What in our personal history has mediated our interest in collaboration? Before discussing an actual collaboration and the results of the collaboration, it would be interesting to discuss what created the inclination to collaborate in the first place?
Some beginning thoughts:
The desire to:
- recreate an intimate family/community that shares our ideals
- resist the isolation of the historical studio practice
- learn from another – share ideas, processes and resources
- relinquish some control and create a context where multiple organisms are responding to each other
What about your inclination to collaborate?
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With tongue firmly in cheek I say this:
For me personally, collaboration was always part of an ethos. Formally trained as a printmaker, I learnt to work in a shared studio space. And there was never enough space.
Also the exchange of ideas in the form of portfolio exchanges was always a major part of extra-curricular enrichment. Along with getting stacks of prints I no longer know what to do with or how to store.
In graduate school, collaboration, along with cross-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and transmedia were all BIG big art buzzwords that we used to brand our studio practices as cutting-edge.
Lastly, collaboration with wealthy older lovers provided the financial means for me to execute larger and more expensive art projects.
So – I’ve reframed the criteria for this post on one level. But in all seriousness, my studio practice is evolving to encompass collaboration as a means to broaden my knowledge. It is a means for me to investigate our collective stories as people.