theory, this conversation focused on how the narrative of rape is presented in various public spheres – and how re-framing this narrative might improve public understanding and lessen this form of against women. A second room presents a social media campaign that will be launched during the Biennial, accompanied by a series of conversations about rape and domestic violence that will take place around the city including at Metal. Young people, politicians and community leaders will discuss a subject that for many remains taboo.”

http://liverpoolbiennial.co.uk/programmes/festivals/artists/42/4/2012/355/suzanne-lacy/

Wish I had been able to experience this, but my Liverpool trip was taken up with the ‘Inhospitable’ exhibition I was involved in as part of the Liverpool Independents. Ach well, you can’t do everything can you.

I also met up with Bradford-based anthropologist and oral historian Irna Qureshi to talk to her about reciprocity in her practice. I have been interested in Irna’s work for some time and finding out about her work particularly with the Muslim community in Pakistan and in the UK was fascinating. A illuminating (and very entertaining) 2 hours flew by as she told me about projects past and present. It was a joy, just to talk and discover. There’s not enough space here, so I plan to transcribe the interview and publish it in Issue 2 of my ‘Reciprocity’ zine, hopefully published in early March.

I’ve started work on the collaborative e-zine I’m doing with artist and a-n blogger Sophie Cullinan documenting our daily exchanges of words and images during my Generosity Advent Calendar in December last year. It’s going to be fun (and maybe a bit logistically challenging) to collaborate on a zine via email, but its as much about learning about the process as the finished publication and I’m really looking forward to working with Sophie on it.

And finally, thinking about a project for PANDEMIC Leeds, a weekend event ‘linking art, performance and talks to the state of capitalism, economies and society’ happening 26^th/27^th April, http://pandemicleeds.wix.com/pandemic. Seems an apt opportunity for this project, need to sort out a proposal before the deadline 31^st Jan.

With all this going on I haven’t even got near my new book purchase ‘Sacred Economics: Money, Gift and Society in The Age of Transition’ by Charles Eisenstein (as recommended by Alinah Azadeh in her cracking a-n blog ‘Burning The Books’ www.a-n.co.uk/p/2831785/.

Well, maybe the weekend.

Happy Friday, everyone.