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Tuesday, October 12, 2021
How do we begin to heal from all this?
Exeunt Magazine: “What makes Newham, Newham? Describe your first contact with a covid positive (or covid suspected) patient? Is clapping enough? What was your most challenging moment?
And what was your most beautiful moment? Are you going to be ok?”
4 comments:
Sophia Coscia
said...
The phrase “Generational Trauma” really stuck out to me. I actually just concluded my Interp Mini on Writing About Visual Culture. I wrote my entire final paper on generational trauma and the way photographs can interact with that through Hirsch’s lense on post memory. I adore the concept of a room that allows for the foundation of healing and reeducation. The work of artist to rebuild a community after tragedy is always so beautiful to me. Over the spring, I worked to produce an exhibition that focused on Covid related healing in students. I collected student works from across multiple districts, and observed the positive impacts students isolation had on their own works. I built an immersive experienced and allowed students to speak and read from the journals. It was one of the first reopening events in my city and led many audience members down a path of re-healing.
This is quite an intense exhibition. I understand and respect the intent of it, but I do believe reliving some of these stories is not everyone's preferred way of coping. This reminds me of a playground piece done a few years back that was a discussion group that became a sort of group therapy session focused on the Tree of Life mass shooting. Some students found the experience healing and insightful, while others were torn and upset the rest of the day. This is not to say that we shouldn't actively be addressing our issues, and unpacking them before the next generation inherits them (even thought this is often the case). Simply that we should remind ourselves what we are accomplishing by diving into difficult topics as these, and how we can do it in a safe and supportive manner. One aspect I do really like about this though is the fact that we all the "audience" members can stand together as a group, and actively feel the presence of other bodies who can relate to each other without having to explain.
I personally try to stay away from all of the Covid articles. We hear about it constantly in our daily lives and it never ends when you go online. I did however like reading this article. I can’t really imagine what happened with this instillation. I get that there are videos and it has new become an archive for the footage that was recorded but not publicly shared in the art piece that was created. I think that it is an interesting topic to address with art. I try not to create art based off of the Covid pandemic but I admire anyone that is capable of living in the pandemic and also creating using collective human experiences from the past year and a half (almost 2) I am still profoundly shocked by the impact of Covid (across the world and on a personal level) it will be interesting to see how it continues to affect the future, I just hope it continues to get better and not worse
For me, meaning for art can sometimes be as small and personal as trying to work through stress or thoughts that have been stuck in my head, to express those thoughts and feelings more to myself than to the world as a whole, and it puts into perspective how much work must be done to work through those small things and how much more to address generational trauma and healing for anything on a large or significant scale. Processing my own thoughts is hard, engaging with and understanding the thoughts of others feels supremely difficult and commendable. I was also curious when they referenced how stress affects bodies, and it can put genetic changes in your body and then potentially to any children that you may have, leaving them at a higher risk for mental health issues. Putting into perspective for merge far reaching affects of my actions and a bit of fear as to their ramifications.
4 comments:
The phrase “Generational Trauma” really stuck out to me. I actually just concluded my Interp Mini on Writing About Visual Culture. I wrote my entire final paper on generational trauma and the way photographs can interact with that through Hirsch’s lense on post memory. I adore the concept of a room that allows for the foundation of healing and reeducation. The work of artist to rebuild a community after tragedy is always so beautiful to me. Over the spring, I worked to produce an exhibition that focused on Covid related healing in students. I collected student works from across multiple districts, and observed the positive impacts students isolation had on their own works. I built an immersive experienced and allowed students to speak and read from the journals. It was one of the first reopening events in my city and led many audience members down a path of re-healing.
This is quite an intense exhibition. I understand and respect the intent of it, but I do believe reliving some of these stories is not everyone's preferred way of coping. This reminds me of a playground piece done a few years back that was a discussion group that became a sort of group therapy session focused on the Tree of Life mass shooting. Some students found the experience healing and insightful, while others were torn and upset the rest of the day. This is not to say that we shouldn't actively be addressing our issues, and unpacking them before the next generation inherits them (even thought this is often the case). Simply that we should remind ourselves what we are accomplishing by diving into difficult topics as these, and how we can do it in a safe and supportive manner. One aspect I do really like about this though is the fact that we all the "audience" members can stand together as a group, and actively feel the presence of other bodies who can relate to each other without having to explain.
I personally try to stay away from all of the Covid articles. We hear about it constantly in our daily lives and it never ends when you go online. I did however like reading this article. I can’t really imagine what happened with this instillation. I get that there are videos and it has new become an archive for the footage that was recorded but not publicly shared in the art piece that was created. I think that it is an interesting topic to address with art. I try not to create art based off of the Covid pandemic but I admire anyone that is capable of living in the pandemic and also creating using collective human experiences from the past year and a half (almost 2) I am still profoundly shocked by the impact of Covid (across the world and on a personal level) it will be interesting to see how it continues to affect the future, I just hope it continues to get better and not worse
For me, meaning for art can sometimes be as small and personal as trying to work through stress or thoughts that have been stuck in my head, to express those thoughts and feelings more to myself than to the world as a whole, and it puts into perspective how much work must be done to work through those small things and how much more to address generational trauma and healing for anything on a large or significant scale. Processing my own thoughts is hard, engaging with and understanding the thoughts of others feels supremely difficult and commendable.
I was also curious when they referenced how stress affects bodies, and it can put genetic changes in your body and then potentially to any children that you may have, leaving them at a higher risk for mental health issues. Putting into perspective for merge far reaching affects of my actions and a bit of fear as to their ramifications.
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