It has been a while since I posted on this project: the nature of the exchange process means once the image has winged its way across cyberspace to my sister, I forget about it all until her response hits my email inbox. This is a novelty for me. Normally I am consumed by ongoing projects and find it difficult to let go.
Three days ago I recieved the latest response. The conversation is taking shape. I had no idea at the beginning how it would evolve, and how the works would relate, and it is fascinating to see the ongoing references and quotations beginning to make their presence felt.
I was unsettled at the beginning, and nervous about opening the initial responses. My underlying fear was of not liking what I saw, or not thinking it good: I realised I didn’t want to “not like’ her work because this might infiltrate my own response and I didn’t want it to be critical- but I did not want to feel I was censoring my reaction. In actual fact though, liking/not liking/judging has become irrelevant because I am more fascinated by the underlying content of each piece, and this aspect becomes the basis of my response.
This is an encouraging revelation for my wider practice. The discovery that I can happily be inspired to use any piece as a platform for my own work has opened up some exciting possibilities for more collaborative work, a couple of which I am actively pursuing.
