Day 18

Workshop: Documenting Mistakes
Date: 29 December 2008
Time: 10-11am
Participants: Chin Yi Ton, Hee Li Jie, Lai Shu Wei, Lai Wei Shen, Lim Jun Hong, Saw Khe Xin, Wong Kah Lok, Wong Kai Wei, Annabelle Yap Li Xing
Details: Documenting Mistakes will train the participants to accept mistakes, to see it as an opportunity to learn, to see it as part of the overall documentation of the art like in Jackson Pollock's paintings or to see it as part of the art itself. This helps not just in specifically art subject, but also in real life - to shape a positive independent attitude towards conflicts, failures and mistakes.

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This workshop started with fury - action painting!
Here's the definition of action painting from wiki: Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist.

Do you agree that everybody has the potential to be an artist?

I don't know if you would appreciate such chaotic artwork, the main idea isn't the aesthetic but the documentation of their movements and strength. It is a painting of event. And this is action painting.

Kai Wei in red, preoccupied with the act of 'throwing' paint...it was a rare opportunity to do so even for me. Unless you have a studio, else who wants to clean up the mess.

A group activity.

Lai Shu Wei (center) did some interesting strokes and splatters. She is the eldest amongst all, maybe she did consider the aesthetic value of the work. But Wong Kah Lok (left) being too excited, kept sweeping the board with brush and pouring water, flattened all the previous actions. And that was part of the documentation too, constantly overlapping each other.

Creating a mess within 15 minutes (which at the end took me 30 minutes to clean up), I hastily rushed them into another room to continue other exercises when the time allocated for action painting ended.

As you can see the pictures from this previous post, I asked them to draw many things which I hoped would have them realize themselves the importance of making 'mistakes'. The idea of this workshop, first is to realize mistake as an opportunity to improve, second, that mistake/imperfection shows individuality that of unique value (the participants were asked to draw a line and a square; a set with ruler, a set without), third, to accept mistake and manipulate it into something of value - see mistakes as something inspiring.

A London based designer Anna Gerber published a book entitled All Messed Up: Unpredictable Graphics where she asked simple questions like 'what is mistake' and 'what is accident'. Putting us into such irony, it actually made us realize how creativity can be explored even through such a subconscious act in which we deemed negative and perceived as error.

All of those actually lead to one single notion - perceive conflicts, failures, mistakes positively. Somehow I believed it has become an Oriental cultural value that we have to avoid problems, being non-confrontational. I truly hoped such exercises of accepting mistake can create some radicals, best done through art education. You think?

Oh, this was the last workshop!