Alyssa Reed
A young woman in black and dark sunglasses rolls through strings of plastic wrap, tangling and untangling. Another young woman, her entire body covered in white tights, including the face wraps the hallway, stairs, herself and her dance partner in plastic wrap from a dispenser. The white woman stomps about with her wrap while the black woman, who also happens to be a black woman, walks back and forth in the hall, entangling and then rolling on the floor. Then they are in a classroom where they are wrapped around a projector. Is it still warm outside? they ask. Yes, I say, having just arrive from outside. They ignore me and ask each other again. They are dragging the projector around. One of the newspapers in the rooms says, How do we use my body? Another one says, Who lives on the bad side of town? What is the fate of my community?
An audience member says that they saw many people step over a woman of color, and she is the first one she has seen here. Is this really an open space? What is open engagement, what is really open?
The audience member traveled three and a half hours from Shangmei, the Golden Triangle, near Burma. Theoretically, you could just take a half hour flight, but the roads aren't like here. And from there, she took a plane to Bangkok. There are different colored shirts- red, yellow, white shirts. The shirts are hot, things heated up, but the planes are open. She had an 11 hour layover in Seoul. Customs in San Francisco was shocking. The city has a liberal past, but she has never encountered such rudeness as in SF customs.
The young woman in white asks whether the audience member regrets her trip. The audience member says she has more questions than answers about open engagement.
There are five audience members and one woman filming. The vocal lady from Shangmei, and the others begin talking about how the other participants on their way to the parallel conferences ignored the performers wrapping and entangling.
Do you think it is the culture of Portland that made Marianne invisible? Where does it come from that someone can become invisible?
Was there a significance in the lead and the follow? In the wrapper and the tangler?
We are only asking questions, you could join us in asking questions?
There are two videos from artists involved- one from Sweden and one from Palestine. We wanted to be in this map that we created in our bodies?
We want to just ask questions, so we'll ask back? What does it mean to be from some place and go to another place? Where are the other people involved in this project? When did we make decisions in our process and how did we get here?
For people in diaspora, why is it so hard to go back home? Why is this Palestinian stuck in San Francisco?
Does it matter where you are from if you feel like you are home or not at home?
Where is home located in your body?
Am I the only one who so often doesn't feel at home?
No, I have been writing emails for the last five years, saying I am homesick, but I no longer know where my home is. I have not been to the origin of my home since birth.
When is home about finding the original and when is it about finding a place to be comfortable? Where do you feel a sense of home and belonging?
I have been through so many borders. What created the borders? Can you also be dissected, segmented, or closed by borders and at he same time be in control of some borders, too. Its like a safety mechanism to make borders to protect yourself.
What makes community something that is recognizable? Is it there because I am there, or do others see it too? The conference is a temporary community. Portland community and Open Engagement community and somewhere in between.
I wasn't sure how to feel about the taxidermy, about being a part of the taxidermy. How intentional should we be in creating open engagement? Are we creating engagement that helps different communities engage?
Oh man I gotta ask a question. We can break it. I want to break it.
It seems particular, when you are at an art and social engagement process, that you are asking questions about building community. It's all about building a community... let's ride bikes to the donut shop, all these dinners. I think its interesting, rather than poking at your own community, to ask about how there are artists, and artists in communities, sometimes artists insert themselves into a community. What is the purpose of a community? Of a micro-community?
When do you draw borders?
I like drawing borders. I need to draw more borders around myself and do less stuff.
This is confusingly free to have this conversation. The buildings and website were very confusing. Was all that stuff like the hazing for this new field?
I am thinking of some kind of foul up action. Using bodies as ways to access or to block access. This is part one of a conversation that will go into the outside world. It needs to happen, tonight. Give me your phone number, if you would like to be involved.
I want to go off of how this is an undefined new field. It think the lack of definition allows it to be constantly redefined.
We didn't know what this was going to look like until we got here. We stayed open.
After spending quite a few years between American Occupied territories, community is where you either belong inside or outside... in these Asian countries it is what you are born into. It is only in the past few years, that the south can travel beyond their borders.
I am thinking about a pride of lions. They are a homogeneous community but must survive from energy from other areas.
The white lady is unwrapping the plastic wrap from her thighs.
Why do we have this idea that there is more of one thing than another? That there is a majority and that it is power?
Do you feel you are coming to this conference as yourself, as a representative of your community, or that you have to come and assimilate?
I think maybe this space wants to create a place where no one feels like they belong. What if that were the case?
There has been error in communication with booki server. Not sure right now where is the problem.
You should refresh this page.