Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Border Crossing Workshops

At each venue, the Border Crossing artists will conduct a workshop where invited artists and art students bring along one original painting and one fine art reproduction of that painting on canvas. The artists will then swap their canvas prints and respond to the other artists work by painting on top of the artists canvas print. The workshops could be held over a day or a weekend. The original painting and the finished collaborative artworks will be displayed side-by-side in a gallery as an extension of the Border Crossing project. At the completion of the exhibition, in the event that the work hasn't sold, the participating artists will then be returned their original painting and the fine art reproduction that they brought to the workshop. The collaborative process will be documented by a film maker and photographer. The workshop participants will be encouraged to record their responses to the project on video, and via the The Border Crossing Art Project blog. The workshops aim to strengthen cross cultural relationships, reinforce collaborative learning experiences for all artists and in particular for art students. Artists participating in the project have the opportunity to learn new skills from each other whilst the process of collaboration encourages mutual respect, peace and understanding. Additional art performances could be included during the process of the workshop.

Projected output of the project

The Wendy Grace Allen, Dr Apichart Pholprasert and Helen Stacey will produce fifteen finished paintings including three paintings (each painting approximately 166 cm x 104 cm) by only one artist and twelve collaborative paintings (each painting =A0 – 1189 cm x 841 cm). The documentation for Border Crossing will be in artists book form. Part of the project is to deliver art workshops to accompany the exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and Singapore. In addition, there will be floor talks by the artists describing the project and discussing topics relating to art in the Asia Pacific region. An interactive blog (website) and group/page on Facebook social network site have been created to support the project by encouraging cross cultural communication via regular on-going dialogue with an global audience.

Target audience for the project

Border Crossing is to be exhibited in Bangkok, Thailand, Palmerston North, New Zealand, Adelaide, Australia and Singapore. The target audience includes professional artists, art collectors, art supporters, museum curators and art students. In addition the interactive blog at http://thebordercrossingartproject.blogspot.com/ and The Border Crossing Art Project page on Facebook provides a platform for dialogue with a diverse global audience. At each exhibition a computer will be set up connecting to the blog site so audiences can comment on the project in real time, enabling immediate and on going interaction with the artists.

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.
Fumio Nanjo

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