Week 3: Interviews

·          Last week many events had my mind churning with questions. We had interviews at the farm, a visiting artist who does social art came to campus, and I have been trying to develop my idea for my own project. Here are a selection of my questions that resulted:

      1. I have been talking with many people. One reoccurring theme in doing social art is that the artist is also a participant. You said you have gone to the farm alone and picked with the workers. How do you document when you are the only one, when you are the participant?

·         2. We plan to show a film at the farmers market, however, as artists we also need to show in accredited art institutions. How would you display this project in a gallery?

·         3. Starting to think about our Performing or Creating Place project:

I have a meeting set up with Meadowlark for next Thursday. Before engaging in the project, I want to envision what it would look like in the gallery. What kind of documentation do I need to gather? How can I tell the story? How can I let viewers know that what they see are artifacts and the art happened in the location in the moment? For my MFA show I am trying to work backwards.

o   I want to participate, not necessarily be wrapped up in documenting. Would anyone be willing to document for me and I could document for their project?

o   Would anyone in the class be willing to participate by making 2 ceramic mugs (with my help and materials) and having coffee with a resident at Meadowlark?

·         4. In my Fulbright application, I am proposing to create an art community with employees from Talavera factories. I hope that we can exchange knowledge, as my western education is very different from theirs and both have a lot to offer. I want to approach the making part as a discovery process, talking about each other’s work, possibly even collaborating. In the end I proposed a group show to be exhibited in Mexico and in the US, showing my work along with theirs (or possibly our collaborative work, depending on what happens). I worry that it will be interpreted as exhibiting the “other,” which is the last of my intentions. That would be taking advantage of others for my own advancement, doing the exact thing I am against. The people I work with will know I am genuine and sincere, but when displayed to the public how can I convey that I am not a white woman going there to use them and their work?

o   I think the basis of this question is when working in communities that are not your own, when you are genuine and sincerely want to reveal truths, what can an outsider do to show they are real and passionate? For example, if I were to do the things that Edgar Heap of Birds is doing it would be perceived very differently. I am most interested in working for cultural equality and respect, and although I want that with all cultures the one closest to me is the Latin American population. After living in Guatemala for 2 ½ years and having a partner who is from Mexico I am deeply connected, but I am still a white woman from the Midwest. What can I do to help my audience know how much I care?