ROOTS Goes to Spoleto: A Report

Saxophonist Lonnie Hamilton III performs as part of Latitude 32° – Navigating Home. Photo by Alicia Kozikowski

In conjunction with the three-year "Evoking History" project of the Spoleto Festival USA, members of Alternate ROOTS and its Charleston contingent presented a stimulating workshop for artist/activists, educators and community participants. on concepts surrounding race, power and home.

The workshop was planned and organized by Gwylène Gallimard, Neill Bogan, Robert Leonard, Nayo Watkins (who served as workshop leader and anchor), and guest presenters Jean-Marie Mauclet and myself. The three-day workshop offered five sessions that examined differing constructs of artmaking as affected by the intervention of politics and relationships of power; constructs of home, race and identity; community concerns; and the diverse roles of artists. It was refreshing to hear the participants pledge their commitment to the transformation of our global village into an environment of positive possibility for humanity — in all of its diversity.

In Session I, "Race: A Defining Factor," led by Robert Leonard and myself, discussion precipitated from viewing a ten-minute excerpt from the documentary "Shared History," a project directed and produced by Vivian Glover. The video's executive producer, Felicia Furman Dryden, was present for the discussion with several participants from the documentary. This richly textured piece, centered on the relationships between families of descendents of enslaved persons of African descent and the descendants of the enslaving Caucasian families, sparked a compelling discussion of the impact of social constructs of race on our individual cultural and economic realities. The artfully constructed video, because of its subtle approach to potentially volatile and sensitive subject matter, established a poignant atmosphere for workshop participants to offer their individual experiences and responses on the power of race as a social construct in American society. These responses began a deconstruction of the coded systems of privileges accorded to Americans perceived as "white." When contrasted with the identification by Americans of African descent with an expectation of outsider status, they raised the question of our collective investment in race-based constructs of identity. We talked about how such constructs may be challenged in the future to enhance our collective sense of home and community, achieving a truly "shared" as opposed to a "parallel" history.

This session culminated in a performance artwork/installation by Gwylène Gallimard, using a matrix of plastic as a metaphorical connective web that gave physical unity to the workshop participants. D. Patton White led a dance movement group-participation performance within the plastic matrix unfurled by Gallimard and participants. The changing shapes, speeds and levels of the performance activity did function to support creation of a sense of community within the group. The introduction of the art-performance activity was intended to support the discussion of community and artists. However, in part because of its spontaneity and insertion into an already existing conversation, actually served to disrupt the discussion and become a stand-alone, separate activity.

Saturday morning's discussion, led by Nayo Watkins, centered on the question, "Who Has a Right to the Power of Art?" This session included considerations of what may or may not be art, and why. It went on to consider how artists use metaphorical or symbolic language to represent ideas about culture and society, and concluded with dialogue on the responsibilities of artists to communities where their works are presented.

During this session, Gallimard summarized the history of visual and public artworks created for the Spoleto Festival USA and their impact on Charleston community culture. The 1991 exhibition "Places with a Past," which incorporated avant-garde works by international artists (Ann Hamilton, David Hammons and others) with Charleston architecture, neighborhoods and local awareness, served to reinvigorate the significance of the festival. But it also led to controversy and some discord regarding the institution's direction and its relationship to its local, national and global constituencies. Gallimard summarized that exhibition's transition into the "Evoking History" project, both curated by Mary Jane Jacob. Gallimard framed "Evoking History" as an effort to heighten audiences' awareness and appreciation of local culture, history and politics, especially in its use of works of art to examine displacement of low-income householders by capitalist-driven urban development of waterfront properties, and aspects of the local cultural heritage omitted from public monuments. "Evoking History" also intended to open a dialogue around issues of race and racism in the local community, and the dynamics of power in relationship to artistic creativity.

Gallimard's talk led to profoundly animated discussions on the roles and responsibilities of artists, especially when entering communities for brief periods of time, offering creative responses to local cultural situations and then being forced to abandon the residents to resolve the eventualities resulting from their artistic response. (This "hit-and-run" social commentary was addressed by Neill Bogan in 2001 through his employment of local artists to create installations intended to address the articulation and re-presentation of heretofore "omitted" history.)

The power of the "Evoking History" project was reflected on by Dr. Tina Marshall-Bradley, who had seen Charleston artist Quashie's work "The Portal" at the site of the Old Citadel, but observed that she only fully understood the piece as a result of her attendance at this workshop two years later. This disconnect between artists and audiences was also experienced by Prof. Karen Fields, who commented on the Ann Hamilton "Indigo" project of 1991, demanding to know what rights ought to govern artists' establishment of metaphorical or symbolic language through which they may intend to communicate with a given audience.

Artist Arianne King-Comer spoke of community art projects in Beaufort County surrounding the establishment of the Ibile Indigo House and related projects that celebrate traditional arts and crafts. This led to some community divisiveness due to politicization of the art environment and issues of control. Workshop participant Sam Watson finally observed, "If the artist only speaks to the audience in a language they already understand, then the audience will only learn what they already know."

Cultural worker and teacher Cathy Nelson discussed her participation in the project entitled "Secret Histories," a performance work by artist Ping Chong in association with playwright Talvin Wilkes. Nelson and four other participants first shared their personal stories with the artists, Chong and Wilkes, and these personal histories were codified into a performance to be presented to an audience. Nelson praised the community-building aspects of participating in the project, and specifically used this opportunity to discuss before an audience the complexities of growing up as a Native American who appeared to be Caucasian, but whose cultural heritage was significantly different from many of her peers. Her focus on the importance of engendering respect for the heritage and history of all of America's diverse populations was one of the most powerful aspects of this commentary.

Further compelling discussion centered on the creation of the "Shoreview Apartments" project in "Evoking History," in which Gwylène Gallimard sought to support the residents of the dismantled Shore View low-income housing project in giving voice to their experience of displacement. As part of the project, Gallimard brought the plight of the displaced residents to the attention of the owner-developer who was the source of their imminent removal. This interaction produced some mildly positive results and at least included various levels of participants within the conversation on community development.

This session provided meaningful audience responses to the projects of the immediate past. Unfortunately, only a few of the participating artists in the "Evoking History" project were present to hear them.

Saturday's Session III, led by Bob Leonard and Kathie deNobriga, centered on "The Dynamics of Power in Shaping Relationships." This session utilized the "story circle" technique to allow participants to articulate individual instances of how power relationships either enabled or disabled people to achieve personal and/or community goals. As a participant, I feel compelled to comment that the device of storytelling as a means of articulating power relationships was extremely effective and our group ran a little over the allotted time because we did not want to break the relationships established as a result of the story circle. The affirming power of the story exchange was invigorating and offered rich insights into the character of the participants in a given group. Unfortunately, this technique is limited to those included in a particular story circle; and its intimacy, while unquestionably an asset in terms of creating an intragroup sense of community, offered no intergroup occasion for exchange to cement the larger community into a whole.

Video still of "Making Art, Making Change" discussion showing Nayo Watkins flanked by Frank Martin (l) and Pam Korza (r).

Simultaneously with this session, Nayo Watkins conducted "The Dynamics of Community and Cultural Organizing in Reshaping Community Empowerment." Here Watkins provided a structure for how participants might implement art projects that would have a community impact, discussing the four phases of effective artist activism. The first phase is to investigate the character of a community; the second is to educate one's self (that is, the artist activist must understand the needs of the community). Third comes negotiation, making efforts to find out how change may most effectively be conducted. The fourth and final phase is implementation, the actual move to action that will effect change.

Gwylène Gallimard conducted a final session on Saturday that grew from the previous day's art-making experience but used it to channel a critique of the workshop itself that had developed among some participants. The workshop's organizers had chosen not to open with traditional introductions that contextualize those present with information on what each does for a livelihood outside of the group. This approach evidently, in its austerity and unconventionality, created some consternation among participants, The participatory activity created in response by Gallimard and her team satisfied some of the needs for introductions, in the end becoming an ironic and amusing community builder rather than a conventional "round-robin" recitation.

Sunday's closing session was conducted in two segments. The first, "Listening to Art: Responses to 'Latitude 32°,'" was an opportunity for participants in "Making Art/Making Home" to respond to the performance work presented Saturday evening by Suzanne Lacy and Rick Lowe entitled " Latitude 32° — Navigating Home." This work was conceived as an extension of the "Evoking History" project's creation of monuments that articulate the story of local cultural entities generally omitted from inclusion in the canon of official memorialization — in this instance, the low-income housing project Ansonborough Homes.

The performance piece, construed as a "social sculpture," was intended to feature citizen-performers in groups of three or four sitting on "porches," or small stages, erected to serve as symbols of the lost residences razed from the Ansonborough district in 1993. The unrehearsed conversations were intended to serve as spontaneous public dialogues on social issues and challenges as perceived by representatives from the community. The audience "eavesdropped" on these conversations and was to be provided with an opportunity to join in the conversation at the last stages of the performance.

Lacy's work, based on creating situations for dialogue in sometimes hostile circumstances, and Lowe's work, centered on housing and land issues, were intended to be combined here in this rather contrived series of staged conversations across racial and class barriers about issues relevant to housing and development in Charleston. Despite these elegantly contrived plans, the staged situation and its conversations were transformed into a "real" community through the intervention of a rainstorm. Though it brought various strata of Charlestonians together in a constrained, highly public circumstance, the event still offered the opportunities attendant upon being placed in such poignant physical proximity. Despite the changes to the artists' conception of the project, this event/performance became a compelling statement on art and community.

In a final session entitled "Listening Beyond Symbolism," °the Lacey/Lowe project was deemed an unmitigated success and, by consensus of the group, did without question establish the possibility of a continued dialogue. It also heightened awareness of local development and urban planning as a metaphor for the interaction of people in diverse social strata in any community and the complexity of social constructs of power and empowerment. The session concluded in a moving song, rendered by the group, and led by Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS Carolyn R. Morris.

The workshop experience served as a compelling mobilizing activity that will undoubtedly lead to significant artistic activism and collaborative programs in the future.

[Making Art/Making Home Main Page]

Frank Martin is curator of exhibitions and collections for the I. P. Stanback Museum at South Carolina State University and former contributing critic in the fine arts for the Charleston Post and Courier. A South Carolina native, he works and lives in Orangeburg.

Original CAN/API publication: October 2003