Jo's object was delivered to her house by hand as she is more local to me. I left the box outside her door in the porch. When I got home I waited. I have waited alot this week aware of hearing from the group and wondering what they think. What is interesting and unexpected is that I had imagined that they all would let me know what they thought straight away as they opened and encountered the objects but I realise or believe that there is a pressure built up by the objects arrival. The expectation of what it is and whether they like it or if they understand it. I imagine that they feel obligated to like it. Through all my meetings with them they have been very honest and frank in their feelings and reactions to objects that I have made or shown them and that they have used. They can reject and they have license to do so as the objects aren’t personally loaded for them. They are presented and performed for the first time with me and by me. This time the performance is different but there is a different level of theatratrics involved, the presentation is in the opening of the boxes. When working together as a group thoughts can be automatically shared and responses are changed or filtered through the dialogue with everyone else. It is the saherd dialogue that enables the more direct engagement and reaction that can be discussed or acted on togather. They are complicit in the scenario that is normal for them created by the experiences within the sessions. Now however they are singular and the free flow of theor reactions may be internalised or shared with family as the object is located within the domestic domain. In the emails that I had to say the objects had arrived it is interesting that they do not immediately open the boxes – I am interested in the time that it sits unopened in theor houses. Mark remarked in his email that ‘Yes I’ve received the package you sent and it remains unopened on a chair in my studio until I can get a free moment to sit with it and answer your questions correctly’ and in a second email ‘Will dive into the box later like it’s Christmas, and feed back to you my thoughts’ I am interested that Mark used the word ‘correctly’, as how does he perceive that he will answer the questions correctly. I want to discuss with him how he perceives the questions and the thought they are answered appropriately. What I imagine is that he means he wants to give it time but I wonder about the relationship between his first email where the box remains unopened and the thoughtful moment he imagines to open the box and in comparison his second email where he says he will dive in and it is like Christmas. I am very aware of what they might think I want them to say, do and think. This could restrict their responses or they may filter what they feel to what they think I want to hear. However, the objects aren’t mine and this is a position I have repeated many times before. They are for someone, somewhere else. I know I am embedded into the objects through my making, through the conversations, how do we measure that? I have had students say to me many times that I am in their heads, some often making jokes that I am with them when they sit down for a meal or when they go on holiday. Of course, what they mean is that my questions are with them. Now have I made concrete conversations? The end point of these objects is not the opening – or the reveal - it is the disentangling of their matter, their relevance, their rejection, their investment that continues to allow them to form beyond my head and hands. Laura followed a similar pattern in her emails and again I was left for two days between her saying it had arrived and her saying she had tried to guess what it was. 1st response: Thank you for sending the object. I received it today. I haven’t opened it yet but will soon. 2nd response: I tried to guess what the object was. Only thing I guess correctly was that multiple colours were involved. What for me is so interesting is that Laura says that she guessed correctly there would be multiple colours …but why? In her written responses to my earlier questions of what learning looks or feel like she mentions, paint ‘Probably oil painting mostly, although any type of painting can easily slip back into feeling like you are new to the medium. There is always so much more to learn about painting.’ But no mention of colour unless implied for her my saying painting, she goes on to talk about food and spaghetti but again no colour mentioned until I ask what tone, temperature, volume learning experiences might be and she says ‘burgundy’. I am fascinated by her reading of the object and the process of guessing. She says nothing else and I want to hold on to the truth of her feelings towards the rather odd object before she hears the narrative of its production as I believe that the romance of the object being a pallete will fuel its status, but these are my assumptions in a place of not yet knowing. Jo: Lovely square box received, thank you. Yet to open!
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Kimberley FosterKimberley's practice as an artist is pedagogical, it doesn’t just reference learning, it plays with, embodies and encourages learning at its core. The objects consider ideas of collaboration and authorship, discussions about touch and encounter, and bring into active consideration issues of learning within social and participatory practices. Archives
October 2018
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