Make Your Mark

June 2014

I had lunch recently with my friend Berenice, who is both a wonderful artist and thinker. She asked me about my experiences in Myanmar and listened carefully as I talked of creative cross-cultural collaboration and the making of art work across diverse disciplines.

“How do you define collaboration?” was her question when I paused for breath.

“That’s a hard thing to define sometimes” I sighed.  “How do you see it?”

She tilted her head a little and like me moments before, gathered her thoughts to give shape to ideas in spoken words: “When collaborating, you are making your mark on another person’s work- and giving them permission to mark your creative work also.  But more than that, you are marking another person.  And they are marking you.  So collaboration means not only is your artistic work marked by others and won’t be what you originally conceived it to be… but you too are marked as a person.  And therefore you are changed - as a person”.

Artists like Berenice are used to the language of mark-making.  As a term it refers to the lines, shapes, textures and patterns that pens, paints or other substances make on all kinds of surfaces.  Different artists make marks with different kinds of implements; the results often unexpected and impermeable.  My friend’s comparison seemed frighteningly accurate.

We tossed around ideas of collaborative practice further, agreeing this kind of mark-making was never equitable.  Someone may contribute 5% to my 95%, but I am still marked by the experience.  It is a harsh process, yet incredibly rich with the benefits of deep acceptance of another facilitating an even richer creative experience… and the mark-making of character.

* Image: Berenice Rarig, still from video ‘Elision Field’ – work in progress