A new banner made by Metal Peterborough for the Consequences project now hangs on the outside of their building. My handwritten phrase, printed large, is a poignant comment on the way the women involved have used the sessions to discuss, challenge and reveal themselves. Often we hear comments like We never talk like this and I have found stuff out about these people that really deeepens our friendships and makes me think new things.
As I drove home from last nights Consequences session Radio 4 offered its usual wisdoms. A program called Class Talk discussed the need for the inclusion of people with related lived experiences in the structures of organisations and when constructing policy. It spoke of the benefits but also the uncomfortable conversations that will ensue. Uncomfortable – because of course stuff is said that is challenging and sad and unbelievable – hard to hear things that change us. Uncomfortable is how I’ve felt listening to many of the stories recounted by women across this project, but like the presenter on Radio 4 said uncomfortable is necessary – it impacts us. One woman wrote at the end of the session: “by listening I’ve learnt about myself and had to think more about what I believe” – I would go further and say its made me think more about what to do.
Across Peterborough the Consequences sessions continue to be amazing spaces for women to come together, to support each other, offer wisdoms, help and heal. But what’s also interesting is how these spaces challenge us too. Like many I’m often guilty of going to the same people and places to discuss ideas and get the expected affirmations reflected back. However during the sessions I keep being reminded how ridiculous that is and how we must keep trying to seek out and hear others.
Yesterdays sessions for Consequences at Metal Peterborough reinforced the importance of being heard, seen, complimented, encouraged and considered. These simple, but mostly not done actions, have huge impact. As evidenced in this quote by therapist L Seltzer: When complimented, we’re likely to glow internally. Approbation from others who we respect serves to verify our sense of inner worth. Such external approval is especially important for those still plagued by self-doubt. To feel favorably recognized wonderfully addresses one of our heart’s deepest desires. What helps us do this well in these sessions, I think, is the drawing. It enables much to said, shared and told; the activity draws our eyes to the work “in hand” letting our ability to listen, connect and support grow. Unlike art therapy this works intention is not to provide theraputic support – allthough it might happen, but rather provide a space for creativity to guide us into caring, reflective spaces and good conversation.
Title: Land Flag
Hand-woven patterned linen flag, 50cm x 75cm, 2020
The Notice Board initially invited Geoff and Angharad to Uffington after seeing outcomes from their ongoing collaboration. Geoff is a painter and Angharad is a weaver. Together they have been designing and making fabrics that are then painted into. The paint and canvas are considered equally, which traditionally is often not the case. This potential metaphor coupled with the referencing of their different cultural histories, through specific materials and patterns used, resonates with The Notice Boards wider ambitions to consider how we connect.
Geoff and Angharad said: This flag is of the land. This flag is from the land. This flag is for everyone. This flag was woven by hand. This flag embraces slowness. This flag is hopeful.
We seek to explore our connection to the natural environment. Our flag aims to embody a different relationship to our natural environment, one where there is a mutual respect and care between humans and nature. By making hand grown, hand woven, patterned linen fabrics, we try to promote an understanding of where we come from; of listening, observing and participating in the slow time of the earth. A quiet awareness of the interconnectedness of things emerges through the slow laborious processes involved. The aim of the Notice Board and its theme has allowed us to expand how weave, pattern and the fabric can take centre stage in the objects that we make. Inspired by Latin American weave motifs and structures, where fabrics become physical embodiments of a belief system, the flag looks to present our interconnected relationship to the natural world through materials, pattern and the weaving process itself.
www.geoffdiegolitherland.com
www.angharadmclaren.co.uk
I started work in Cromwell Road, Millfield, as part of Peterborough Present’s Heritage Lottery project this week. Using old photos of the street as a starting point for conversations with 3 generations of one family, the Kursheeds, I am considering how the area makes them and they make it. Even at first meeting they are frustrated by negative perceptions of their community and area and the effect this has on all of them and their neighbours. They are determined to tell another story, one that places respect, family and reciprocity at its heart. I look forward to where this take us.
I’m proud to be invited to be Katy Hawkin’s mentor for her recent A-N award. This highly competitive but great initiative sees awards being given to an a-n member wishing to undertake professional development. I will be supporting Katy to undertake creative approaches as she considers place, engages people and reflects on her work.
I’m pleased to have been commissioned by South Holland Centre and LOV1 to support work with residents in Sutton St James, Lincolshire. Funded through Paul Hamlyn and Esme Fairburn this project is both creative consultation and audience development. It will encourage risk taking and learning by the commissioners and for the residents it aims to support them in making choices about how they reveal and represent themselves and their community.
The Consequences workshops across Peterborough begin in earnest this week. Yesterday one at PARCA enabled a wide ranging conversation that surfaced new questions to take forward to other sessions. Can we leave the past in the past? What does bravery look like? and Whats it like to live in a culture different from our own? were just 3 examples. However it was the multiple languages spoken in the room that became significant on reflection. These included mother tongues, dialects and translation but also drawing, signing, writing and typing. Many of these unspoken languages, and I would argue drawing in particular, allows us to cross a chasm and connect. The act of collective mark making, sharing a sheet and drawing in conversation does as the women said – let’s you be inspired and see other things, each other. In these moments we aren’t misunderstood we all see ourselves mirrored in each other.
Ricki Dywer & Katy Hawkins San Francisco. USA and UK
It’ll all be ok! 2020.
Doublethink is the ability to hold two completely contradictory beliefs at the same time and to believe they are both true. A belief in your freedom, whilst knowing the semblance of that which you possess is constrained in ways beyond those you know of A belief in hope, when you know it to be a false belief, a wish thrown to the gods, whilst you sail on blind An idea that “it will all be ok”, when you know that it has not and will not be ok for many, for a long time now. The Notice Board believes showing this Poem and Flag is important.
The two works engage with notions of Doublethink: the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. Doublethink was a word invented by G. Orwell, for his book 1984. ‘Doublethink’ used here challenges us to see and check the privilege under of some of our noses – be that in relation to race, capitalism, geo-political links, gender and so on. It asks us to reflect on how we carry on regardless accepting age old or seemingly invisible behaviours. Reminding us how we all can be guilty sometimes of lies/doublespeak and the denial this enables. Katy and Ricki argue we must be a constantly questioned; with art being the only route for emotional freedom from our corruption, leading to abstract thought, openings, and connections.
The Notice Board coalesces around the ideas inherent in this too. It stands firmly behind the idea that A lie you accept becomes a lie you forget, suggesting that we must be on our guard to see when truth is being marginalised. It knows that many before these 2 artists have also suggested that once we stop looking for truth and once we agree, if only within our own hearts, to live within a lie because it is more comforting than the truth then we open ourselves up to totalitarianism.
www.ricki.website
www.katyghawkins.com