PLENARY BEAUTY
Performative talk on sustainability and artistic workshop

Plenary Beauty is a performative talk for Kunsthall Stavanger (NO) on the many forms sustainability can take within visual work. I was invited to Stavanger by curator and design critic Kristina Ketola Bore.

The talk was followed by a 2-day workshop for young adults on beauty and norms around our visual surroundings, as part of the program Mobilizing Citizenship engaging young adults to challenge notions of art mediation and formal art education.

Some of the experimental 3D landscapes included in the performance

THE TALK: PLENARY BEAUTY

“As we collectively recognise the urgency of radically rethinking the ways we relate to the environment and ourselves, we are also called to reflect on how visuality can contribute to harmonious co-existence.

How can sustainability unfold through visual work and our visual surroundings? What questions on visuality we can investigate, and act upon? Proposing an expanded view of sustainability, the talk unfolds through an exploration of form, visions and methods for a plenary beauty – one that celebrates, and responds to complexity.”

The talk presented new research and formulations on the urgency of rethinking our approach to sustainability to include those expressions of it that impact our visual surroundings and visual culture(s). I spoke about visual work as holistic work for structural change.

A performative talk is a format developed for my own lectures, expanding from the traditional set up to include a high amount of specifically developed sensory and aesthetic experiences.

Here, as the talk speaks about imaginary futures of beauty yet-to-be, I presented a new series of animated 3D fractals functioning as evocative interludes in-between spoken parts of the talk, as expression of a beauty for the future.

WORKSHOP

The workshop, aimed at age group of 12–16, was a hands-on exercise to stimulate critical reflections on image making, self-image, beauty, technology, agency and activism through visual work.

I wished for the participants to challenge their own assumptions on beauty and aesthetics, as well as engage with visual experiments and expand their own sense of ownership of their visual surroundings.

During the weekend we created a giant collective backdrop using images generated through artificial intelligence starting from self-portraits. The final result is a collage of prints on fabric of ca. 4x3 meters functioning as backdrop for collective and individual portraits. The participants were in charge of the production and selection of their own images.

We spent the first day experimenting with image production mainly in digital environments, while the second day focused on physical work that included printing, collage making, composition and photography. We ended with individual portraits session.

The work of artist Sonia Delaunay with backdrops was part of the preliminary research

Day 2 – printing, cutting, and composition of backdrop

Day 2 – printing, cutting, and composition of backdrop

The workshop was run giving space to different styles of learning and making, and through feminist pedagogy – a mix of subtle and explicit strategies aimed at making everyone in the room (and especially the most vulnerable) feel seen and safe.

But also in the position of shaping the best version of themselves, in harmony with one another, through the making. It is my observation that such conditions are what enable profound growth and participation and engaged, meaningful creative work.

My gratitude goes to the team and staff at Kunsthall Stavanger for their support. Pictures of underage participants are used with their permission.

More work ⇣