STUDIO PROJECT 2: HOLDING BEING HELD
Reviewed the provided videos about holding hands. The science ones felt close to home – years of physiotherapy practice has me pretty dialed into healing touch. I think the effects of the COVID pandemic will be felt for years to come — in many ways of course, but specifically on the way it made the comfort of touch a frightening and dangerous thing. The final link Angela provided touched on a video from 2020 that talked about that very issue, in the context of losing the cultural practice of shaking hands in the early months of COVID.
Did some web browsing for more info and ideas about hands, gestures, touch, holding. On the theme of healing touch, I went looking for images of hand massage — it seemed an ideal way to picture two people’s hands in connection, a little different flavour than simply holding hands, as it has a specifically comforting/healing intent. Here are some images from that search:
I then went down a rabbit-hole about hand gestures. Found one interesting chart about possible scenarios for intercultural misunderstandings:
BRAINSTORMING for Feb 28 casting session:
- I like the idea of reproducing some of the hand massage positions.
- I don’t see a way to use the cultural misunderstandings one for hand gestures, but perhaps others will think of a scenario?
- I also wonder about having two people make the moves from the nursery rhyme “here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors, see all the people” — could we actually cast the 4 positions using my hand and somebody else’s?
- I like the idea of differently-sized hands being put in contact with each other. Who has the biggest hands in class? Pair them with the smallest?
- Try out the “pinkie swear” position for one casting, then the crossed finger position for another — like, I am swearing my good faith but at the same time crossing my fingers!
- The “arm-wrestling” grip
Feb 27: Making the alginate mold, casting 2 versions in hydrocal
March 6: share Holding Being Held hand casts with class. Hall display…
REFLECTIONS: Angela plans to post some text by the wall display, has asked us to write a few sentences about “Holding Being Held” and how this relates to our experience for the project: In this course, projects have been structured to favour collaboration and co-creation. These multiple hands being offered, held, and holding, feel like the learning journey of the course made manifest.
EXTRA!! A few weeks later made plans for an extra hand casting — this one with my sweetheart, for our 13th anniversary! I did the alginate measure and mix with guidance on quantities from Jeff, went smoothly. I later mixed the hydrocal to pour into the alginate mold, thinking I knew all about that from previous casting adventures… however I was unused to estimating quantities for this larger project and fell short … made a mad dash to mix and pour some extra into the mold, not sure it would work, but it held and there was no obvious seam on the final product. Here are a few shots…
