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Recently, the Bass Museum of Art hosted a discussion about artistic collaboration by Ghada Amer and Reza Farhkoneh, who have been friends since their days at art school in France in the 1980s. One day in 1999, while Reza was hanging out in Ghada’s studio, he decided to add some color to one her paintings while she was out. “Why did you do this to my work?” asked the shocked Ghada. “I just wanted to make it better,” Reza replied. Even if Ghada did not agree that Reza’s alteration of her painting was necessarily an improvement, she was intrigued by the idea of dealing with his unexpected intervention. At this time a bout of severe depression had caused Reza to abandon painting. Ghada nurtured Reza’s return to creative activity by inviting him to continue to apply background colors to her canvases. As their practice developed, Reza began to explore his own mark making, "During depression I could not do anything. ” Reza explained, “ So when we began, for me it was just action. I was not even thinking. Ghada took the whole responsibility. She gave me a comfortable margin to work within."
Ghada gained as much as Reza in this process, because she saw this exchange as an opportunity to step outside of herself. For both artists, the excitement lay in the decision to let go of their egos, which allowed them to see their actions as a creative dialogue, not an attempt by one artist to dominate the other. For each painting that they felt was finished, Reza and Ghada tossed a coin to decide which of them would sign the work first. This enterprise was a risky career move for both artists, because critics and buyers prefer to assess works of art as the unambiguous product of one creative mind.
There is a lesson for all of us in this remarkable story of salvation via collaboration. The ability to work not just as an individual, but as part of a team that shares, compares and develops ideas, is one of the essentials skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workplace.
The mission of the IDEA@thebass program of art education is to train teachers to develop collaborative projects in their classrooms. Students will benefit from seeing the techniques, strategies, and approaches that others use in the creative process. Children can absorb the enthusiasm and joy many creative people exude as they go about the business of making something new. Finding practical ways to encourage creative performance in groups of students is essential because teachers cannot always work with students one-on-one. Because life often involves working with others, it is important to give children the chance to work collaboratively and to make the process of collaboration more creative. |
