F405i Session 01

Thank you Natalia, it was lovely meeting you too and as someone who has not done a course for at least 20 years I really enjoyed doing this first assignment. Both the video and text were really interesting and inspiring and I got so much out of them. Hopefully my answers will concur.

Paulo Freire: Discussing Dialogue

A – How do you think one can create dialogue across economic, political, social, and educational lines that divide society?

This can be achieved by talking to each other respectfully as equals, not, as Paulo Freire says, with ‘narrating subjects and patient, listening objects’. Instead, both must take on the narrator and listener roles, being passive and active at each turn. Each must question and respond, sharing information, reflecting and discussing, hearing out each other’s views, challenging them (or not), and offering solutions. Narrating and listening in equal measure so both sides teach each other and are jointly responsible. This needs to be done via a series of interactions over a lengthy period, through meetings to talk through objectives, and as Freire recommends – using sketches, photographs, objects and sound to provoke discussion, pose problems and challenge people’s thinking. But ultimately by being kind.

B – How does one inspire action? What inspires action in you?

I think action can be inspired by lots of things, but interest, emotion and being inspirational come to mind. Obligation too. If you start by focusing on what someone is interested in, recognise their needs and then fulfil them, you have a foundation to build upon, and you can persuade people to participate in an action that gives them what they want. Using emotion can also inspire action. For example, an ugly building project in a local community could provoke the ‘not-in-my-backyard’ group to take a stand. Opposing something often galvanises communities into action – a joint approach with a joint goal. Charismatic people who inspire can also create action in others and they might use all of the above to encourage people to engage. I would also point to my answer to question A…

What inspires action in me? If I’m honest, sometimes I’m lazy as hell. Looking at art inspires me to make; inspiring conversations spur me into writing. Doing a project that I love inspires me. An emergency situation…

C – Based on the reading too: How can interactive art not be manipulative?

Interactive art needs to let people in – by that I mean that participants need to know what the artist is doing before they take part so they have all the information to hand. Then the potential collaborators can decide for themselves whether to participate or not as they are given a choice. As Finkelpearl states: ‘If one is to collaborate, it needs to be done with caution and respect.’ So they are more than just ‘material to be manipulated’. Non-artists must also be given the space to ask questions.

But I wonder if there is not always some level of manipulation involved? And does manipulation always have to be bad?

D – In what ways that Freire describes, are YOU a project? What are the objectives and ends you think you are fighting for?

I am a project insofar as I am able to form notions to put forward to others and open a discussion, however, I cannot know how others will react to these ideas and I cannot know which direction that original concept will go in. As an initiator or a participant in interactive art my physical actions become the project, ditto any dialogue that I enter into. But this process needs to be adaptable and I need to be ok with that. This brings to mind a murmuration of starlings – each bird plays their own individual part; together they are one large, fluid entity. 
As a project in life I am always trying to learn. I am continually trying to change and update age-old habits and ways that might not suit or offend others. I think communication is key, as is being mindful of others’ needs.

I found the last part of the question really difficult. What objectives AM I fighting for? From my sofa I am fighting for a free world with no racism and equality for women. For 365 days of International Women’s Day. I am fighting for the climate and for the people oppressed by their corrupt governments, their husbands. I am fighting for LGBTQ+ communities, free health care for all, homes and food for all. Death to the patriarchy. And for women and those who identify as women to be able to go for a walk at 3am without fear of being murdered or going missing. But I don’t think I truly answered your question in the right way?

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside

a. What aspects of the work presented in the video that called your attention the most?

The way things are viewed and how we perceive them. I love Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ work. The film touched on something that I have been thinking about a lot in my own practice – that is, the blurring of lines between art and everyday life. I saw parallels with my own work and with my own efforts in trying to negate the art object as a whole, and turning everyday acts and objects into art by simply renaming them. 
Ukeles’ roles as both an artist and a mother, and finding ways to combine the two also struck a chord with me. She was bound by her lifestyle, but found a way to use it as inspiration. In her work Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside, Ukeles takes the act of domestic maintenance, puts it outside in full public view and labels it as art. I think this is great and when I first saw it, it blew my mind and completely changed the way I viewed my practice. She has taken something so mundane (something that most people don’t think twice about) and turned it on its head. This maintenance ‘work’ is something that everyone is capable of doing and many people do everyday, but by seeking to change our perceptions about labour, she has also changed our perceptions about art. I wonder how the sanitation worker on the opposite side of the street viewed it?

b. Explain question A (why, what resonated/ or didn’t/ what materials or techniques were used/ how did it engage or not the audience or collaborators, how did it impact the institution/ community/ others etc)

Everything about her work resonated with me. As a mother myself I know exactly where she is coming from. I am struck by her words: ‘Half of my week I was the mother, and the other half the artist. But, I thought to myself, “This is ridiculous, I am the one.”’ Like her, I know that there is never enough time to do all the work that needs to be done and however much space there is in my schedule there are never enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I am always thinking about the ‘other’ thing I need to do (and as I type this I am thinking that I need to remember to pay for my son’s violin lessons). As a result, I feel like I’m always on the back foot. That scene from the movie Fantasia with Mickey Mouse and the buckets springs to mind… So by that end, viewing my daily maintenance work as art changes everything and opens up many more doors.

The physical actions in the work Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside – the scrubbing of a step, the careful laying out of the diapers, the act of pouring water down the steps and moving it around like a painter would paint – all play out in a series of rhythmic gestures that create one long dance. I am certain these actions caused viewers to stop and wonder. Indeed, this work raises many questions for me: Would those people who were aware it was art see it as that? Would they go on to see their own labour as art as a result? Would those who didn’t know it was art see it as maintenance? Does that matter? Is my own physical labour now art? I love that Ukeles is initiating these thoughts in people and hopefully causing them to think differently. At the same time, she is also putting the work of maintenance staff in the public sphere, highlighting their importance in the process. They are the workers who keep the cogs turning and are mostly taken for granted, but who, without them, our cities would grind to a halt. (And their importance has come to the fore in this pandemic.)

In terms of impact, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art knew it was opening itself up to criticism but was prepared to take a chance, unlike those institutions that had previously rejected her. Perhaps the idea that, ‘the exhibition area might look “empty” of art, but it will be maintained in full public view’ worried them. There is no art object to put on a wall or mount on a plinth – thus what is there to see and view passively? As artist in residence at the New York Sanitation Department Ukeles sought to have an impact on the wider community. However, when I saw her Touch Sanitation Performance I couldn’t help but think of Miwon Kwon’s words in the Paulo Freire text: ‘…Artists enter “communities” as outside experts to mediate between the daily lives of underprivileged social groups and Art…’ Or – some artists come in, use communities for their own ends then leave, having changed nothing. They have one more thing to add to their CV and the so-called collaborators go back to their daily lives.