Experiment for Collaboration: after Eight Fingers Crossed

Hypothesis:

How can you make art with eight different imaginations? How can we interlace our fingers, our souls, our eyes to make something together?

There is no right or wrong hypothesis that I can provide.

What you see now, in the walls surrounding you, is the result of a chemical fusion. Something exploded. Something working away under plain sight. Put our DNA under a microscope and see it dance. We all move to the same rhythm.

Methods:

• Eight-fingers-crossed – some at a distance – some up close.
• As we move forward, we need trust.
• The trickling of sand down the back of a cloak – watch it take over the body/engulfing us till we are buried together, to be fossils found in a million years – eight/fingers/crossed.
• Taking pictures of / the artists \ there is an element of mystery the photograph can’t show? What are we creating as we sit together, knees touching under the table? We talk about noodles/turkey – things that inspire us/ Kim Kardashian/A home in the Philippines/A father who passed away/our pets/our old homes\orange dresses\a plastic eagle bought in Coober Pedy glued to the top of the canvas is watching us – tear it down, Tom – it looks too creepy.
• Sitting in a circle – breathing in and out as KE gesticulates – we need to warm our bones/massage the larynx – EZ is an accredited yoga teacher, did you know? Grab my arms, I’m not in sync with you, I want to be in sync with you – If I fall, then we all fall, right?
• Tracing a finger down the clay sculpture – not sure what it’s going to be yet – keep a trace of yourself there/before it is baked in the oven – cut out drum sticks/play with them – just don’t hurt yourself – we make a home/which is not a home – slanted roof – AB says a girl hid outside her house last night – that inspires more windows – everyone is welcome here.
• Like the kids in the tree house, we climb climb climb away from the trolls, the ogres that seek to grab us – I’m not scared of the dark, but you are, and she is – let’s make a fire/and a shark to swim underneath so no trolls can get in.

Results:

• There is no right or wrong way to create. I think Proust said that. Or Kylie Minogue. We did it ourselves, in our own way, forming our own skeleton in the sand. Testing what made us explode, what fizzed, what sparked, what erupted. Our hands were shadows in front of millions of patterns, rocking back and forth like that chair in the middle of the room. We captured every moment to make sure that we had a symbiotic connection – merging together like B Cells/enveloping until we were one single entity – that is the spirit of collaboration – at least in this room, in Brighton, Port Adelaide – it should be felt all ‘round.

Discussion:

• Will we see each other in ten years? Will she forget the other’s name tomorrow? Will you be my friend when I need you? Will you delete my Facebook request? Where is she? What about her? – eight fingers crossed was us.

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