This project is a collaboration between myself, Becky Dodman Wainwright, Cate Rogers and Dan Phillips. It is part of the Plymouth College of Art Tate Exchange programme for 2021.
This is a yearly project which I first took part in 2019 where we ran workshops at Tate Exchange in London. Now in 2021 with everyone having to work from home this project was to be online. The theme being ‘Listen to the Future’ with the main focus on love and connection.
The initial idea to create art whilst drinking tea was to use art at time when life had changed immeasurably as human have become isolated and introspective. Offering a beverage is a natural human reaction to welcoming someone into our homes. It forms a bond and a connection. COVID-19 has driven a physical wedge between us and is affecting the mental health of the world. The cup is something we use everyday yet over time it becomes over-familiar and eventually goes unnoticed. Considering the words of French philosopher Georges Perec who argued that by looking at the ‘infra’-ordinary, we raise our awareness of life, we use this as a metaphor for the missed connections that were so familiar we took them for granted. By offering a cup of kindness and sharing we want to offer a connection to share an embodied human experience even if at a distance.
As a group we each invited people to take part by connecting and creating art. Contributions range from embroidery, to painting with coffee and textiles. The outstanding observation of contributors was the positive effect of connecting and creating work together.
