Reports on the Scarf Swaps... which took place in January 2012. It's taken me a while to post what the participants wrote - distracted by a residency at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY, and a show at Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ, both with my collective, 2x2.
Each participant received the scarf of his/her counterpart, then exchanged it for the correct one. Each pair spent some time getting to know each other and wrote a short report about what they learned about and from their swap partner. The reports, very lightly edited, are below. Three pairs met at my house, one pair met by arrangement in Syracuse.
Pam/Hilary
Pam
Each participant received the scarf of his/her counterpart, then exchanged it for the correct one. Each pair spent some time getting to know each other and wrote a short report about what they learned about and from their swap partner. The reports, very lightly edited, are below. Three pairs met at my house, one pair met by arrangement in Syracuse.
Pam/Hilary
Pam
What you learned about your swap partner:
I learned that Hilary has a wonderful space in the town where she lives, Trumansburg, that among other things houses a gallery space – this fact is relevant to our meeting because it’s how she met Ben (I think!:)) who had a show there. Hilary is eager to find artists to show there so I’m going to gather some resources together –websites and contacts that will help connect her with potential artists.
I found out that Hilary contributed to the making of the scarves by doing the sewing of the border around the edges. We spent time looking at her website so I could see all of the beautiful wearable art, textiles and collages she makes.
We also came to find out that one of our favorite professors at SU was the same. I can’t remember the name of the class he taught, but it had to do with placing art in the context of the larger world and exploring those relationships – bringing art to life. Hilary enjoyed it so much that she took the class several times and even did an independent study– I’m jealous!
We talked about so many things and had to force ourselves to stop after an hour. Hilary and I know some of the same people as it turns out – the whole seven degrees of Kevin Bacon. We are convinced we know each other from somewhere. She actually put on a fashion show at the Everson in 2002 – I remember the event.
What you learned from your swap partner:
I learned to think more deeply about the “Scarf Swap’ project. What attracted me to it? What purpose does it serve? Why might an artist construct such a project?
I am interested in how artists engage ‘viewers’ through participatory art that offers an opportunity to fully engage in the creative process. “Scarf Swap” is a truly authentic example of the philosophy Joseph Beuys held, “Every human being is an artist.”
I first saw the scarves presented as pages in a handmade book. The photos on the scarves differ in many ways, such as subject matter and location – yet the process, size, and materials are characteristics that connect them. I began to think about this in terms of relationships and how strangers, more often than not, assume differences (preventing interaction) and overlook the common threads that may exist between them. I felt like the participants in this project became living pages in an ever evolving and meaningful book. Through this process the ‘writers’ and ‘readers’ were reminded about how meaningful, rewarding, and necessary connecting with others is - in ‘real time’.
Anything else?
Thank you for doing this!
Hilary
Right from the start I loved this idea. But then I would, I make scarf art also. And a big part of why I do that is because the art has legs. It goes out in the world and has a life. Mostly I don't get to know the lives my scarves touch, and I have never thought about it in this way. That there might be something to follow or to track.
I had no trepidation, only excitement in meeting my scarf /partner/ mate/other half. When I learned it was to be a curator at the Everson Museum I was even more excited. Being an artist and familiar with the Syracuse scene. It was easy to arrange and execute. We spent an hour + together. We ran through people we knew and the community at large, found we were simpatico and then mentioned the reason for being together. We exchanged scarves and talked about the scarves themselves, our likes and dislikes and then the idea of them and their exchange. We went online to see my website and we spent the last 15 minutes talking about my Arts in Industry project. Our conversation was non-stop. Unlike a formal meeting of Artist and curator, we were just two people enjoying the company of each other and we had a lot in common and a novel way to meet that created an intriguing context. But also focused as if there was a point to the meeting.
We both loved the scarves for their own merit but found the exchange idea was our favorite part. The open-endedness. What comes next? How would...? Which part is the art? ETC.
We both seemed to eagerly await the next step? And hope to meet again.
Anna Marie/Werner
Anna Marie
Werner is an artist/physicist; his primary medium is mobile-making. He is an active member of a local circle of artists. Having lived in Bostone during his studies, he is now pragmatically exploring the virtues of collaborating with a vibrant and eclectic mix of local artists. he chose his scarf without knowing the images were from European markets.
[Werner helped me to think] more creatively about many of the images including the scarf that I chose e.g. the African masks, which I hadn’t really begun to think about.
The swap was a really interesting element of the whole process – try doing this again! – it would be neat, too, to see you anticipating the swap in the very form of the original image – it’s there in this project (Arcades, market exchange, barter, Benjamin, flaneur, etc.) but it could be brough out even more…
Werner
Anna Marie is a political theorist at Cornell with a keen interest in art, visual information, cultural and gender issues, and thinking about interesting things. She is well-travelled, well-read, and a flexible conversationalist. I quite enjoyed her company.
I learned about different ways of reading images and art, viewpoints from the humanities. And how people from the sciences and humanities have fundamentally the same concerns – at least in Ithaca.
Sally/Lee-Ellen
Sally
Lee-Ellen is a do-er and a helper and has worked her way up to be Executive Director of Suicide Prevention [in Ithaca]. She is a storyteller. We have known each other for some time.
I learned from Ellen that we are all able to do something new with the talents we already have. That many of us have problems with with Facebook.
What a fun event – every scarf is beautiful and I kept having to remember why I chose the one I did.
Lee-Ellen
Sally came to Ithaca as a new mother; she and her husband thought they would stay just three years - but never left!
She told me that back then, in the late seventies, no-one walked anywhere; Ithaca has changed a lot in the many years she has lived here.
We spent more time looking at our scarves, asking about how they were made, both in how Ben captured the image on his film camera (“oh, square format!”) to how they were printed and edged. That got us to thinking about clothes and sewing – but the sad thing is that clothes are cheap now, fabrics are very expensive!
Katherine/Catherine
Katherine
Catherine is a belly dancer who recently led a group of Ithaca High School teachers on a tour of Eastern European cities and historic sites, some of them very grim. She has three children and is from a small village outside of Norwich, U.K., Brundel, which she says is rather nondescript.
Twelve years can pass and someone can look very much the same, but also seem more centered and joyful – probably to do with children getting older, if not with the actual scarf, which she chose because it reminds her of markets at home.
We both agreed that we had picked very nice scarves and that we liked that they were silky and beautiful. I wondered about the nexus between art, acquisition, and vanity that seems to be a possible sweet spot: hit, just right, by these art objects/things/bits of whimsy, that are also very successful. Art, with a capital A, or at least the whole book with a capital A; maybe each individual scarf with a little a.
Catherine
Katherine is amongst many things a poet and a mother. She lives in Danby. Found it a little awkward to sit and meet like this because she is a little shy, but this didn’t come across at all in the conversation! She was interesting, intelligent, and feeling a little overwhelmed with all she has on her plate.
She bought her scarf both as a piece of clothing and as a piece of art. She was drawn to her scarf because of the serving implements, color, and assortment of objects on the scarf, and her daughter helped her pick it out. Kat was very interesting in her comments that she wanted the scarf, almost coveted it in the way you would buying a beautiful blouse or piece of jewelry, which is not an emotion she would normally associate with buying a piece of art. So it was an interesting discussion about shopping fro luxury items and art and the similarities and differences between the two, especially as I come at it from a different perspective.
