The six hour-long performance to place at a Family Fun Day and included particapatory application of sunflower seeds to canvas. The outcome was a banner spelling the slogan ‘Collaboration not Isolation’. The provocative phrase caused a political discussion between infants, single parents, artists, students and the Mayor of Falmouth. The piece is firstly a response to the arrest and treatment of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. And secondly, the reaction of families, in the Tate Modern, when they read the sign detailing Ai Weiwei’s situation. His artwork and my own, displays a resistance towards an existence as spectacle. In both tourist and family orientitated contexts, the viewer is implicated to form, or at least question, their own political opinion.
This gave the performance a community-forming tone and unpretentiousness. People in passing became hands on in the task, which felt decorative. Yet, the idea of art being decorative without holding a more deeper agenda is proposed. People worked on the canvas from all directions, so the message only became apparent nearer the completion. This steady accumulation gave motivation to some participants to spend hours there. made this banner come into being. The task is simple enough for all to do. It is reminiscent of playful crafty sessions, which gives it appeal to children and offers adults an excuse to do have fun. Because of the accessibility of the task, there is less chance for people to abstain due to technical difficulty. Instead, it asks the passers by to gift their time and acknowledgement. The scale of the task in comparison to the hundred of seeds used reveals an individual ethic of human time scale. Due to the length of the performance, the participants perceptions change and therefore reality is effected after everyone goes home. The use of human time permits unregimented emotions and sensitive fluctuations. People come and go freely. The duration of the performance was thus framed completion of the task. This completion of the task was wholly dependent upon the level of participation. This too reflects Ai Weiwei’s six year-long Sunflower Seeds relational project.
A video documentary of Ai Weiwei's project was an accompaniment the thousands of ceramic sunflower seeds. Similarly my documentation is 'behind-the-scene'. This bystander and participants played with the 35mm disposible camera. The compositions are often over the shoulder which gives future viewers a sense of a bystander. The use of non-digital technologies, means that there are no images appearing on screens in the space. This causes the participants to refrain from the crisis of seeing our own self image, therefore the photos produced lessen posing and self consciousness. The multiple perspectives are reflected in my choice to present a selection of images rather than the conventional summary. The first photo taken on an empty film reel shows the blank canvas laid out on the grass. This photo causes us to consider the possibilities of ‘open’ places or spaces of potential.
Instead of dreaming an ethos for the future, I put sharing into practice by celebrating public spaces, simple materials and personal time scales. Isolation no longer remains hidden within interrogation but exists within our communities. This is seen through the limitation formation new social relations and maintenance of public spaces. By using a park area, the work has a sense that is a field-trip. The maintenance of this public space is upheld by a celebration its usefulness. My attempt to boycott the museum follows through to my presentation of the banner, which is outdoors, in the wind and rain. This work does not rely on four white walls to call itself art but instead mingles amongst everyday dynamics. The banner was then mounted on ground posts. It can stand in a multiple of locations, day and night. This banner is a functional object to be used in protest marches.
