Between the painting and us
Access is relational.
It says something about our closeness to the subject, and our distance from the subject.
The painting The Rainbow Experience by Mia Boe deals with obscured stories from the artist’s family history, stories of settler colonial violence.
One of the figures in the painting represents Mia Boe’s great-great-grand uncle Wonamutta, an Aboriginal trooper.
The troopers were forced by colonial officers to enact violence against their own people.
Mia Boe signals this by painting her great-great-grand uncle blindfolded.
What is it to meet this painting, with its brightly painted figures and sky, without this cultural context?
How can bodies process what has been seen?
As more context beyond the frame is learned, how can we process shifting impressions?
How can we handle our closeness or distance to the subject of the painting?
How can our bodies feel through similarities or differences in positionality between us and the artist?
How can our bodies process responsibility?
Through improvised choreography, Clare shares the ways their bodies are:
- processing the imagery of the painting, and
- processing the difference between their positionality and the artist.
As Clare processes their impressions, we invite you to join us in a collective audiodescription.
We encourage you to describe their movements, thinking of these questions:
- What was your eye drawn to first?
- And while your attention was there, what was overlooked?
Fayen moves around the room with a wireless microphone — have workshop participants primed to contribute, and offer to others who signal interest.