‘Wise Medicine Men’ and the role of the artist?

Well today was a total blast: morale had been lowish but the paymasters (Anne Peaker Centre) played everyone in the team today including their arts development officer. It was truly a great day.

7 bodies in the team.

The effect was to relieve or dilute the relentless and exhausting 'enabling' of others (the children) so they can work. We have spent so much time getting stuff so they can work. Preparing things for them, finding a place where they can work, explaining what needs to be done and how. Then, when they can not do it, it is our fault for not enabling them enough.

The task of mixing cement is a major drama and goes like this:

'3:1 with water in first' I say all chirpy …….'I'll just a get smaller trowl for my friend over here, put a watering can full in and I'll be with you in a minute'.

'Rob, it has run out of petrol'

No we filled it last night remember. So…Stand behind it, and pull the cord in a straight line. Not out to the side cos the cord rubs on the edge and your hard pulling is wasted. There.. its easy if you pull in a straight line. I'm just going to get some pebbles for your sister.

'Rob I can't open this bag of cement'

'have you got a trowel to poke in the side'

'er no'

'You get a trowel off Katie, Im just going to cut a block for Nicole'.

'Did you get a trowel?

'no she wouldn't let me borrow it'

'Ok then I'll just tear it open' (which is a little like trying to rip the yellow pages in half, but possible) Is there any more water than this? I ask.

'No Sophie knocked the container over'

'Does anyone you know have an outside tap'?

'No we asked yesterday and the houses are terraced and they dont want us walking through on the carpets'.

So I have to drive the containers to a tap in a sink in the near by maintenance office.

Someone says…'Rob is this cement the right height to push the pebbles in?

'Lets have a look …no much too low you need twice as much as that'

'Rob is there any more cement'?

'yeh soon…we're working on it' I say.

and so it goes on. What we get ranges from sand that won't come out the mixer to a slurry that hits the wheel barrow and bounces out splashing anyone by the barrow. One extra watery load knocks the barrow over as it enters – because said barrow is not on a level floor.

'Rob can you help me'

But today we all worked, all helped, and had a laugh, with ice creams for everyone involved at the end of the day.

Kids as well.

17 bodies in the team by the end of the day.

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Well I made some pathway with these children at St. Radigans today and I have to say care and organisation around working practices is not high on their list of concerns.

The implications of their actions are not concidered. I mean if you step on a paving block which you have just placed on wet cement, it will depress downwards under the preasure of your weight, or pebbles pressed into mortar submerge totaly if trodden on. We had to experience this alot to learn it today.

Exicitment, enthusiasm for mixing stuff up, particularly in a cement mixer was high on their list of priorities. Control and care…………..na. But most of these kids are young.

Do international/premiership football players turn up at the green on the estate and teach football skills?

Will REM, Kate Bush or the Vienna Boys Choir turn up and teach singing or how to read music?

Are boffins from Microsoft going to pitch up with pc workshops, or architects/construction engineers from the Richard Rogers Partnership……….medalists from the olympics.

What is the role of the artist? and why is art the twine that mends the social fabric when it gets torn.

Do artists have shamanistic powers to heal the ills of society?

Tommorow I will take some mortar plastiser and focus on care. Show how the manipulation and modification of materials can help to achieve better results. Tell em that washing up liquid does the same thing, see what their reaction to that will be!

or I could join in throwing model helicopters as far as I can.

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I am only working on this project in St. Radigans for one day this week. I started paving today and things were shaping up. Moral in the team seemed low but after seeing things really move forward today everyones tails were wagging by the close of play.

I forgot to take my camera (air head). So pictures next week on site , I hope the children have not riden their bikes over it or played football on it as the cement was still wet….

I found a hand writen note on the floor of the storage container, which made me realise that this project was effecting these kids.

28 mosaic paving stones have been achieved by this group. The perents of some of the children have become involved as well.

The whole project is at a stage now where it is becoming more real, what I mean is people can see results of their work and the landscaping of the garden has begun, so things look different.

I had an episode on Fri afternoon! The grout I bought for this job was quick drying which is of no consequence to me. But turned out to have a negative impact on friday afternoon.

The children were grouting away very happily while I carried on with another task. When I came back to check things the kids were unable to remove the grout off the mosaic as the hot sun had begin to make it stiff and sticky. Controlled application of water quantities on dampend rags is the remedy, but no they enjoyed the mud pie aspect to this and continued to apply more grout and ignore the instructions. The rescue opporation was more urgent now as the grout was really beginning to dry and 5-6 mosaics were under a milimeters of very stiff nearly hard grout.

The children unable to respond to my increasing requests to 'get the grout off not on' were largely ignored, the nice clean rags I wanted to use to wipe the mosaics clean at the end were suddenly in the grout pot, dried grout was on every trowel, float and scraper I had provided. I was beginning to growl at these children.

So I aborted their contributions by explaining that this was a good time go round the block on their bike, find something else to do or go back and watch TV for 15- 20 mins and come back a bit later so I could clear the grout off the mosaics. The children formed ranks and started an organised campaign Julius Ceaser would have been proud of to thwort this plan of mine. Chanting had begun echoing round the site…'We hate Rob….We hate Rob.' When I asked them to go and come back a bit later, the chanted reply was …Up your bum and round the corner all the way to california'…Hate mail was being writen and chaos had broken out.

I ignored them and went back to resuue the mosaics from a boa constrictor like death below cement. With no response to their taunts, things became calmer and after a short while back to normal.

Later we were talking about horses and bikes and sweets as the compensation they wanted for being treated so badley. I knew this was back to normal and enjoyed negotiating their demands. By now we were all friends again and it was time to clear everthing away at the end of the day. They all willingly and happily helped pack stuff up and were well behaved.

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Today is my day off. Next week is my week off. The management do not have the funds for all of the five artists for all of the five weeks; so a squad rotation policy is in place, kind of Rafa Benitez style.

This has worked very well as the dynamic between the combinations of personel is refreshing and I think it strenghtens the team. The bonding of the team is critical as the task is intense. Banter and topics for chatter are important.

At the end of my first week I was feeling OK, it was achievable.

Then I had a conversation with the caretaker/maintence guy. Real quality negativity. Plenty of quotes from his absent collegues on what a waste of time money effort and the whole thing was, it would be scraped up by a JCB in less than 6 months because it would be vandelised so completly it would become dangerous. At best we were providing a creche for the kids over the summer, which had it plus point. Only that it was an expensive way to provide a creche.

'Cheers…. have good weekend and I will see you next week'.

Caretakers, community wardens and call out repair guys must only ever see people smashing things up, doing really stupid things and behaving like complete tubes. Their work is increased by this kind of stuff, so as a result they are miserable bsatrdas. (no offence).