An update on the exhibition, Sinking like a stone, Whitley College, 20
So, the timing is strange…but believe it or not, the day before I was scheduled to hang this exhibition, Sinking like a stone, at Whitley College, lockdown 6.0 took effect in Melbourne and the process of waiting began again. An exhibition is ready and waiting, but the work is still in the studio. Waiting, and then waiting some more. You can see it here, clothed with a purple velvet blanket, waiting to leave the studio and hoping to see you soon. For several weeks I hope that things might change quickly and we would be able to reschedule the hanging of this work in 2021. Living into that hope was helpful at the time but before too long, hoping seemed to became a constraint in itself. By mid September I realised that I needed a way to share this work with you in a different way and so I returned to the music Malcolm Gordon created in A pocketful of smooth stones, looking for a word or a sound to lead me on.
In listening over and over, I finally heard what I was feeling and name it as grief. As Be Gentle with Grief echoes through the studio I am slowly learning to be gentle with myself, with my expectations and hopes. I am learning how to not push through the gift of this moment and to wait, sitting with what it means for me to want to see and be with other people in these disembodied times. The reality I am sitting with is that having begun to explore what it means to Sink like a stone, the curation of this new digital artwork tells the story of what it has been like for me, being with these images in the studio, wondering what it means for me, and for you, to exhibit the images and ideas. In curating the work as a digital artefact I heard Malcolm’s words until I found my own. The making of this work enabled me to name the experience I have encountered in each of these artworks and so the waiting and being with has once again become an important part of the process.
This video offers a glimpse into what I have seen, felt and heard in the studio whilst making this body of work and now sitting with it, re-membering over and over, the experience of being in worship in disembodied times. Having shared this with Malcolm, he is very happy for the collaboration of our work to be published and offered in the world as an point of connection and reflection. Whilst the words I have chosen to offer in this work reflect my own experience in 2021, as always I welcome different ideas and responses from others who may be interested to contemplate and share with me through these strange times. If you would like to connect and offer your own ideas, images and reflections, please be in touch with me through my email address: libbybyrne@bigpond.com.