Elly Yazdanpanah
ely67.yazdanpanah@gmail.com
This project explores the different phases of an a/r/tographical walking practice, from the initial formation of ideas to the documentation of the practice. The practice was inspired by the concepts of walking as a landless person confronting public art. I began by investigating the definition of public art and the paradigms associated with it, then examined those meanings in the context of my relationship with public art as an outsider. I used the metaphor of wind to portray my position as a landless outsider in Montreal attempting to understand public art. This a/r/tographical walking practice helped me not only to reflect on this relationship but also to uncover emerging meanings of landlessness through a collaboration with non-human elements. I recorded the entire process of this practice, from making a hand-made wind vane to walking with the wind through public artworks, using photographs and videos.
I began my investigation by seeking to understand the basic definitions of the relevant concepts, because such concepts have the potential to “create orientations for [my] thinking rather than [providing] answers to questions with a predetermined field of answers” (Taguchi & Pierre, 2017, p. 646). Therefore, I began by investigating the definition of public art. Public art has a broad definition, However, there is a common and integral component of all the definitions of the concept which is the input of others (i.e., spectators), who complete the meaning of public art by viewing it; by definition, public art is made for the public (Douglas, 2016). These readers and spectators are the people who form public that shares common values, culture, memories, social and economic issues, and history (Hewitt & Jordan, 2016). Based on these definitions, the key issue for me, as an outsider who is new to Montreal and does not have social, cultural, historical and even linguistic commonalities with others in the city, was whether I formed part of this public. Thus, I sought to investigate my identity in the context of public art and consider how being an outsider impacted my experience of encountering public art in Montreal.
To illustrate the concept of landlessness, as an outsider who does not have a sense of belonging to Montreal, I used the metaphor of wind to create an a/r/tographical proposition. This proposition helped me to connect my walking practice to the movement of the wind, a natural phenomenon that is also landless; it also helped me to describe my eventual encounters with public art (Truman & Springgay, 2016). To communicate with the wind and aligning myself with its movements, I needed a tool to guide my walk around Montreal’s public artworks. Therefore, I created a hand-made wind vane to guide my movements. This practice was rendered through living inquiry, metaphor and metonymy.
I leveraged the visual and auditory potential of the videos, in both process of capturing and displaying, to help my audience to better connect to my experience of being landless while encountering public artworks (Pink, 2007) as an extension of my performative practice (Triggs & Irwin, 2019). Here are the links to the walking videos:
References :
Douglas, A. (2016). 'Context is half the work': Developing doctoral research through arts practice in culture. In C. Cartiere & M. Zebracki (Eds.), The everyday practice of public art: art, space, and social inclusion (pp. 141–158). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Hewitt, A., & Jordan, M. (2016). Politicizing publics: A social framework for public artworks. In C. Cartiere & M. Zebracki (Eds.), The everyday practice of public art: Art, space, and social inclusion (pp. 27–45). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
McLean, J. S. (2009). The public part of public art: Technology and the art of public communication. In A. Gerin & J. S. McLean (Eds.), Public art in Canada: Critical perspectives (pp. 303–317). University of Toronto Press.
Springgay, S., Irwin, R. L., & Kind, S. W. (2005). A/r/tography as living inquiry through art and text. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(6), 897–912. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405280696
Springgay, S., & Truman, S. E. (2017). Walking methodologies in a more-than human world: WalkingLab (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.lib-ezproxy.concordia.ca/10.4324/9781315231914
Taguchi, H. L., & St.pierre, E. A. (2017). Using concept as method in educational and social science inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 23(9), 643–648. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800417732634