Week 3 Blog: LISTENING TO THE SHAPES OF COLLABORATIVE ARTMAKING

Sunday, January 21, 2018.

LISTENING TO THE SHAPES OF COLLABORATIVE ARTMAKING by Rita L. Irwin.

"For the last 4 years, five women artist-teachers and I have been examining gender issues in art education through an action research project."  It is a succinct statement what prepares us for all that follows.

We generally think of art as a visual and individual process but this group used "listening" to get the shapes and design of their collaborative work.  These women created an installation quilt for a group exhibition.  The work was created to include social concern for gender issues, connective aesthetics and feminist pedagogy:  the work within the triangular collaborative quilt-making process.

Irwin states that the triangle asserts the trinity for each of the women and includes the past, present and future--mind, body and soul--personal, professional and political lives--that is incorporated into their quilt.  Connective aesthetics--that work among artists where new forms of art are centering on social creativity and feminist pedagogy--the work that draws attention to the processes through which knowledge is produces are the underlying forces of collaborative artmaking stated emphatically by Irwin.

The making of a quilt as an installation piece was an inspiring one, I thought.  Quilt-making has both traditionally been "women"s work" and more often a collaborative community event.  One can appreciate the insight these women used to express thier feminist view of artmaking in producing a quilt in a non-traditional shape but in a traditional community spirit.

Thirty-six triangles are held within the larger triangle--six being designed by each woman.  Thinking of Irwin's trinity concept, I envisioned each triangle to be an equilateral one, rather than the obtuse isosceles triangles that were used.  However, artistic design may have been the overriding decision on triangle choice.

Were I to sit down with Irwan at the round table covered with the triangular quilt, I would ask her these questions:  How did you decide who would participate in the project?  Were they friends, colleagues, members of an association or a chosen group from women who had submitted a resume?  Were the initial discussions about each other's viewpoints or had that already been decided before the project began?

I am often more interested in the way in which research projects, interview or surveys get started and how, rather than the results themselves.