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I never know the best way to communicate on how an idea comes together. I guess it’s a sort of “intentional serendipity” – as outlined by Jessica Colaço, the keynote speaker at SwitchPoint. I was approached by an organizer of SwitchPoint about merging my practice with a puppet maker and poet. We were tasked with making a cohesive co-created art piece with the conference attendees.
My practice is individual; it is an experience that I keep to myself. How I create my ideas and who it should include is very personal. I take photos of people one at a time – it is not the most inclusive process. However, when the series of portraits are done a collective narrative emerges.
How would I pair something so individual with a co-created process?
If you look at what makes an individual, it is actually a sum of many other people and experiences painted on them. What if we collectively made the people to photograph? Collectively gave them stories?
You never really know how an idea will come together until the last moment. And with art, you seldom truly understand what you are creating til long after it is completed. As I reflect on this project, PAPER, now I can see myself realizing elements that were not so clear while performing this task.
PAPER was a unique experience where a photographer, poet, puppet maker and a group of enthusiastic participants created a community of paper puppets. Now looking back at the photographs of the puppets and reading the poems – I understand how “intentional serendipity” informed a much larger narrative around what it takes to create a community and how this community shapes the individual.