In my first blog about the Cinna Solar X Wild Hive Artists’ Residency, I explained how over the past two weeks Cinna, Bee and I have been exploring the concept of ‘creative connection’, defined by Kae Tempest as “the use of creativity to access and feel connection and get yourself and those with you in the moment into a more connected space” (Kae Tempest, 2020).

In our time together we explored creative connection through artistic practices, conversations, and a developing connection with one another, and in this blog, I’m going to delve a bit further into the conditions necessary for creative connection to arise by exploring an idea that Cinna, Bee and I discussed at length: slowing down and taking time.

Taking Time

So, during the two-week Artists’ Residency Cinna, Bee and I spent time making and creating together. Bee and I crafted paper flowers whilst watching Cinna paint graffiti (video of this coming soon!).

We also wrote, painted, and created in our own time.

We spent time talking together.

Each morning of the residency we had long meandering conversations with no agenda, allowing ideas to simmer and either evaporate or crystallize into something tangible that would make its way into our art.

We each went for walks, visited cafes, museums, read books, listened to poetry. Fragments from these experiences would then weave into our conversations the next day, adding new ingredients to the pot.

Slowing down

I found myself starting to pay attention to things I don’t always notice.

Whilst crafting, for example, I noticed vibrant colours and interesting textures. I noticed the physicality of the process, the delicate strength of the paper as my fingers worked it into shapes.

The feelings in my body.

The smell of the glue…

The sound of birds singing outside my window…

… These experiences then became part of the Artists’ Residency. A conversation the following day, for example, would remind me of the feeling in my body as I crafted the day before.

Creative sparks had space to ignite.

Ideas began to flow…

Kae Tempest talks about this. They tell us that for creative connection to thrive we must “learn to value the minute and gradual things. Small exchanges. Genuine intimacies”.

They give clear instructions for cultivating this:

“See all those windows in all those buildings? Look up. There’s life in there. Put yourself away. Let go of yourself. Tune in to other people. To the movement of the branches, the sudden coming of the rain or the patterns in the waves. To how those two lie in on the grass. To how that one sits on the bench with their hands clasped, looking up. To how those three stand at the crossing, playing with each other’s hair…”

“This is it. This is the thing. This is the beautiful thing.”
(Kae Tempest, 2020)

Slowness as a radical act

Of course, this can be hard.

Finding the time and space to slow down and tune in is arguably only possible with privilege—it will be harder if you’re juggling two jobs, caring responsibilities, health conditions and multiple, intersecting oppressions.

But slowing down and being process-focused and present rather than goal focused is also a radical act. In contemporary society we’re so often encouraged to produce more and more by going faster and faster.

During this Artists’ Residency, then, we each had a chance to be with the process of creativity and connection, even if only for a while. We each had chance to carve out space and time in our day to day lives to create, connect, to let go of ourselves, tune in. To be.

This allowed creativity to flourish, which in turn, created the conditions for connection to occur.

I have since discovered Mountz et al.’s Slow Scholarship Movement (2015) which argues that the exhausting realities of a neoliberal agenda demanding more outputs in less time is burning out bodies and minds. They argue that taking time to think and write differently, more slowly, represents a good feminist ethics of care, and encourages collaborative, collective, communal ways forward.

This is what I experienced, in practice, with Cinna and Bee last week. In my next blog I’ll write about some of the exciting ideas that emerged from the space this created.