29 / 30 What matters will come back

During the last hours of the academy many of my first observations come back in a condensed manner. Maybe this is the heightened attention of a farewell. Maybe it is the slowly creeping exhaustion that I accumulated over the past six weeks. Maybe I am accustomed to the proceedings of final exhibitions and their farewell ceremonies by now.

But certainly, as the title of this post already tells, all that matters will find its way back. Even if it should escape your mind or your circumstances for the moment, if it matters, it will come back, eventually. On Friday, the remaining classes presented their works in a single final exhibition. As eight classes finished at the same day, the academy opened its doors from noon to 8pm. And many of my first observations came back.

Like the idea that knowing what you don’t want is more important than knowing what you want. This withdrawal from intention is very pronounced in the pieces by Golnesa Rezanejad from Iran. During her time in Adriana Czernin’s class on drawing, she has created a series of textile collages.

“It is a kind overview over time. It is a piece of archive”, she tells me. For many of the collages she printed family photos from her parents on textiles and later arranged them into carpets. For another series she took photos of public spaces and stitched figures in intimate postures onto them.

“It is really common for people from the Middle East to be expected to show hijabs, but I like to think more abstract. I am looking for opposite parts. I try to show by image the different spaces, the different outfits of people, their posing and I add my imaginary.”

In a similar way Alteronce Gumby’s work attempts to fuse two histories that have been forcefully separated for a long time. He created a series of plates from disposable paper plates. For the titles of the single pieces he adapted the names of traditional soul food dishes: the dish ‘black eyed peas’ became ‘black eyed police’ or ‘watermelon’ became ‘whiter melon’.

“I choose to make these plates because of my fascination with 15^th century ceramics. I wanted to fuse their history and heritage with soul food. Soul food is a comfort food. It is a food that is usually served at holidays or when the whole family will get together and has a conversation. This food is contextualized as African-American history, but the thing I keep wrestling with is that Africans were present from day one in America, but there is this continuous separation between the two histories. I have to deal with idea that I am an American, but also dealing with the racial tension that is going on.”

What he has produced at the academy, however, are merely prototypes. Back home, he wants to create the plates in real porcelain. I am fascinated by this speculative fusion of traditions that are forcefully separated. The fine porcelain is as much a result of early globalized imperialism as soul food, that first came up among black slaves in the United States.

At the after-party I ask several people where they go next. Many go home to their art schools or jobs, other continue to travel or join the next residencies. Whatever they have learnt or unlearnt at the academy, what matters, will come back.