,,,,Still on the second floor of the mall’s parkade, you realize the conundrum you now face: how do you get down?
The parking lot is circumscribed with a low, cement wall. You see the car ramp, but where is the sidewalk to take you to the ground level?
(link:"Look for the stairs")[(show:?Youturnaround)]|Youturnaround)[
You turn around—maybe it’s just as easy to go back inside, take the elevator down, and exit onto the ground floor.
[[Approach the door from whence you came]]]It refuses to budge.
[[Uh oh!]]The door must have locked behind you. You peer inside, knocking on the glass. Everyone inside is preoccupied—meandering from store to store, lounging on benches with their eyes locked on their phones, or relishing in their new purchases.
Not quite panicked yet, you cut across the parking lot towards the cement wall. Maybe if you peer over the edge, you’ll have a different view and see the way down.
[[Look down]]You spot two people on the ground level with the same bewildered look as you.
(link:"Call out to them")[(show:?Holler)]|Holler)[
“Hello?” you holler.
They look up, surprised.
“Hello, how do we get up there?” one of your new friends shouts up to you. “We left our car up there and we can’t get back into the mall. The doors are locked.”
(link:"Next")[(show:?Thatsstrange)]|Thatsstrange)[
That’s strange, you think. You check the time—it’s 8:00 PM. The sun is setting. Oh no! The mall is closed! Somehow you spent an entire day in the mall!
“I don’t know!” you respond, “I was hoping you could tell me how to get down!”
The pair shrug in unison.
(link:"Next")[(show:?Hopefully)]|Hopefully)[
Hopefully as someone exits you’ll have a chance to slip back inside the mall before the automatic doors slide shut. People should start trickling out in no time.
[[Make small talk to pass the time]]]]]
“What’s with that fountain?” You begin, gesturing back at the mall. “It sucks that they literally have security guards in place to tell you can’t touch it.”
Your new friends light up with interest. They tilt their faces up to you, listening. “Yeah, that sounds right,” one of them says. “I’m a barista at Articles of Loathing Mall, and they’re into surveillance, too.”
Though it sucks to be stuck, you take solace in the fact that you just made your first genuine connection of the day.
[[Next->Positive responses]]<iframe src="https://embed.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/J5IPNhKV7v9bvfJvabxkI?controls=none&short_poll=true" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
[[Next->Despite everything]]Despite everything, why are we still inclined to write about art? What is to be gleaned? What is to be given?
[[Next->Art writing is creative]]Art writing can be creative expression—excitement and care towards a subject we’re passionate about.
“Most critics can recall the encounters with art that left them so entranced that—motivated by mystery, ecstasy, or something in between—they felt compelled to reckon with the experience through writing. And most critics can also recall the critical essays that convinced them that this form of writing could be as exhilarating as art.” <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-critic-who-convinced-me-that-criticism-could-be-art" target="_blank" style="color:#FF69B4;" rel="noopener noreferrer">(Hua Hsu on the expansive writing of multidisciplinary art writer Greg Tate, 2016)</a>
[[Next->Art writing is resistant]]Art writing can be resistant and subversive, engaging with context and holding truth to power. It can platform artists, artworks, languages and audiences and manifest rupture.
Art writing has yet to constitute its final iteration.
[[Next->Art writing is collaborative]] Art writing can be collaborative, building networks between art and people, expanding the boundaries of artistic community, and advocating for those around us.
Art writing is a strategy to connect to audiences who many not otherwise be invested in the artwork. It can be cognizant of how people are made to feel uncomfortable, unheard and unvalued in art spaces and discourses.
[[Next->Art writing is dialogue]]An important quality and consequence of writing is dialogue: the more people engage with a work of art—by writing about it, or reading writing about it—the more conversations, epiphanies, and encounters are bound to occur.
Artists, writers and facilitators can encourage dialogue by:
* Establishing open opportunities for audiences to speak directly to creators or respond to artwork, exhibits and publications, with no pressure to be positive
* Hosting workshops or events with diverse connections to artwork, allowing participants to experience the artwork in their own way and in their own time
[[Next->Sanaa]] <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/987Lw7XTsTQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Sanaa Humayun discussing her forthcoming writing about Kiona Ligtvoet's exhibit <a href="https://www.latitude53.org/current/these-are-the-things" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">//These Are the Things//</a>.
Sanaa Humayun (she/her) is the child of Pakistani immigrants, completing a BFA at the Alberta University of the Arts, currently living and residing in Mohkintsis, on Treaty 7 Land. She is involved in Latitude 53 & the Mitchell Art Gallery’s project Writing From Here, and is, along with Kiona Ligtvoet, co-founder of Making Space—a peer mentorship group for emerging visual artists that decenters whiteness. She has exhibited most recently at Marion Nichols Gallery, Lowlands Gallery and Latitude 53. She is co-director of Coven Gallery, and co-organizer of Making Space. Her art explores themes surrounding her right to take up space without facing violence, and a tender exploration of her childhood and familial relationships. She is passionate about being an advocate and fostering community, through means of art, conversation, and an unapologetic love of gossip.
[[Next->Writing that makes your excited]]Is there an example of art writing that is important to you, or makes you excited about what writing about art can be?
<iframe src="https://pollev-embeds.com/free_text_polls/hYLWITmCTzaIi3tstDJSp/respond" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
[[Next->Excited responses]]<iframe src="https://embed.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/teBa15l9L8FPhxGjZxX9N?controls=none&short_poll=true" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
With challenges and opportunities laid out before you, where do you begin?
[[Back at the parkade->Where to begin]]After exchanging contact information with your new friends, you cross the parking lot again to the doors. It’s encouraging to know that other people share the same concerns about the mall’s limiting and contradictory offerings and features.
If anyone left the mall in the last hour, you didn’t notice them as you were so wrapped up in demystifying the mall experience. It’s dark and growing chilly. You try feebly to push the doors open.
[[Look inside]]You peer in, your hands cupped around your face and pressed to the glass. The mall is desolate. Mere seconds ago, a collection of shoppers wandered lazily through the corridors. Now there’s no one in sight. The stores are shuttered with plastic and metal accordion curtains.
A little while ago you were relieved to be outside of the mall. But now that you’ve been ejected and locked out so suddenly, you’ve never felt so earnest to get in! Perhaps your art writing procrastination has reached dire levels, or maybe returning will finally unlock the secret to your writing.
Tonight is the night.
[[Next->Starting is difficult]]Starting is difficult. Sometimes we have a vague idea about what to write, and other times we’re blank. Sometimes ideas quickly take shape into sentences and paragraphs, and sometimes we’re locked out of our own brains! How do we break into a piece of art writing?
We need entry points—doors into interpreting the artwork as well as the writing. Entry points can be interpretive tools, or, quite literally, the opening sentence or paragraph of your artist statement or review.
[[Next->When you start]]When you start write about art, where do you usually start?
<iframe src="https://pollev-embeds.com/free_text_polls/tkJeT3GzLtjDt9dmFEayW/respond" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
[[Next->When you start answers]]<iframe src="https://embed.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/Y7pOAtK7fRMeo4AMtGHVg?controls=none&short_poll=true" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
[[Next->Kick off]]We’re searching for the things that kick off our creative process, broaden our understanding of an artwork and forge two-way threads of meaning between ourselves, the artwork, and whoever may read our writing.
(link:"Next")[(show:?Malldoors)]|Malldoors)[
<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/523b539be4b0a75330f9c8ce/1621983268815-WY83AJXB2AVBF2SIGL6R/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kGfiFqkITS6axXxhYYUCnlRZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpx1B3uKuIxKkeNobmVrkfsvhi7vfNIYPwuNoe0YQqN5qRcQyCP0lZkCSDZ8KLElTzs/CreativeOutlet_Doors.jpeg?format=750w" height="300" width="300" alt="an AI-generated image of sliding glass doors">
Is there anything about these mall doors that you find thought-provoking or compelling? Any strong feelings?
[[Yes->Already asking questions]]
[[No->Creative way in]]]You might already be asking yourself questions:
* What am I most drawn to in this image? Repelled by? (link:"The lock")[(show:?Remind)]|Remind)[
* What does this image remind me of? What associations come to mind? (link:"Every single spy movie when they have to sneak into a building")[(show:?Personalexperiences)]|Personalexperiences)[
* What do my personal experiences and understandings bring to this image? (link:"The time I broke into my apartment after I misplaced my key")[(show:?Creatorcontext)]|Creatorcontext)[
* How does this compare to the context the creator might have brought? [[Pretty directly; it’s supposed to lock and they don’t want me in->Creative way in]]]]]If not, that’s okay! You’re going to have to find a creative way in.
Do you sometimes feel like your normal “ins” to interpreting an artwork aren’t working? Do you feel like you don’t have anything new or original to add to the conversation?
(link:"Next")[(show:?Whatmightinhibit)]|Whatmightinhibit)[
Consider what might inhibit your ability to engage, connect or respond to an artwork:
* Is there anything about the artwork actively repulsing you?
* Is there anything about the artwork distracting you?
* Are there discourses the artwork speaks to that you are unfamiliar/not familiar enough with?
* Is the artwork not for you? Does it speak to closed cultural knowledge?
* Is the artwork or space inaccessible to you?
(link:"Next")[(show:?Inhibitorsasentrypoints)]|Inhibitorsasentrypoints)[
These inhibitors can themselves function as entry points. Sometimes, it may even be appropriate to write about your experience being unable to connect with an artwork.
Alternatively, use entry points as an opportunity to challenge yourself. Return to the artwork; spend some more time contemplating and considering the work from different angles.
* What else is there? What context could you be missing?
* Have you thought about this artwork fairly?
* Are you centering the artwork or your experience of the artwork? Are you intentional in your decisions around framing the artwork?
* Has anyone else written about this work? What things has the artwork stirred for them? Is there anything in common with your experience?
* What does the exhibition space add to the artwork? How does the artwork change the space?
* What do other viewers bring to the artwork?
[[Next->Free writing]]]]<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/523b539be4b0a75330f9c8ce/1621983268815-WY83AJXB2AVBF2SIGL6R/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kGfiFqkITS6axXxhYYUCnlRZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpx1B3uKuIxKkeNobmVrkfsvhi7vfNIYPwuNoe0YQqN5qRcQyCP0lZkCSDZ8KLElTzs/CreativeOutlet_Doors.jpeg?format=750w" height="300" width="300" alt="an AI-generated image of sliding glass doors">
Free writing is also a valuable entry point.
Write however you honestly feel about this image or process, or disclose whatever your mind has wandered to in the meantime:
<iframe src="https://pollev-embeds.com/free_text_polls/cDdJeutbjE2I3Uwm0NVCh/respond" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
[[Next->Mall doors answers]]<iframe src="https://embed.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/IHLQRTa7IfmH3NrS9GIWe?controls=none&short_poll=true" width="800px" height="600px"></iframe>
[[Next->Angle mall doors]]In contemplating every possible angle you could possibly approach these doors, an idea pops into your head:
//Malls have service bays, don’t they?//
[[Search for the loading bay]] You begin to pace the perimeter of the building. Suddenly, a long driveway with a faint, glowing light at the end comes into view. This could be your way in!
[[Investigate]]As you approach the bay’s closed garage door, you see that the light is creeping out from beneath a small access door to its left. You advance upon the door apprehensively.
[[Turn the knob]]The door opens with a slow but sure creak. Success!
You enter the mall with haste, closing the door behind you. Are you ready to return to the mall?
<a href="https://www.theworks.ab.ca/creativeoutlet" target="_blank" style="color:#FF69B4;" rel="noopener noreferrer">END OF PART THREE</a>