Moving Image
About
I remember clearly looking up at the runner in front of me. Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: That’s what their t-shirt said.
Pain is pain, I thought. How we cope, what we tell ourselves - is something else. Motivational thinking from a slogan on a t-shirt was never going to work...
Working through something, persevering, progressing with any activity that is uncertain, volatile and speculative is risky, bringing many kinds of pain. These artists understand that. Doubt, failure, financial disaster, potential ridicule; are at stake, lurking nearby. Hello Darkness, My Old Friend…
These artists have worked through things, that’s for sure. Individually, collectively, collaboratively, remotely.
The work represents a snub to normality, a raspberry loudly expelled: Pffffhhhhppppppppppt! to ideas expected of them. Willing their work into being, thriving in these conditions despite the severity of the times and the near-impossible difficulty of the circumstances.
These artists are Carers, Mothers, Fathers, workers, scholars... Learning and making art in addition to these roles is challenging. They have had to negotiate the fickle deathly-nature of a shape-shifting, variant-prolific virus while making this work. How amazing is that?
How amazing is this work? Not because of, nor despite the Pandemic. This work is great. Because it is great work. Oh, and it happened to have been made with The Pandemic as a backdrop…
Pain is pain. Joy is joy. These works are full of joy, wonder, enchantment, all kinds of discovery. There’s some pain too…
Jordan Baseman, Pathway Lead, Moving Image