At the beginning of the month, I hosted a virtual dinner, ‘Sharing is Caring’, in collaboration with Bus Projects. It sounds like an eternity now looking back! It feels like we were living in another dimension; time and space were completely redefined during the enforced self-isolation.
‘Sharing is Caring’ was an opportunity to get people together while sharing a meal. The timing couldn’t be better during lock down. Most of the participants cooked the recipe I had shared online a week prior. It was great to see the communal effort that resulted in a successful project. In fact, it was easier than I expected and prompted me to consider hosting a second one like this.
There was definitely something different about performing in your personal space versus performing in a gallery. Normally, the demarcation between the two spaces enables me to get settle gradually into a role. I felt I was shifting between the performing mother and the performing artist. As the online event unravelled and the mics were turned on, I became more engaged with the participants and less distracted by my immediate surroundings. Not as fun for the kids who more or less grasped what my hosting duties entailed. As a first time, it was nonetheless a great experience.
With the audience, we discussed how the lockdown affected our individual art practices, our lives and our roles and responsibilities. The overall consensus was how the unpredictability of what would happen next was unsettling to us all. Only time will tell.
Still from the virtual dinner ‘Sharing is Caring’.