We are now marching down the path into winter here in Aotearoa, New Zealand and we have now come to the end of our online Masterclass Zoom sessions with Estela Saez-Vilanova.
As new handshake mentees, we began our time with Estela in late Summer in February. It was more late in timing as our Summer never really came, we were pelted with rain for a lot of it, and for those more unfortunate in the northern regions, cyclones and floods were ravaging.
Nonetheless, it is a marker of time to see we have traveled through seasons to arrive at this point.
It felt rather sudden and jolting to have landed at our last session with Estella and to also say farewell in one hit, but it was wonderful to share our presentations about our findings from the Masterclass, and to learn what everyone had been up to (as we had split classes). The best part was how we are all soo different in our responses, and that those differences can be celebrated and shared.
I feel very grateful to have had this experience with Estela and my peers. I was initially a little fearful about what to expect, but I quickly got stuck into the exercises and tasks that Estela set us each session and enjoyed the challenge, especially in ways of the break from having to think about setting the task for myself. Responding to the call, teasing out the finer details then going off to make my own play fort of it gave me a great impetus and motivation.
I’ve never been one for completely sticking to the rules. I do value a framework to hang it all on, and I can get stuck on needing to understand what the framework is meant to look like, or what the instructions are asking, but once I have gotten the gist of that, I can go off and explore, play and mostly do what I want and trust in my own process (though this has been a learning and has sometimes resulted from having to give up in frustration at not understanding or being able to adhere to the standards). My thinking can still get a bit rigid within that, like needing to stick to materials or ideas because of some perceived notion of grouping or narrative trajectory, like I’m writing a story, and that can’t be interrupted by a turn in the genre. this is sometimes where it can help to get feedback, even permission to free things up, mix things around, cut up the script, and reassemble it.
On reflection, what I could see that developed from these Masterclass sessions in my making, was a thread or an evolving theme that connected the works with an aesthetic and emotive ‘primal’ current with markings using fire and primitive techniques. The nature of the exercises Estela set us, also influenced this pattern for things to evolve and create a lineage. I also feel at a certain point I subconsciously chose to stick with an essence that was coming through in my work and decided to gently give it all my focus instead of dumpster diving into other unexplored areas for possibilities.
To conclude, now this dance has ended, I’m not sure what song will play yet but I will use this time to digest and let it all brew. We are all waiting, a little in the dark behind the stage curtain with a date in November for our first HS8 exhibition.
