Involvement

Now for the last sub-topic on community. While the other topics centred around works that artists create about or for the community, this topic revolves around the art that people create together as a community. Many people over-look community art projects as they see them as mediocre attempts to bring the community together or that the resulting art from these projects are sub-par. These projects which have been picked out show the potential that communities can create together when enough effort is put into it. The resulting artworks are a direct reflection of the people in the community and are often impactful and influential to those who have not taken part in it.

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This work is part a global community art project masterminded by a group of surfers, but the artist of this particular sculpture pictured above is João Parrinha. This project invites members of the community to get involved in the creation of the sculpture. This project takes place in several beaches from around the world, resulting in the inclusion of several communities from these different countries creating their own sculpture. The concept creates an individuality amongst the different sculptures partially due to the different styles in the different communities and partially due the type of debris found in the oceans and on the beach in the different countries. This results in the sculptures becoming an expression of the different communities as well as being a way of bringing the community together.

The idea for this sculpture was conceived to make a statement about sea pollution. This piece is part of a collection of works called "Ocean Race" which are also made out of debris taken from the beach and ocean. The decoration of each sculpture is constructed by adults and children from the community where the sculpture will be displayed while the skeleton of the piece is designed and made by the artist. The design of the sculpture is up to the participants to decide, which creates individuality with each sculpture. The debris are put together with glue, which is provided. The sculpture which is pictured above is the result of the efforts from the community in Abu Dhabi. It was recognised by the owners of the beach as an outstanding piece of work and was granted permission to be located at one of the most frequently visited areas of the beach.

This concept called "Before I Die" was thought up by Candy Chang and initially intended for the installation to only be in her neighbourhood in New Orleans. The idea for this project was to invite people who passed by to write their aspirations or to reflect on their lives. Eventually the whole wall was be filled with writings from people in the community. Community members were also free to comment on other people's answers, which creates a conversation with people that they've never met. This project opens up the thoughts of the community to each other and helps to give a better understanding on what the general mind-set of the community is. It helped to make the community more aware of the individuals in the community. The project helped to make other individuals in the community feel a sense of unity in their community after reading that there are people within their community going through similar troubles and aspirations as them.

This concept inspired by Chang's loss of someone close to her, the depression she felt helped give her clarity on her life and she wanted to find out if people were going through the same thing. This piece as such enables the process of people reflecting on their lives so that they too will gain some sort of clarity on the direction they want to take. The piece is comprised of several large chalkboards and the words as well as the lines were spray-painted on using a stencil. There are several pieces of chalk supplied on the end of the board for the community to use. Whenever the wall becomes extremely full to the point that no more can be written, someone associated with assembling the piece comes by and mops the board down to allow room for more people to write and create conversation. This concept expanded and now there are boards similar to the original piece in several countries and states. The boards vary from the original in language and the size of the board.

The clip above is a snippet of the documentary film "Rhythm Is It!" The documentary was directed by Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch and the choreographer was Royston Maldoom. The principle conductor of the orchestra, Simon Rattle was also involved in the orchestra. The documentary follows a project undertaken by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to bring together teenagers who were previously ignorant into enjoying and appreciating classical music. The project facilitates this by getting the students to prepare to perform a dance to Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring". This project reached out to several teenagers from different classes in society which are from the same community to perform together. This project had changed the lives and helped to bring teenagers from the same community in Berlin together, bonding these people with different backgrounds through dance and music.

This project was undertaken in 2003 and the documentary was released in 2004. To help make the participants enthusiastic and passionate for learning and performing, Maldoom shared his passion for dancing and Rattle taught them the importance of music. The process of getting the students into performing and classical music was a slow process as none of them had previous training in classical dancing or music. The students all have their own issues, such as one of them having a lot of inhibitions and another being a war orphan. The project spanned over a course of three months.