Along with the regular Mind Move Make students, Julie also worked with children from her son's preschool. All of the children were asked three questions:
What is the imagination?
Are all imaginations the same or are they different?
Where does your imagination live within your body?
Here are some pictures from the art show, both of the children's work and the collaborative work Julie made with Harlow.
 |
| Artwork by Alameda and The International School Students |
 |
| Artwork by Alameda and The International School Students |
 |
| Artwork from The Peanut Gallery Preschool |
 |
 |
| 28 Studies by Julie and Harlow |
 |
| Installation by Julie and Harlow |
 |
| Installation by Julie and Harlow |
 |
| Installation View |
Harlow and I began
creating this artwork together one year ago. He was on the verge of
turning three and I wanted to once again engage in the creative process on a
deeper level. After having two children it became difficult to find the time
or the energy to make work. My process
needed to connect with other parts of my life so that one thing could more
easily flow into another. Exploring how everyday
life intersects with art and practice I worked with the elements that exist
around me: my son’s hands and immeasurable energy, his drawings, paintings, and
developing language, and fascinating objects we discovered along our path. This work attempts to blur the lines between
different aspects of my life and bring a sense of wholeness.
Most of the objects
in the show were gathered on walks through our neighborhood, visits to the
park, and explorations in the backyard. To a three-year-old child, the
experience of holding a stick or rock, feeling its form, and bringing it home
becomes an important, urgent matter. Place, time, and movement are all contained
within each item presented. This collection becomes a curation of our
movement through time and physical space, an unusual documentation of moments
whose beauty overflow the boundaries of otherwise mundane objects.
Collaborating with
Harlow became an exercise in letting go. In trading the artwork back and
forth I would watch as my favorite parts of a drawing or painting disappeared
as he altered the piece into a new incarnation.
Our collaboration also brought a playful attention to the present moment
as we observed colorful drips slowly travel down the paper, experimented in
painting with sticks, and mixed new colors in a Harlow-esque palate.
Both questions and
ideas presented themselves through the process of creating this work.
Some sources of inspiration include childbirth, phytoplankton, charnel
grounds, ferns, blandness, looking at plants on a cellular level, and
contemplating what would happen if humans and plants could become hybrid
creatures. Walking through our neighborhood, gentrification and change
cannot be ignored. Much of the wood gathered here is from a house that we
watched as it was slowly demolished, then we witnessed as two new homes were
built as replacements observing acts of displacement and upheaval.
Through this work I question our current curatorial practice. What
is and isn’t art, what is good, and who decides? How is beauty contained
within an object?
