As part of the October 6-November 20, 2005 Agnes Scott College Dalton Gallery exhibit limbs heart tongue & teeth, Susan A. Cipcic collaborated with five Agnes Scott senior art majors to create two separate room-sized installations. Additional collaborators in the projects included Agnes Scott alumnae, faculty and staff, as well as friends, acquaintances, and family of the students.

Slumber Party (“We are such stuff as dreams are made on…”) featured “Exquisite Corpse” drawings on pillowcases while Shattered (the way of all earth) included a display of sacrificial china plates. The five students, now known as The Sisterhood of the Shards, were charged with the weekly duty of ritually breaking dishes and adding them to the growing mound of debris on the altar.

Three of the participating students, Ashley French (AF), Samantha Swaney (SS), and Kirby Hager (KH), responded to the following questions about their experiences in/of collaborative art processes.

1. What meanings were most important to you in creating the  installations? For example, in Shattered, what did your chosen images for the plates mean?

AF:

My personal work shares many themes with the installation projects. The important theme that I was focused on in both my own work and in the two installations was my own mortality and religion. The images that I chose were either figurative or actual representations of those themes; for example, I chose an image of my bandaged surgical scars and an image of prayer.

SS:

I picked some pictures and phrases that I felt like I needed to "break" with--- one was an old picture of a man with Parkinson's (my dad has the disease and I hate seeing him becoming so physically weak, and he hates it, too. But he's awesome and is keeping his sense of humor), another was the words "Teacher evaluation" (and there was another like it) because I was struggling really hard then (and I kind of always do) with being distracted with feeling the need to please my instructors, as opposed to just doing my best. I have to say that some of that really started to come together this semester, and I think it had something to do with the fact that I had never actually formally thought it out, like I did to the extent of putting that struggle into words and on a plate-- I had to look at it and really consider it. I also had a plate that had different words over and over again, including babies and grad school and perfection and grades-- things that are important (though, in the case of perfection, not always attainable...) but had become major points of stress as I push the concerns about getting older down, how it affects those things....I'm 34, and not getting any younger...:)

KH:

Since we were discussing the concept of fleshy vessels for the gallery show, my studio work began to take shape around elements of that theme. For the plate installation, I became very interested in working within myself to make the meaning of the plates personal to me and also to change the individual plate into works that successfully merge the readymade with the image. For instance, my representation of a fetus on a simple, white plate spoke to my ongoing curiosity about the sheer beauty of human processes: growth, pregnancy, and life. On the other hand, when choosing a vintage plate with a butterscotch-yellow flower pattern, I immediately knew that I would choose a vaginal image to Xerox transfer onto the plate in order to pick up themes of virginity, womanhood, and violation.

2. How did working in collaboration affect your individual intentions forthe work?

AF:

The collaborative work broadened my view and expanded my perspective on both themes that I was working with and also the themes that applied to the installations. The installations would not have been complete without the contribution of every party involved. The whole truly was greater than the sum of the parts.

SS:

Well, it helped me to really think about what I would want to put there, and seeing the diversity of things people were coming up with really encouraged me to get more creative and less literal in my ideas.  Plus, it was our first project as a class and got us talking about our strengths and weaknesses as artists ("I'm [this kind of artist] so it's hard for me" or "Man, this is right up my alley-- I love work that [insert comment here]"). Plus, the competitor in me (I'm sorry!! I struggle with it, but it sometimes helps me!) wanted to make mine neater or more different than the others, which caused me to really invest in trying to do my best--- because in the end, it's obviously not about a single participant. As a printmaker, I find that a little competition drives many peers working in a collaborative atmosphere to do their best, if they're up to it. It seems that collaborating in art is not for the insecure or faint of heart :)

The pillowcases gave me an opportunity to really talk to some people I had never met in a coffee house I go to all the time. As an extrovert, I was loving it. And people really seemed to get a kick out of the whole thing.

KH:

Collaboration was a different approach to art-making for me. My work has been so individualized for the past few years that I was, honestly, a little concerned about how the pieces might come together for each installation. Once I started to see the workings of each of our collaborative group members, I let go of any underlying intentions that I may have had. I just knew that both installations were going to be comprehensive visual narratives of the people involved. I felt as though we were all able to present elements of ourselves, but that the overall intention was strengthened, not by our individual intentions or expectations, but by the uniqueness of our individualities.

For the pillowcase installation, the act of collaboration itself was important to me. It was fun to be able to recruit some of my artist friends, and some of my non-artist friends, to help out with the triptych body drawings. In the end, it was humorous to talk to my classmates about our collaborative experiences and to have individual narratives that explained the process by which each of these beings was created.

3. Did you encounter any issues of artistic ownership?

AF:

No, I did not face any issues of ownership.

SS:

With the pillowcases, a couple of girls were really invested in what they had done and wanted to take pictures of their work! Which was cool, but they understood that they were giving them away, so they didn't try to keep them. As for the plates, I really liked the way one of my scribbly sketches looked and felt the desire to keep it...and then kept remembering that it was a detail from a larger work of mine and I DO have a copy of it!

KH:

During my growth as an artist, I have continued to struggle with my own ownership over each piece that I create and the level to which I am able to let go of my work. Working in collaboration with my classmates, and having an art-collaboration guru (Susan) leading us through this project was great because I was able to approach these projects with the knowledge that I would have to let them go. Our plate-breaking ritual proved to be a great release. I finally understood what it feels like to own something but to gain enough resolve about your work to destroy it. Quite exhilarating.

4. How, specifically, did viewer participation modify, complete, or divert the meanings of the installations?

AF:

Viewer participation also helped to complete the installations. The interactions of the viewers with the installations were just as important as the work itself. When the viewers sat on the pews before the Altar of Shards, or when they interacted with the comforting pillowcases of the exquisite corpses, they became a part of the installation.

SS:

I guess with the plates, I was hoping people would understand them, because they were cool. At the same time, I trusted that the installation just sort of made sense. I REALLY liked the secrecy of the sisterhood of the shards part, though. It was good for us as a class. I felt like a couple of us connected for a minute in a way we never had before, just being kind of silly and doing this ritual, but then for one of us, it was kind of an emotional moment. For me, I'm just all about ritual and tradition. I love it. I have personally spearheaded two secret events on campus that I hope will become ritual on our campus, so I'm invested.

Participation with the pillowcases was just neat. There we had a room full of one artist's vision, peopled with the handprints of individuals who had never met and never would. It was cool to see how we can all make something come together if we follow simple instructions and keep within the spirit of a project...imagine how society could blossom if we all did that--- every face looked different, with different backgrounds chosen, different washes, but they met where the neck was, and fit with the torso parts, which fit with the bottoms: all different, but within the boundaries.

KH:

For me, the meaning and the success of the installation were within the acts of collaboration that happened before the gallery opened. I felt as though our intent was to make suggestions about birth, life, and mortality, but that the viewer was responsible for interpreting and interacting with the work as they saw fit. Whether that was frolicking through the sheets and pillowcases or crouching to touch the sand and shards, all acts were in response to elements that that we had provided through our involvement and planning with each other.

5. Shattererd offered viewers very different possibilities for the plates made by project participants: smash them or pay to keep them. As a participant, how did you feel about the fate of your work in this context?

AF:

I felt that the smashing of the plates worked nicely with my themes. The symbolism of turning the plates into broken shards or dust represented mortality to me.

SS:

You know, I didn't really think about it. For me, those shards and the breaking of them really just happened for me and the people I knew. I knew they were being made to be broken, so my biggest hope (again) was just that someone would understand what I meant, and that maybe they would identify with what I'd decided to put there, whether it was infirmity or stress. I know a couple of girls really, really wanted to keep theirs. I don't know...wasn't that the point of putting them on the plates? To let them go? Why enshrine the things that haunt us if not to smash them somehow, to change them or conquer them? Who wants to take "Teacher Evaluation" home if they are under the fear of it, unless they recognize the humor there, and within that context, I say hang it on the wall!!! But I couldn't relate to anyone's desire to keep the plates. If it's about Xerox transfer, let's make a print with a house or flowers, and make it on a plate (awesome surface to work with!), but not make them sacred, not deep things that hurt, unless our intention is to be healed of them...

KH:

Although I hadn’t destroyed anything yet, when the plates went onto the wall I felt as though I had already given them away. Granted, it was odd to speculate about each of the plate’s fates, but ultimately I knew that whether bought or broken they would serve a purpose somehow.