THE CONSENSES JOURNAL

A little journal for big issues

No. 2, June 2018. Edited by Oleno Netto.

Come to Your Senses

Hello there!

This is the second issue of The Consenses Journal and it bears great news. From June 23 2018 to May 27 2019 MASS MoCA presents at their Kidspace Come to Your Senses: Art to See, Smell, Hear, Taste, and Touch, a Consenses exhibit which I have curated.

In March 2017 I worked with fifty 5th graders from the North Adams area and asked them to paint the essence of “JOY.” But what IS the essence of joy? Well, of course, there’s really no right or wrong answer and everyone’s version is different so I asked them to try filling themselves up with joy by remembering a wonderful time in their lives or an experience that filled them with that feeling. Then I asked them the following questions:

What would the spirit of JOY be if it were a color? Would joy be yellow? Or pink? Or clear or red?
What would JOY taste like if it had a flavor? Would it taste like popcorn? Jellybeans? Warm fresh bread just out of the oven?
What about if JOY were a texture or material? Would joy feel like feathers falling from the sky? Or like riding your bike full speed downhill? Maybe the essence of joy for you feels like running through the woods or falling into your bed after a long day. and finally I asked
What would JOY be if it were a painting?…

From here, the student’s picked up paintbrushes and painted their JOY. And guess what? All of their paintings were different because, guess what? We all experience the world differently. Some students painted with yellows and pinks, others with greens and blues and some used every color in the rainbow. Some used big fearless brushstrokes to represent joy, while others painted careful delicate lines and swirls like whispers on the page. Others painted abstract shapes while others painted representational things like rainbows, fields of flowers or their favorite place to play. Even though all their versions of JOY were different, all of them were right! And together, through their collection of paintings, we were able to explore and discover the broader essence of “JOY”. There were things that all their paintings had in common, like round, bright, colorful shapes.

The same students were next asked to paint the essence of “FEAR”. Again, I asked them to close their eyes and investigate their unique feelings. They asked themselves: “What would FEAR smell like?” “Feel like?” “Taste like?” “Look like?” Again, all their paintings were different but as with JOY, the FEAR paintings all had similar characteristics too. The shapes for fear were sharp for example, the colors were dark and the strokes chaotic.

Taking the paintings back home with me to Cambridge, I chose six (three paintings of JOY, three paintings of FEAR) and designated 6 professional musicians. Never telling them a child painted it or that it was inspired by an emotion, I gave each of them a painting and asked them to interpret what it meant for them and express its essence as a song. Each song was then given to a filmmaker who was asked to express the essence of the music as movement. Each film was given to a poet, each poem to a visual artist, each visual work to a perfumer, each perfume to a sculptor and finally each chain was interpreted by a set designer who interpreted them as a whole and created a space for the art to live within as one collaborative piece of art.

Each link in the chain provides a new window into the art preceding it. Each artwork offers a way to see our humanness with all our brilliant uniqueness and our inevitable limitations. In Consenses, as it should be in life, no matter our age, race, or creed each of our perspectives are equal and valid. What started as 6 student’s paintings of JOY and FEAR has given way to a conversation through paint and fragrance and metal and music about what it means to be human. The ways in which we are different and how those differences help us to see in new and exciting ways, but more importantly how we are all connected though we might not see it in our day to day lives.

For this issue of The Consenses Journal I interviewed two of the children whoes paintings of JOY and FEAR inspired chains of art for our latest exhibition: Ozzie Weber and Gisela Hildabrand. Each interview is followed by a text from the designers who interpreted those chains as a whole and created sets where the art will be exhibited from, Cristina Todesco and Janie Howland. The children were asked the exact same questions about the experience of creating a painting based on a feeling, and the adults were equally briefed to write about what influenced their perceptions and creative processes in interpreting the chains they were assigned to as a whole. As you can imagine, they’re each unique but share common threads. You will also have a sneak peek of one of the chains which will be part of the exhibit.

Play a game of ‘Essences’ with Janie & Cristina and try to guess who their metaphors are describing. And make sure to check if you found out who the person was from the game of our last number — the answer is at the end.

Before I let you enjoy our Journal I’d like to invite you to come celebrate the opening of Come to Your Senses on June 23rd at MASS MoCA with us. We’re having an intimate one-night-only concert featuring musical performances from Carly Simon, Ben Taylor, Sophie Hiller, Kori Withers, Eric Erdman, and John Forte, as well as a dance performance by Alison Manning and Jesse Keller. Click here to buy your tickets — all proceeds benefit arts education at MASS MoCA.

We welcome you to Come to Your Senses.

With gratitute,
Sally T

Creating from Joy

Ozzie Weber is a 5th grade student at Greylock Elementary. He is 11 years old and his favorite thing to do is play baseball (he’s the pitcher). The piece he created is called Monster Gets a Date and it was derived from the word “joy”. It was the starting point of chain #1 Love of the exhibit Come to Your Senses.

“If Joy were a color it would be yellow. It would be light. It would be a bright sunny day. In response to the word ‘joy’ I made a monster that finally got a date.”

Here’s his interview for The Consenses Journal:

ST: What was it like for you to paint from the word ‘JOY?’
OW: It was different from what I normally do… Normally when I paint I don’t think I just do, and in this case I had to really become part of the painting.

ST: What did you learn from that day about yourself? What was hard or easiest part about it?
OW: I learned that when I think of a feeling it comes with colors.

ST: You created a painting of a monster that’s finally got a date. How did you get there from the word joy? What did that word bring to your mind?
OW: When I think of joy it is something that makes you happy and so I thought of a monster cause when you think of monsters you think of scary things so thinking about them getting to go out on a date is really happy, more than just a normal person getting a date. When I thought of the monster I thought about how he might be trying to be nice but everyone might be only seeing him as mean. I thought of him as a color changing monster and when he’s happy he changes to yellow, when he’s mad he’s red. I imagined him being asked out by another monster who was also seen as mean but was also really nice. The image in my head was him with horns and sharp teeth and when I made him on the sheet I made him not as scary as he was in my head.

ST: Did your drawing look like the ones made by your peers?
OW: They were different. They didn’t use the same colors or subjects. Some of them surprised me cause when I thought of joy I thought of something happy and exciting and some of my peers were more about calm joy or free joy. They were all joy but different. It taught me that everyone has a different version of joy.

ST: What did you take away from that day? How did it make you feel doing that exercise?
OW: When you’re painting you don’t just do it. You have to explore your feelings first and create from there. I thought the whole experience was really fun. I’d really like to do it again.

Cristina Todesco is a theatrical set designer based in Boston who assembled the 5 creations derived from the word “joy” based on different senses for chain #1 Love of Come to Your Senses. The sketch image that opens our Journal shows how she made them into a single collaborative piece.

Here’s what she says about the creative process of interpreting the chain as one:

“All the art as a collection on this chain made me think of the playfulness and exuberance I felt as a girl. The kind of play that’s adventurous and pure: riding my bike all over town for fun, riding with no hands, jumping off the dock into the ferry’s wake or off the high dive into my dad’s pool, letting the waves take me backward and forward in the ocean… for hours. I imagined myself in a nest of all of these sensations. Saturated in all of that purity I embraced color and texture and set out to create the essence of exuberance, the color yellow, the taste of honey, sunny days, sand, water and spring grass.

What’s interesting and challenging about this project is that I never truly experience each link in the chain as ONE. Looking at the image of the child’s artwork, listening to the song through my earbuds, watching the dance, looking at the painting, reading the poem, smelling the perfume, I sit at my computer while each piece is captive inside the box and different compartments of my mind — I just imagine. The space’s preset parameters (10’X10’X8′) are real and concrete, so my challenge is how to release the art into the world — out into this communal and tactile space that allows them to live and breathe together — and at the same time allows the audience to forget where they are for the moment — in much the same way I experienced them when I sat and imagined.

For me, design encompasses this idea of transcending the concrete world through the senses— whether it’s experiencing a play in a theater or an architectural space in a building. When designing, I try to be both the audience and the actor — how does it feel to be an actor walking across this open space and how does it feel for an audience to watch an actor take that journey. It becomes an experience about empathy. At Mass MOCA, how can each visitor to this space feel connectedness with the work and their makers. How can they maybe even feel love.”

Creating from Fear

Gisella Hildabrand is also a 5th grade student at Greylock Elementary. Her favorite thing to do is dance to Classical Ballet, Hip-Hop and Jazz. The piece she created was derived from the word “fear”. It was the starting point of chain #4 Sadness of the exhibit Come to Your Senses.

“‘FEAR’ is sticky. It is large rocks. It is fire. It is the sound of thunder. It is the last petal falling. My painting of this is fear of darkness and large spiders. This is something trying to escape. Trying to escape from terror.”

Here’s her interview for The Consenses Journal:

ST: What was painting from ‘FEAR’ like for you?
GH: I remember closing my eyes and feeling just darkness, sad & angry and I just thought of my sort of fears. My fears are of being left and of spiders ’cause they’re just scary, especially the giant ones.

ST: What did you learn from that day about yourself? What was the hardest or easiest part about it?
GH: The hardest part was trying to take the feelings from my mind and trying to express them in paint. It taught me that it takes a little bit longer to think about everything you want to say and then shape it into art. I could picture the colors in my mind but getting the shape and having it all come together was the hard part. When I looked at the painting when I was done it made me realize that darkness and spiders both go together because you have to overcome them but also because there’s a part of them that’s actually not so scary after all.

ST: What did the word “FEAR” bring to your mind?
GH: I pictured discomfort and how lonely it was. I used color (dreary and sad colors) and the amount I used: some places a lot and some a little. Some places dry and some with lots of paint.

ST: Did your drawing look like the ones made by your peers?
GH: It didn’t look like the others, but I wasn’t surprised cause we all have different versions of FEAR.

ST: What did you take away from that day? How did it make you feel doing that exercise?
GH: It made see that you can feel something inside and present it outside. It made me realize how different the world is to everyone and then sometimes it is the same and that’s exciting.

Janie Howland is a professional scenic designer also based in Boston who assembled the 5 creations derived from the word “FEAR” based on different senses for chain #4 Sadness of Come to Your Senses.

Here’s what she says about the creative process of interpreting the chain as one:

“Chain #4 Sadness has an overwhelming feeling of heaviness. After experiencing the artistic ‘links’ of the chain I felt a sense of loss, longing and melancholy. Amazingly each artist felt some sense of heaviness and loss and remembrance, as they described in their statements as well.

I immediately had a feeling of being underwater, in a dark place with a weight above me. The shape of the chain feels round and undulating, like crashing waves. The colors came to me as dark grey — blues and rusts in contrast to lighter grey-blues.

The essence of my exhibit design is the weight from above. I want the viewer to feel the weight above them and to look up. The viewer can also take comfort in the large pillowed seating and look up at the art and watch the dance video while sitting and listening to the music.

The shapes above the space, creating the weighty surround, enclose it and create a sense of disconnectedness. I also feel that the chain leaves one with a sense of disconnect and longing, a coming together and moving apart. The ‘waves’ are juxtaposed in a disconnected way. They interlock but they do not quite fit. The waves carry the viewer through the art of the chain and at the end, the chain and the waves break out and extend down the center wall of the space, reaching out.

This process of design is similar to the process I experience when designing a set for a theatrical production. The artwork takes the place of the script, libretto or dance. Although each piece can be interpreted individually, it amazes me how the chain holds together in a consistent way, creating a single inspiration for the exhibit design. Like scenes in a play, each piece of art creates a whole story.“

Explore chain #1 Love of Come to Your Senses

Join a conversation through paint, fragrance, metal, music about what it means to be human while you explore chain #1 Love through the works of Ozzie Weber, Carly Simon, Alison Manning & Jesse Keller, Rose Styron, Susan Swartz, Jim Krivda, Cristina Todesco.

Susan Swartz “Spring Muse” (Painting) 4’X6’; 3l lbs.

Want to Play A Game of Essences with Us?

GUESS WHO AND WHAT?Try to guess who the person is or what it is from the essences (which are metaphorical descriptions) given by each of the participants to describe one individual through a color, an animal, a food, an article of clothing, a scent, and a sound:

Cristina’s
WHO – black; elephant; parsley; vest; lavender; rain.
WHAT – gray; something fearful; corn; suspenders; something burning; alarms

Janie’s
WHO – black and white; leopard; potato chips flying out of a bag when opened to vigorously; bandana; fresh spring dirt for planting; cracking/crunching open.
WHAT – red; tiger; meat; heavy canvas jacket; feces (really want to just say “shit”); crack of lightning.

Watch this space for the answer!

Did you figure out who we were referring to?

Guess that person from our first number of The Consenses Journal:

Carly Simon’s
Howdy Doody orange, brown; large hyena; pizza; boxer shorts; pickles, toe jam.

Sally Taylor’s
Mustard yellow; corn snake; Velveeta mac and cheese; stiff cowboy hat; loose change.

Ben Taylor’s
Bleached ocher; rat; rat (yes!); cufflink; Jenkem.If you guessed Trump, you were right!

*UPDATE: After we’d sent out our second Consenses Journal, someone reached out to bring to my awareness how unfair this section had been. She pointed out, to her great credit that this was only one perspective of Donald Trump and didn’t offer a platform for a broader perspective of our president. I promised her #1 I would take this into consideration moving forward with our games of essences in our newsletter and #2 that I would play the game of essences with Trump on my social media platforms to generate a more diverse audience’s perspective of Donald J Trump. I have since opened up this game of Essences with Trump to ConsensesArt’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, IN and Google 1 accounts and hope you will visit those sites, especially if you have contrasting views to mine or my family’s, and enter your own metaphors answering: “What would Donald Trump be if he were a COLOR, ANIMAL, FOOD, ARTICLE OF CLOTHING & A SOUND?.”

Thank you!

Sally

“The painting of the yellow figure for me felt like sadness with hope. Its essence was like the sun trying to shine through mist on a London morning, the sound of a carnival in a distant town, weightlessness, a diary found under a mattress and diaphanous (light, delicate, and translucent) lace. Initially, the painting for me was about the sadness that comes from low self-esteem and hiding but it became about trying to find the sun within.

-Carly Simon on how she interpreted Ozzie Weber’s painting to create Tender Touch, the song she made for chain #1 Love.