Emma: Back to the Schmuck Fair on Day 14

We went back to the Schmuck Fair today to see a talk by the New Zealanders involved in the Handshake Project (check out their awesome blog here).

Sharon Fitness and Jessica Winchcombe talked about their experiences with their mentors and with the project so far. I was taking notes on what they were saying so I'll talk about some of the things that struck a chord with me.

Sharon Fitness talked first about her and her mentor Lisa Walker. Lisa, according to Sharon, is the "queen of found objects" and Sharon was saying how people would say that she was copying her because of her own interest in ready-made objects. Now, because of the mentee/mentor relationship that they have developed throughout the project, Sharon said that she can now tell aforementioned people exactly how she is not copying Lisa's work. This was a really important lesson for me because people obviously do arrive at similar points in their work but they can come from completely different making and conceptual decisions. I have worried before about how I'm meant to create something new or unique if "nothing is original" any more and this has shown me why I needn't be so worried about it.

Both Jessica and Sharon talked a lot about some of the benefits that they've experienced from the Handshake project and some things that we could take away from their experiences too. Both of them talked about how they and their mentors feed off eachother and use the experience and relationship as a chance to play and experiment. Jessica talked about how you didn't want to disappoint the artist and the audience who are always expecting bigger and better things as the project advances. She also talked about how, although they may not be in contact with their mentors all the time, they began to have pretend conversations with them because they know what they would say.

It was interesting hearing them both talk about the relationships they'd developed and the bouncing of ideas that happens when you're interacting with another person about art projects. I really like the idea of the project overall because it means that younger contemporary artists get a chance to interact with their artist idols and the artists themselves get to pass on skills and even learn some new ones themselves.