This month we broke slightly with tradition and I stepped out of the organiser role to give a talk on my own recent practice. This work, which was exhibited at the Chinese Arts Centre earlier this month, looked at developing recent PlaceMaking project work by engaging with Chinese Nationals both visiting the UK and as residents in China. Christine kindly agreed to take a few notes on my presentation (I can multi-task but probably not write an unbiased account of my own talk!). Her thoughts follow below.
Annabeth gave us a very interesting and informative presentation about her experiences this summer in China as part of her travels. The quote “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” from T S Eliot resonated with her experiences as you will see below. In the tradition of the artist collector, on their Grand Tour, Annabeth set out to gain experience, inspiration and artefacts to further inform her current practice. Her tour took in a variety of friends, locations and new contacts and participants – many of them new to ‘art’. Having already run a series of workshops in the UK (around Greater Manchester, York and London) she had pre-organised a series of workshops in China in order to be able to compare and contrast the responses of those taking part, from schoolchildren to the curious ‘grown up kids’.
Her recent current practice has been focused on interaction with people and city spaces and looks at creating improved relationships between the two. Much of her work is workshop based and outcomes are photographed by her in order to make a series of documented pieces. Looking at differences between the two cultures and identifying things about the UK have been key to the investigations she has made during her trip.
Working with a set of pre-made templates Annabeth asked three research questions:
* I remember
* I hope to see
* This place is
Participants, most of whom were not from any kind of ‘art’ background, were invited to write responses to these questions on transparent acrylic boards - contained in frames with the questions at the top of them – one set in English, the other in Chinese. She was pleasantly surprised in both countries that people were very willing to join in and nobody made any of the ‘what is art’ type comments that she had anticipated. Annabeth photographed each written response being held aloft in front of a location that would give the viewer a clue to which country they were in. The photographs have now been made into an on-line gallery and have also been exhibited at Manchester’s Chinese Arts Centre.
I could write for days about the information gleaned but in order to be succinct I will try to summarise below - you can of course find out more information here (on Annabeth’s website). Annabeth’s findings surprised her as there were more similarities than the differences she expected – however although the content may be similar the Chinese responses seemed to show much more love of their city and civic pride than the English ones and were also more evident of a communal and sharing society. This can mean everyone is more included but the downside is that there are a lot of things taught that very much continue traditions and the perfection of ‘craft’ but don’t necessarily allow for so much self-expression.
Even having worked with interpreters in China she found that she wasn’t able to fully get the ‘background chat’ and ideas inspired by her workshops so couldn’t know as much about the participants as she could in the UK. That said she did feel that the Chinese perspectives seemed more responsive which contrasted with more factual statements in the UK.
During her trip Annabeth felt that as her visit was very ‘managed’ there was an inevitability that she would only see what her hosts wanted her to see. With this in mind on a number of occasions she ‘deliberately got herself lost’ in order to see a bit more reality. Finding these forays ‘interestingly scary’ at times, she saw first-hand the stark contrasts between poverty and privilege. She also had her own personal voyage of discovery about who she is and what home is.
Realising that there’s a lot each culture can learn from the other in many ways, including educational methods of art training, Annabeth now believes there may be opportunities on a global scale to find ways to work together. She is planning to use the internet to move forward with her current galleries, potentially including a ‘virtual exchange’ and is also looking at the possibility of a residency in China.
I should like to thank Christine for her time in composing this passage; it's always fascinating to read about your work from an alternative perspective!
Later in the meeting, we also discussed our plans for beginning the new collaborative project next month. Crafting by Committee will be a shorter, three session project taking us up to the end of the year in which each collaborator will produce a brief project proposal, situated within their current practice. The rest of the group will then act as a panel who will, upon hearing the proposal, specify particular criteria for how the project must progress. The practitioner must then follow these instructions precisely and return to the panel in November with the outcome. The hope is that we can then use these pieces to reflect upon how decision making within different practices can impact upon outcomes but also be an intrinsic part of the creative process. Again, these will be research pieces, starting points for potential development and pieces of work in their own right. As some members cannot be present on one or more of the meetings, we agreed that everyone would submit their proposal in a brief written format a fortnight ahead of the next meeting. This will allows some time to preview the proposals and have a think before forming our committee! Again, as a research project and with so many different practices in the group, the outcomes of this are naturally unknown but one thing is certain; it will be an interesting couple of months finding them out!
I can’t quite believe how quickly the last year has gone and already we are moving towards CRITgroup’s second birthday! It feels as though we have already achieved a lot with the successful conclusion and exhibition of Creative Whispers so I’m very excited about the plans for the next couple of months. Our next meeting is on October 30th and if you would like to become involved, feel free to come along, or drop us a message for more information using the contact form on the home page.
Later in the meeting, we also discussed our plans for beginning the new collaborative project next month. Crafting by Committee will be a shorter, three session project taking us up to the end of the year in which each collaborator will produce a brief project proposal, situated within their current practice. The rest of the group will then act as a panel who will, upon hearing the proposal, specify particular criteria for how the project must progress. The practitioner must then follow these instructions precisely and return to the panel in November with the outcome. The hope is that we can then use these pieces to reflect upon how decision making within different practices can impact upon outcomes but also be an intrinsic part of the creative process. Again, these will be research pieces, starting points for potential development and pieces of work in their own right. As some members cannot be present on one or more of the meetings, we agreed that everyone would submit their proposal in a brief written format a fortnight ahead of the next meeting. This will allows some time to preview the proposals and have a think before forming our committee! Again, as a research project and with so many different practices in the group, the outcomes of this are naturally unknown but one thing is certain; it will be an interesting couple of months finding them out!
I can’t quite believe how quickly the last year has gone and already we are moving towards CRITgroup’s second birthday! It feels as though we have already achieved a lot with the successful conclusion and exhibition of Creative Whispers so I’m very excited about the plans for the next couple of months. Our next meeting is on October 30th and if you would like to become involved, feel free to come along, or drop us a message for more information using the contact form on the home page.
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