Cultural and Community Interactions/Events

Points of Many Connections dome: Participants writing, drawing, signing on golden fabric strips about themselves and how and where they hold up the sky.

Alli introducing her interactive "Common Threads: Intersections in Line and Time"

Rosemary talking about her delegate art piece during the tour of the exhibition

Five participants at a time introduced themselves - who they are and where they hold up half the sky. At first shy, the crowd quickly warmed up to taking their turns raising the parachute to half the sky.

Participants placing "Don't Remain Silent" stickers (in English and Mandarin) onto Louder Than Words' domestic violence wallpaper.

Elana before presenting the call & response activity of Myths of Rape

Thursday, April 16

This day we were to offer our Cultural and Community Interaction Events. At breakfast, and considering the responses and comments of the Chinese artists in the roundtable discussion  the day before, we had a thoughtful revisiting of our intentions and presentational formats for these events. There was again concern about how much to push uncomfortable topics such as gender and domestic violence and rape, but agreement that this was social practice art  We decided to present these events as examples of art activism and audience engagement and lowered our expectations for audience participation.

We were pleasantly surprised. Over fifty people were waiting for our events to begin.

Sandra Mueller and I opened, with Jing Deng assisting as interpreter,  with an explanation about our Points of Many Connections Dome. How it was a place for viewers to  contemplate the ways they take care of their loved ones, their communities and how they share they responsibility of making the world safe and habitable. We then offered pens and the golden strips of fabric - that women had begun writing on at the WCA Conference in Chicago - and asked if anyone wished to add their name, where they lived, to draw or write how they hold up the sky. We were besieged for requests for the pens and fabric. Wang Yi Gang sat next to me on the floor as we added our thoughts to the fabric. Participants sat in the dome, hung their fabric strips from the weaving inside or added them to the pile on the center of the dome floor. We felt it was an unexpectedly successful setup to the events to follow.

Neda Mordipour, of Louder Than Words, eloquently described the purpose of These Wall Can Talk, the domestic scene, with its wallpaper design (a toile version of implements of violence such as fists, knives and belts) and video of men reciting Jackson Katz' 10 Things Men Can Do To Prevent Gender Violence. She then asked participants to to place stickers that said "Don't Remain Silent" (in English and Mandarin) on the wallpaper.  Immediately one tall, young man stepped forward from the crowd. The delegates were initially concerned by his body language as it seemed somewhat aggressive, but we were relieved and pleased that he was wanting to know if this installation was only about women, or if men could be victims of gender violence. Neda's response was calm and informative and after a few more questions, audience members did begin to approach the wallpaper and place their stickers, while others photographed this process. 

The delegates flanked Elana Mann in front of her poster installation about Myths of Rape 
for her People's Microphone call and response presentation. We had anticipated that this would be perhaps the most intense and challenging of our events. The people's microphone is a method for a large audience to hear what a speaker is saying. Those around the speaker collectively repeat the comment. Elana said a myth about rape in English and the delegates repeated it. Jing then said the same myth in Mandarin and, surprising us again, the mixed-gender audience loudly replied. We continued with the corresponding fact to bely the myth and other myth-fact statements and felt the audience and ourselves were highly energized.

From this event, we toured the exhibition, giving each Chinese or US-based artist in attendance, an opportunity to briefly describe her work. The crowd followed and listened attentively. 

Alli Berman's Common Threads: Intersections of Time and Line interactive installation wrapped up our morning. With her characteristic enthusiasm, she explained how women, including herself, are challenged, beat down and then stitched back together with the assistance of the people in their lives. She then asked the audience to color in squares of pre-printed graphics of weaving lines and shapes and then to find some continuation of line in each of their squares to another square in the installation, thereby showing our commonalities and connections. This activity was excitedly embraced - especially by the art students in attendance. 


From the beginning, this project was more than an art exhibition. The cultural exchange aspect was paramount to our social practice goals.  This morning's interactions and responses filled us with gratitude and satisfaction and awe.


Sherri Cornett