Experience with the description of my process gave me the following thoughts.
I had no intention of creating a conceptual idea about the essence of an art object or talking about what art is.
However, I had an idea to involve the viewer in my work. In the "Ecology of Mind" project, which I started to develop in the previous Sculpture 2 course, I described the plan for implementing this concept.
«… my Parallel Project involves the direct participation of people.
Starting with ourselves, we will recycle newspapers. Through simple questions, as Socrates led the interlocutor to think, so we will ask each other questions: Why are we doing this? How can I alone, an individual, help the environment? How do we use paper? How do we perceive news? How can we trust what we read, and see? What is critical thinking? etc.
…
There is great potential in giving something meaningful to seemingly insignificant. Insignificant I call working with materials for recycling, to create something that will be a metaphor and a symbol of what is not in reality. Critical thinking cannot be deduced in the form of an object, the ecology of mind too, but a monument can be erected to them, and those who erect it with their own hands will be able to say Yes, I experienced it - it is.» quoting myself [online] At: https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/parallel-project-through-the-relational-aesthetics-to-the-individual-ecology-of-mind (Accessed 23.08.2023)
In connection with the question of what it will do for me - a description of the process of my activity for someone, I interpreted it as - how will this enrich my concept if I involve outsiders?
For the experiment, I invited a mother with two children (11 years old). I have prepared the frame for future work
and set the task - we are making one of the panels from recycled newspapers, which will later be installed as a temporary big work on the wall outside.
Even after explaining and demonstrating what and how to do, the result was radically different from how I made my colour fields.
Since my focus was also on discussing the "purity" of our minds, I focused on our dialogue about critical thinking and perception of news/information.
I think I did everything wrong. I asked a lot of leading questions, and the children just wanted to get dirty with the paint.
To involve the viewer, and especially children, in mental work, a well-organized learning process is needed. To draw a parallel between painting over the news and rethinking information is a multi-layered difficult reference process. The viewer can guess this only if he is trained in reading contemporary art or is creative, or he can read my concept. Desire is also important. If there is no desire and openness to discuss and learn something new, then there is no result.
Perhaps if I just suggested that they paint over the news and that’s all, maybe then they would begin to draw parallels in their minds ... But I’m still not sure. I saw Malevich’s Black Square many times, and only many years later I understood this artwork when I was already outside my "glorious" homeland. I didn't have a tool to read that language. To understand Chinese, you need to get the basics of its recognition, so to say to get the tool. So here, I got the idea later - the Black Square cannot be evaluated by the same principles as traditional art that I used I need to use a new tool to understand it.
Then it turns out that it makes no sense for me to involve outsiders in the creation of my works since the idea can be read without smearing hands in paint.
It is worth noting that the aesthetics of my work disappeared as well. I check every "breath" of my newspapers and here it turns out, something shapeless pasted...
Therefore, I can write - but from the point of view of analysis and research.
At the same time, in this experience of spending a whole day with children, I made many conclusions about what I like and feel comfortable with, whether I can involve outsiders directly in my work and teaching method.
I get incredible inspiration from working with other artists when we talk about the same thing. But I did not enjoy working with children, sharing with them the rules of composition or the sense of harmony or how you can feel the colour.
Although I developed three types of exercises -
the first is newspaper recycling (my project),
the second is drawing and painting (the difference in materials and the interpretation of figurative and abstract),
the third is working with objects, comparing this work with a flat surface of a painting.
Maybe I didn't feel the interest of the children, or maybe I'm just a bad teacher. In any case, I am very grateful to them for such an incredible experience. And yet I hope that they will have good memories of our discussions and the creation of art objects.
After this experience, I need to rethink my whole idea of involving viewers in making art, and I need to decide exactly if this is what I want?!
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