What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation

9/26/2013

by Tom Finkelpearl

Mierle Laderman Ukeles – mammoth installation and site for dialogue at museum
Brett Cook – community building project at a school
Both emphasize repetition to encourage reflection and, as part of a cooperative system

Cook

worked at a school to do a project on ‘cultural diversity’.
“My process really starts by listening for the need and initiating conversations that help bring this out. From there I begin to ask, not how do I bring my tools to this project, but what are the tools that this particular collaboration demands?” YES! This is where the muralist in the group was struggling to “see” what we had been talking about for a whole month because he felt like some outside influence was supposed to dictate then what the mural project is about. LINEAR/OBJECTIVE thinking. What has the group been talking about for the last two months? & how is it that we missed that?
Repetition, raising activity
use of meditation to have people reflect on what they are made of
day of reflection
exercise of recognizing the seed(s) in themselves, their communities, where they come from.
“treat each person as gifted, as irreplaceable, and honor every person’s attributes as important” not in a way of tokenization or paternalistic humanitarian work
mindfulness in buddhism
things for me to reflect on: talking circle process we chose, cyclical, sacred, sweat lodge ceremony in chicago lawn, i find myself talking about this process throughout the whole summer and even now.

Mierle

Survivor of bombing dies TODAY, Sept 26, 2013
Really powerful, looking into sanitation workers, thinking about the “yesterday” who keeps that into the past-tense and let’s you work into the present day, today?
5 kinds of collaborations, (1) collaboration with museum itself/city officials, (2) recycling industry (using glass in all of its forms, solid, liquid, shattered), (3)city workers and students outside the museum, (4)visitors of museum, (5) gathering of peace builders, 8 peace talks (conflict resolution; inner peace; peace and the land; environmental neighborhoods; peace, home and the family; interreligious coalitions; city work as peace building work; multiculturalism and neighborhood
use of fire, our sacred fire

shattered glass around space
religious & spiritual dimension of her project: the glass, the divine light
Tikkun: to bring the vessels back again, to repair and to re-create them.
“repair, restore, rebuild through this world of glass”
“art can create a situation where a person feels someone is listening to them, or there is receptivity”
difference between religion and spirituality
you can be religious & not be spiritual
is that the problem in our country anyways? if we weren’t spiritually bankrupt, there wouldnt be problems from community to community because of different believes, if we believe in a source of connectedness (spirit, god, divine, moon/sun) in a way we are able to acknowledge someone elses’?
Finkelpearl: “ You can be spiritually bankrupt and still have a lot of religious people in the country?” (p 293)
yes “ In Mierle’s project there was so much work even before the moment in which you ask for the Unburning. The final object wasnt how you started talking about your process. You started to talk about Freedom Hall to categorize or frame the question. I think this sort of initial intensive setup is critical in my own creative process as well.”
“If there is something I want to be attached to, I let it go” this was my own experience as the facilitator for the mural project. What I thought was best, i had to drop, and let it be. We kept saying “trust the process, we’re trusting the process” –> of speaking, and listening from the heart.

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