I'm a huge advocate of collaborating in life, my feeling is that we accomplish so much more by working together than working in isolation.
So some years ago I wanted to represent that philosophy in an art work. I asked one artist to create a wooden shape and then cut that one piece into many shapes, essentially a jig-saw puzzle. The artist Danelle jv Rensburg created a wooden little girl then cut her up into Escher shaped birds and fish or in some case parts of a bird or fish. Some 50 jig-saw pieces were created.
All this was done in secret.
I then invited artists to take a piece (a bird or a fish) and paint or draw anything on them. Remember none of the artists new what the pieces made up nor did they know who else was participating. There was no theme, they could do anything they wanted in any style and any medium.
I must say I was nervous wondering if it would work or be a complete and utter mess, but in the end I was rather pleased with the outcome.
The artists had fun creating their works and all were excited to see what their art work was going to become part of.
She stood 1.2m tall and she held strings with more birds and fish puzzle pieces floating above her, representing how a group of people working together can ascend to higher achievements.
What do you think about the Blind Collaboration?
