Touchable Stories

This is a project that is created by Shannon Flattery. She had traveled from East coast to here, in Richmond, creating these community story telling projects. She had interviewed hundreds of people in Richmond and created a handful of rooms/installations based on certain themes. People navigated through the rooms to see the themes. The most successful of the rooms were the Mexican one, where there was a gigantic Zoetrope. I think I liked it the most because it was really optic, and all inclusive, and playful. So these are the three magical combination for success in my book. Other people had apparenly felt that other rooms were more interesting... A former congressman cried when he saw one of the rooms.

This art form isn't really my kind of art. I'm not convinced. Probably because it really wasn't aesthetic. I got into a really interesting conversation after the event with a British artist who does similar work as Shannon. She had done some interesting and incredible work, centered around community activism and public art. She said that artists are important in bringing political change, and that they are facilitators between the government and the people. That's inspiring, but it's not true. I told her that we are more like 'shock troops of gentrification', and that we go into impoverished neighborhoods and bring in the developers. I told her that the 'intent' doesn't matter anymore, it's all about the system, and good or bad, we all get used up in this system.

But we still have to do something. Is what she said. And that's true. I still think that what she does is important.