From Jessie 29/03:

Hey Polly and Claire,

I know I'm a part of this conversation getting lost with my slow to respond tendencies! I do think about the project a lot, and what we are discussing, but have found it hard to sit down and respond properly.

But here goes...

First to respond to Claire:

Haha.  I'm only indecisive when there is nothing at stake - what to do when I'm hanging out with a friend, what to eat for dinner, things like that - I'm pretty intuitive when it comes to important stuff. I think with the colours its that there has to be a reason for using whatever I'm using. For instance, I did a work last year where I painted the pieces of bubble gum on the ground on a section of pavement in the city, and using a rainbow didn't really seem all that appropriate so I had to decide on a combination of colours that worked together and felt right. I went with purple, pink, orange and teal because they are bubblegummy colours (I spent a lot of time researching this!) But when there isn't those other considerations (for instance chips in bricks in a laneway) I find it hard to reason the use of particular combinations.

is that making sense? Am I just repeating what I discussed last time? Is that actually just indecisiveness?!?! Ha. 

It does seem as though we are aiming for similar outcomes with what we make, but go about it in different ways, which is great, another common thread between the two of us. I don't have a proper name for the moment - I tend to just refer to it as 'that moment' or 'the encounter' - perhaps we should research to see if there is a term and if not come up with our own?

I avoid using photography as much as I can as a tool for making and presenting works. I feel like it is a removal from the work, and from creating that moment of encounter with the work. Even though as friends point out to me, people still have a moment of encounter with a work when it is hanging on the walls of a gallery, I just think it is different. Seeing a photograph of a rainbow crack in the pavement is not the same thing as actually discovering a rainbow crack in the pavement as you walk down the street. You know when you walk into a gallery that you are going to see something, its a specific, generally deliberate decision to see something, even if you are not sure what it is going to be. I guess I want to challenge how the viewer encounters the work, which adds to that moment we are both aiming for.

In saying that though, I have been thinking lately of using photography a bit (not as documentation for interventions but, more intervening into images) and about how my work could maybe translate into video but I haven't really pushed either of those as yet. I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the permanency of those mediums, something I really struggle with. Again though, if it seems to fit the project perfectly (as in it is the best way to do what I want to do), I would just go for it. Which I guess is the same as your  intent to "install the video in a way that gives that moment (the corners of the mouth turning up, the little jump in the heart) back to the viewer, not through the document or the representation (maybe that's just a prompt) but in their live/direct encounter with the work, whatever that may involve." I just haven't gotten to the point of trying it yet! 

I really love your instagram shots Claire! The way the light falls in a room is so beautiful and is constantly changing. What are you planning on doing with them all? 

I also really love the way that you have documented the rainbows with words rather than images, and made it about the experience of seeing one not actually seeing one - yours initially but then allowing the viewers to have an experience in the gallery too. 

Can you apply this to your work for 'Unkept'? Not the rainbows, but some kind of recordings from New York? 

Having works of a 'non physical' nature but that somehow fill the space could make for an interesting combination between the two of us. Not sure how this would fit with Polly's vision of the exhibition? 

This is getting really long. I'll respond to Polly's collaborative question separately I think. 

x. Jessie

PS. Yellow is a great option for favourite colour. So happy.

PPS. Happy, happy birthday Claire! It's a beautiful day in Adelaide today, hopefully its just as lovely wherever you find yourself x.