Why not just Jam?
Here is a substantial list of thoughts that are the culmination of the past 6 months, and the way for the next.
I am very very keen to know what you think. Please let me know. And.. if you would like to come to the next visual arts jam and be part of that collective.. let me know / sign up š
exploring art as a doing word as part of my research to discover the plausible methodology of creating art beyond process.
Multi authored
Not end point focused
Not artwork focused , not commodity.
Because visual expression is the right for everyone and visual communication is a language every person was born with and understood instinctively. Words and numbers and these systems of communication seem based by logical learning from the (LHS?) of the brainā¦ whereas a visual, auditory, aromatic, taste and physical movement/s are languages of communication set in the realms of instinct and trust.
Visual communication is a universal language yet is as diverse as the individual expression of each person.
As we can collectively experience music and come together to jam, make sounds together, create abstract and seemingly random sequences of noiseā¦.we can collectively get together to create visual responses to place, to us.. to the contextā¦..based in real time and occupying volumic space.
As we can collectively experience, watch and hear dance, or performance, or any form of physical movement ā¦. We can collectively see what we express via our sense of sight, response via a method of curiosity (and play).
And as we āgo toā a gig, a concert, a school play, the theatre, cultural spaces, universities, community centres and even our homesā¦.we know that these pleasures and often communal gatherings are based in the Now, the present. When the dance, the performance, the sounds are over, then so is the event. We keep our precious recordings and photographs as souvenirs and powerful personal keepsakes.
In recognition of this then why not create such events but with the visual arts?
By working beyond Process, we can connect and communicate visually, based in the present moment, which is all we have ( the present creating the past and the future a construct to navigate paths and control).
I come from a painters knowledge and luckily I have a talent and deep understanding of the stuff that is paint and a deep appreciation of how making work ( art) works. I always struggled with the unshakable bond that expression with paint and paint-ing always results in an image. Because I have no interest in Things, in objects and in possessionsā¦. not a choice but I have noticed.
I had a hiatus away from all art based pursuits for @20 years and when I decided to pick up again ,it took me a while to square it with myselfā¦ to accept that paint is my Thingā¦ and to re-learn the absolute power and relevance using paint ( and making paint-ings) has in our world today. In fact, I realised that paint is probably the only medium we can use that carries āthe otherāā¦ that communicates not just the ideas from the artist.. but when done well it conveys the unsaid. It has with it readings that communicate ourselves, who we are and the world we live in now. I think this is because of the dance, the intuitive interactions and visual problem solving each artist has to engage with to solve the work they are working on.
And here comes the process of ( traditionally?) good painting, and I think of every medium someone works with.. we always have a starting point/ idea/ glean and so we do it and see itās not what we thought it would be. How can we make first time, first effort exactly the thing we thought of.. itās impossible.. when we see and look at ( hear, smell, taste) ā¦ our senses show us the difference of what we thought our output would be. Maybe itās because the senses are immediate ( for many reasons) and when we see what we have thought.. we could not have made it with just thought alone. And so we liaise, we look and we engage in a ritual, a dance ,a conversation, a mutual understanding of how the material works, listening to its limitations, possibilities, and song. This is I think what historians and a method of art is called process art. I think too itās ( and Iām at risk of making a huge generalisation here) itās about the doing of making the work that results in the end piece/ event. This probably links to jazz ( maybe famously so). Etc.
Coming back to Nowā¦.that art is a verb, beyond process.
From my angle of knowing about painting and being so unhappy, unfulfilled with the iron clad link paint-ing has with imageā¦ my practice took me into a space of pushing every expectation we / people have of what painting is and can do and I did authentically crack the painting/ image conundrum to make infinite image worksā¦. Any composition could be enjoyed and was as personalised to every possible person and could change every minute, every hour, every day, every location and with every context possible. Painting.. expanded painting was now time and event based, could be multi authored and documented by the public.
There is a seperate document with images about the expanded field of paint-ing work.. I created the umbrella acronym PaDA - painting as a democratic act. Also linked to DaDA in terms of the absurdity of pouring paint against the backdrop of the most vile acts of killing and greed happening across the world.
Beyond process then, we find itās the doing that counts. That art is a verb.
As well as working hard to find my way back into and authentically connect visual work and ideas, I had children and I became a teacher. This later stage of my life afforded me the discoveries that I was āreally goodā with children and was āgoodā with families. I also discovered that the young people and others who may: may not have been identified with SEN clicked with me. I seemed to just get it and understood.
These years gave me insights and skills to personalise teaching and I had a knack of spotting every childās talent .. and I saw I could learn a lot about someone from their artwork, any medium. It still holds.
When we had an illness sin our family this generally took me away from school / teaching and into the realms of education and life outside of the mainstream. I learnt such a lot, I created work to reach out and personalise art projects with young people not in school or college and I understand the ( politically failed) systems of support for those not able to access ( in the UK) the societal and educational structures that the majority of families are a part of.
I have facilitated personalised art sessions for many cohorts ā¦ SEN, all neurodiverse patterns, intergenerational, Alzheimerās, mental poor health, home educatorsā¦ and it became increasingly important to me that everyone.. absolutely everyone has the right to express themselves visually and/ or creatively.
If visual language is an instinctive language we can all access and reconnect with then why donāt we? Because I could not now make it to exhibitions, cultural events etc.. I understood what it was like for probably the majority of the UK public. Which completely connects with the core of my values when in London.. in my early 20s we *(1) had good art in council flats, forests etc and worked with the public ( pairing with an established artist) to create exhibitions.
So the public have to get it, the language of the visual is with everyone. I care. Itās not about me.
The artist as invisible, a facilitator, a guide. A provider of sets of possibilities, a host for people to engage in personalised finding out and personal connections. This artist facilitated creative thing + action=art.
That = art as a verb.
art as a verb.
Where the artist is now a collective of between 1 and groups of people. Like ADF, Reading Reggae Collective( maybe) and even a bit like the Happy Mondays.
Where the artist creates starting points and generates possibilitiesā¦. Of doing, of making and fostering creative thinking ( cuts across all areas)ā¦ mimicking my own method of creating work.. which is play.
Play and my lifelong noticing that I play to make work is the skeleton from which my practise now hooks onto.
In recent years I find I have a neuro diverse brainā¦ and mostly that which is not in my immediate sphere tend to just drop away from my attention. ( and, I discovered, those of us with similar wirings tend to āforgetā our professional successes.. which makes me sad.. as I recognise I used to just āstart againā when there wasnāt really a need. I just.. well.. not forget as such.. more that Iām always involved in close people, juggling finances and working out how to do what I have to do.
I mention the above because I recently identified my treasured time in the studio followed a method of play.. as a child would play in the playgroundā¦ remember re enacting TV shows, swapping characters, copying ( processing) events from life/ home, playing alone, with others, games with rules or just free flowā¦ so it has been the ost few years I am in the studio with a start point, Iām in a safe space.. and I see, I look, I notice and free flow intuitively through a sequence of interactions with the work. ā¦. Photographing ( a different perspective) .. playing. I can reenact, I can assimilate, I am influenced by conversations, events and influences from othersā¦ I have space to process, I can work alone and I could work with others. The safe place of the playground is the same as the safe space of the studio.. to think, work it out, ask What If, and be without judgement.
And so I think we are back to where we started. . . Art is a verb.
Ultimately ā¦ absence of being, paint-ing that captures the bow, snapshot of the momentā¦visual arts collective event.. time basedā¦.
ā¦.. imagine a ( workshop) in a room in a major institutionā¦ Polaroids are taken of peoples work.. everyone leaves
The leftovers, the no tidying up.. whatās left behind is the testament that activity has taken place. Polaroids are pinned as they were into the wall = no art no artists but the work took place.
Creative thinking enables confidence and connections, and cuts through every industry and section in society. Creative thinking and the freedom to freeflow and follow with ideas ( visual here) are a necessity.
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