Call 3

If there is a broader social context to my work then it is in my desire to communicate with others and invite them into the world that I see; a result of a general feeling of isolation and complete failure, or inability to communicate verbally. What I want is to share my fascinations and my observations of the world that I inhabit, and to, with my fellow human beings, work through the issues and confusions that I stumble upon with regards to belonging, geography, displacement, obsession, wandering, and what it means to inhabit a body, and a physical or psychical place. We can resolve these conflicts through experimentation, and through acknowledging and defining the struggles we encounter.

Some things that are interesting right now:

“My image of Iceland as a reflecting pool is the idea of using nature as a mirror and measure. It’s an understanding of oneself through a knowledge of what real, not imposed, limitations are. My experiences in the ice-and-ash desert interior of Iceland provided an especially accurate reflection. The desert is a mirror. It’s a self-contained environment. It gives nothing. What you take from the desert is who you are, more precisely... Inner geography is a plain knowledge of oneself, a kind of common sense gathered through repeated exposure to distilling experiences. Inner geography maps peace of mind in the world as it is and not as I imagine it.”
                                                -Roni Horn

“For dwelling-as-residing is not necessarily sedentary; not the literal absence of motion but finding a relatively stable place in the world is what matters in such dwelling. Such finding is possible even when in motion. The earth offers continual if sometimes uncomfortable accommodations as one moves across its surgace. If human beings may peregrinate in place, so they may also dwell stably even as they move from place to place.”
                                                -Edward S. Casey

Finding self

Where?
Why there?
What for?
How?

-The Gower
-Wilderness, escape, alien, empty, secluded, freedom.
Not Plymouth.
-Celebrate the present. Find a place that I understand/associate with. Break patterns. Rejuvenate – Bring inspiration back to the studio.
Understand self. Learn what I need.
-Explore landscape – Woods, water – Walk + move physical body. Photograph + collect the spectacular + significant.
Celebrate.

Be somewhere new with creative people.
Swim in the sea.
Walk miles and explore + discover
Leave Plymouth + college + money + people + everything behind.
Separate yourself from it.
Devote the weekend to using myself physically, mentally... Pushing myself.
Challenging.
Knowing what I love and need and replenishing myself with it.
A big ‘fuck you’ to all of this recording and rules and anxiety and shitness.
An end and beginning of something.
Big change.
Reality.                         

Calm and uncertain                 

Documentation
The work is happening elsewhere, out there, just for that weekend.
Impermanent, ephemeral.
Something made with the land. Made with body.
Record of an action.

Documentation can mean:
-Photographs
-Drawings
-Writing
-Video recording
-Sound recording
-An altered object (?)
-Collection (?)
-A Speech/presentation/combination of words/actions

From:	Jess Young
Sent:	02 April 2012 09:30:21
To:	Didge; Kensa

Hello ladies,

It was a long train journey yesterday, but I think I've decided the thing that I want to do for call3. It would be better if I could describe it to you both in person, because I'll need your help, but nonetheless...

As the Gower is a new place to me, without attachments, and it's exciting and we're planning it, and we're going to have a super time... It's all full of positive energy and hope... What I'd like to do early on the Sunday or Monday morning, is go down to the sea. I'd like one of you to write a list of words on my back in charcoal, of things that I would like to shed... Cleanse myself of. I feel that now is a time for me to sort things out... Clarify, renew. So I'll go naked into the sea with just these words and thoughts attached to me, and cleanse myself of them, wash them away, and come out refreshed and new and ready for the future... And I'd like this to be documented with photographs, which obviously one or both of you will need to do for me... What do you think? I can't think of two people that I'd rather have help me with this, as I feel you're the only ones who know enough about me and my work to really get my intent, and get it right. But only if you're happy to.

As soon as I thought of it, it seemed like such an important thing to do. A lot is changing, and I really feel like I'm beginning to have some clarity about what I want to do, and about who I am, but it's almost as if I need to clear the way...

My body is my vessel, and we're connected spiritually, so by removing my armour, and washing away all of these stagnating thoughts, physically, I will be psychically as well...

Love and warmth.

Jess

xx