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To arrive at the end of a project with nothing to exhibit is a precarious moment. It certainly is not due to a lack of work. It’s not to do with a lack of thought or possibilities. In most ways it is about giving things enough time. Time enough so one doesn’t just overlook meaningful moments.
So, what is my bridge from Forest Bounds to Venice bound? My part of this Forest enquiry started, as it often does, with my adopted kids. The route my practice takes tends to circulate, twist and use narratives pulled from one or other question around adoption and childhood, fatherhood and masculinity, cultural identity and post-colonial guilt. From this vantage point I question most things.
In Forest Bounds I learnt from multiple workshops and discussions ways of discussing colour and cultural views of self. Much of what I took away was there are accepted and appropriate ways of discussing culture in a predominantly white environment, ideas of cultural strength and equity are fundamental, but individuals rarely conform to these identifiers, and personal experience is generally a more powerful driver, especially with younger people. This surprised me a little. Is this question no longer about the groups? Or do we just need to strengthen and protect culturally identifying communities, promote them better and build on their strengths? Has there been a disturbance in the way we need to talk about communities, especially our rural spaces. In a response to this I started to investigate indigenous possibilities of expression and cultural sharing. Pleases see Indigenous Pavilions.
I’m Venice Bound now and am looking to continue to press the boundaries of a cultural question. I never want to do so without looking at the histories of a place. As a practice-based researcher, I really want to do that there, in Venice. Hence the lack of work and two massive roles of tinfoil traveling with me. I have invited the Artists involved with the Indigenous Pavilions to provide me with an object each that they hold culturally dear. For some it is representative, another narrative and others it is more emblematic within their own practice. I do not know what I will make in Venice. I have a series of intentions and hopes. I want to get to see Venice differently. I want to find a junction where place might be able to meet cultural space and meld. I intend to use one material. I hope to invite exchange.
Not Every Bridge is a Flyover is an attempt to slow down. Return to a reflective place of making that hopefully pays some respect to the ideas of this year’s curator Koyo Kouoh’s Minor Keys. Not loud political commentary rather intimate, sensate, and subjective experiences. A space where time is unhurried and invites communal reflection and dreaming. A place to stop over or a bridge to visions.
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