O.C.A. Workshop 03/07/2021 - Diana Ali & Michelle Whiting- Lisbon 2019 study trip group/students.

This workshop is truly something to look forward to because there is a group community across interdisciplinary students. We all have a bond because of the trip to Lisbon.

Over the workshops we have attended, since the trip (before Covid 19), we are getting to grips with some very interesting subjects. This workshop was 5 hours long.

OCA Study Group Lisbon 2019 B.C (Before Covid)

This online workshop included:

5 subjects with 5 materials for 5 artworks with the umbrella theme being:

'Where do I stand in the world?'

Brexit, Black lives Matter, Cultural Poverty, Being a Woman and LGBTQIA+

For each subject we had 10- 20 mins after the tutors announcing the subject to respond.

Each student response is obviously different because of our varied disciplines. We reflected and commented on the works responding and feeding back.

We were also given a link to read.

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/political-art

We were shown several artworks and asked to critique and feedback on them which I really enjoyed. Sometimes a title can be a fundamental part of unlocking the secrets of an artwork or it can make the piece be viewed in a totally different way.

My five contributions of artwork are below each subject heading and were my response on the day.

Some of the words generated from students for the subjects are also documented;

Brexit:

Familiar, dissolving, melting, nationalism, imperfect, spoilt, losing identity, trying to be patched up, hiding ugliness, disjointed, rule britannia, sitting on the fence, time of how things change politically,torn apart, expands divide, joining up,gap, absence, empty, lack of control, isolated, grief, divide, making choices, undecided.

Black Lives Matter.

Anger, strength, mistrust, unity, powerful, solid, escape the unconventional, change, invisible, awareness, colonialism, truth, I can't breathe,tribal, primitive, belief, respect, overwhelming, diversity, togetherness, resistance.

Cultural Poverty.

hungry, symbolic, catching, dream nightmare as one, sinister, food, education, vulnerability, wealth, values, boredom, deprivation, lack of diversity, lack of creativity, restriction of mental space, stifling, caged - lack of access to resources.

LGBTQIA+

gender, sex, identity, meat popsicle, difference, diversity,spiral, infinity, fluid,

struggle, burden, heavy weight, all in it together, pull society in right direction, corporate,

exploitation, cynicism, appropriation, bandwagon, colour, diversity, fluidity, celebration, joyful, fluidity, non- binary, exclusive, labels, categories, my name is....indifferent, consent, freedom, comfortable, accepting.

Being a Woman

Identity, feminist. is being a woman artist enough? Frida Kahlo, pain, frustration in women's art women, artists, blood boiling, angry.

Michelle Whiting read out some facts about women in art and how the percentage of women to men in every section of the art industry was clearly male dominated.

Texts that support the workshop and for my further reading:

Hannah Arendt -The Human Condition

Amelia Abraham - We can do better than this

So what else did I learn?

Subjects can be expressed through an artform, a difficult conversation is allowed to happen with an artistic response.

Practice led workshops sustain connectivity with other disciplines and inspire me. I can also look back at some of the feedback on the subjects in the future.

Artists who recreate a historical piece of art, in a modern form, are referencing history or fact.

Critiquing work within a group opens up fresh ways of looking at varied concepts.

Does a piece of art have to say something?

Can art just be the love of the materials or processes?

Some of the art I am researching was made at a time when documenting a response was a brave act. Is this why some pieces are purposely puzzles and difficult to unlock initially?