Economic Stimulus from the bottom up:Art, Questions and a TEDTalks video

Project:Forgive postcard#3 by Yvette Dubel

Despite the rhetoric, most economic policy is designed to preserve the status quo rather than address the deep rooted sources causing the problems. There are some things policy can not dictate, like your desires. You have immediate desires and Big Desires. A big desire would be embodied in your hopes for hopes for the world and yourself in that context.

So often businesses, especially smaller enterprises, don't want to take on big issues or develop BIG VISIONS. Remember your business and consumer habits exist in a context we call the world.

One of the reason I had to reconnect my work to my artist practice was that I couldn't help but connect the moving pieces that kept the bigger picture in view for me.Source: Economic Stimulus from the bottom up:A Question, Art, and the Business of Life

In my artist practice, the interconnectedness of the projects I work on is easily visible for me. Wearing my artist hat, I am able to summon greater wisdom than wearing the "strategy consultant" label.

By allowing the work to lead the way, an awesome journey has continued to unfold. One of the things most people have a hard time with is connecting the moving pieces to see the interconnectedness showing them their innovation opportunity. Are you paying attention to your discovery process? Instead of being overwhelmed we can learn to make sense of our interconnectedness and make better strategy decisions.


The postcard from Project:Forgive that I included in this post is part of a series that evolved from Project:what-is-peace? that kicked off Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy back in 2006. The first collaboration was NGO Art Studio in the Republic of Macedonia where I had my first up-close lesson in how international aid can go horribly wrong. Some of the funding for the Peace Day event came from an organization that required that certain speakers be included. Little did I know that these "suggested speakers" were considered war criminals by the residents. It almost brought the peace celebration to a halt as it stirred issues that were never really resolved after the Balkan War.


If meaningless activities can exist and be accepted as performance art then why not meaningful action? Just as any other artist's history shapes their work, so to does my background in advocacy, community development and as a business consultant.

As part of the Art:Works solutions are an integral part of the completed works to advance a peace economy and improve communities.
(Go to webantiphon.com to learn more)

Do you find yourself making statements like these?

I need a long term strategy not just a marketing blitz.

Things are changing so fast, and trying to keep up is exhausting me.

What used to work isnt’ working anymore, and now I don’t know where to turn.

I don’t know what information is meaningful for innovation in my business/organization or industry.

I know we need to make changes, but I don’t know how to recognize innovation.

[caption id="attachment_570" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cultural Fusion collaboration with NGO Art Studio in Macedonia"][/caption]

In the absence of Peace - things like profit take a nose dive in value. I guess we can call that part of the Business of Life. How do we know this? Because if there is a lack of peace within you, it makes it difficult to enjoy business success. If there is a lack of peace around you, it creates a very difficult environment in which to attain your goals.

So the question of "what is peace?" persisted and raised its head again during a collaboration with a county history museum and a few community leaders heading up the project locally. It was a collaboration that made me question what was really possible given the partners involved. I knew it would be a long term project based on the amount of resistance it encountered early on. Collections for the large scale work continue now, but were halted for a time. As a community project, the objectives were not driven by attainment of profits. Instead this project was focused on developing an open knowledge resource. Lines were drawn in the sand and alliances fortified - making the IT part of the project easy in comparison to the people problems.

Then I began to question the role that forgiveness plays in finding peace. That's when a line from the play Rent grabbed my attention.

The opposite of war isn't peace, its creation!

While politics has historically dictated economic plans and policy, it is important to remember that the political is personal and the personal political. For a number of reasons (which I look at more closely in the book), this became very clear to me after my father's death. I turned my attention again to the personal motivation for aspiring to see Project:what-is-peace? to a satisfying conclusion. For those that don't know, that series is connected to several Regional Economic/Community Development partnerships and initiatives to serve businesses and communities. Economic stimulus from the bottom up takes a quantum leap when we answer the following question.

How do we transform resistance?

[caption id="attachment_532" align="aligncenter" width="188" caption="From Bloodtrails by Yvette Dubel"][/caption]



As much as that is a communal experience of self in relation to - it is also a deeply personal one. It goes to the heart of personal responsibility as the foundation of any social responsibility program or objectives.

It began to seem like a flower sprouting new branching out with new stems which grew new blossoms. Project:Forgive was certainly one of them. Bloodtrails - which spawned the picture above, is a darker piece (deals more with pain and disappointment) that relates to both those projects. However, it is itself part of another collaboration called Touchstone Learnings that generated as its first completed work "Guided by blood trails: Political revelations in learning." That collaborative piece has been accepted for publication so will share more about that when the book is published as part of an anthology later this year.

In addition, exciting progress has been made in defining the scope of the next Touchstone project. While it looks at issues of teacher identity within institutions, it simultaneously informs my personal inquiry. My interest is to increase understanding of the life teachers who bring not just lessons to get students gainful employment, but lessons aimed at living better lives and being better glocal (global-local) neighbors.

No doubt that Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy is an ambitious undertaking, but it is worth the effort....and because I LOVE it, it doesn't feel much like work :)

Feminist art inquiry as a Humanitarian Endeavor

Pausing from painting and making notes of events to be added to the TimeLine....

This morning I watched a deer through the window as I washed the dishes. The scene from one perspective appeared peaceful and quiet, but for the deer I suspect it was a different experience. It seemed to eat nervously...looking up at every sound or movement, ready to dash off into the woods at the slightest hint of a threat. He presented a contrast to my peaceful and thoughtful creative hiatus.


Thinking about recent events and epiphanies my recollection of the visit with Kitty, featured in this picture, outside a reconstruction of a slave cabin - she is dressed in historical attire for the historical re-inactment.

I have been reflecting on how my perception and understanding of my cultural as well as intellectual inheritance has evolved - shifted and expanded.

Turning this issue of black feminism around in my mind as if it were an object being examined in hand - increasingly it is the humanitarian nature...the inclusiveness of it that seems to distinguish it from the more established feminist construction. At the same time my deconstruction of race persist in calling for my attention - when I peel back the layers of the socio-political construct I find diverse cultures anchored in a spiritually (rather than religious) imbued intellectual tradition. Mainstream feminism, like the predominate culture from which it emerges, our contributions like those of others marked as minorities, have been too often devalued.

I know their value.

Recently while discussing this with my Auntie she said something that had left behind an echo that persist - “While white women were out protesting and demanding the right to work, black women were working in their homes taking care of their children and cleaning their houses”

I thought this was a profound, if obvious, observation. Rather than pushing for the right to work - black women were/are asserting their right to freely select their occupations. In many cases, this has included being home to raise their own children.

After a long history of sexual exploitation, the journey to reclaim one’s self esteem and right to claim self as SELF is a paramount aspect of black feminism. Instead of focusing merely on women’s issues, black feminism (as I have internalized it) broadly wraps its arms around all who have been and are being oppressed. These personal experiences shape and give meaning to public histories.

Following a visit to the Living History Park in North Augusta, S.C. and a documentary about the progress and reactions to land redistribution in South Africa. First the living history park - we again visited with Kitty, who is in her seventies, volunteers to ensure that our historical experience is included in such projects.

Second, in the documentary a descendant of Dutch colonist, with black workers working in the background, tells the interviewer that the native blacks are unskilled and ill-equipped to do the work the enterprise required. I wonder who he thinks has been doing the work that has made his farm profitable up until the time he was expelled?

Why have the skills of our black ancestors been minimized or ignored when it made so many wealthy?

Black feminism, to my heart and mind, is about espousing the value of the workers and laborers, as well as everyone else. Its attention to equality and inclusion, feels more genuine and may offer a way forward in addressing the persistent issues of racism, classism, sexism, etc.

How does this translate into feminist art?

This piece (along with two others in this series) has been sold and is now in the private collection of R. Howard

Unlike much of what I have seen of feminist art that focuses on aspects of human physicality, my work seems to be more concerned with the experience of humanity from my cultural perspective(s).

I will post more pictures (eventually) of the more recent work(s) that are emerging as part of a "southern recollections" revisited series within my current cfAaP series.

It Took Twenty One Years for Our Parents to Meet

Earlier this year my father-in-law and my Mom met for the first time. We have been married for almost twenty years. Am I the only one who thinks that is odd at best and revealing in truth? It just so happens that we are an "interracial" couple....some would say that is beside the point.

I was thinking about how that event looked on the TimeLine of our lives, in relation to the place where they converged. Then I looked at other public history events and started to think about the BIG TimeLine of Humanity. I want to visualize, experience and share more deeply the personal in the public. Public history is not other, it has a relationship and contributes to the context of our personal histories. This has been a consistent idea since I started the What is Peace? series in this Cultural Fusion experience back in 2006. That project is anchored in my oral traditions and history work but I have been stuck about how to move it forward until now.

This TimeLine Installation represents a turning point because it accessible. It uses materials that are familiar which are presented in familiar environments. It is tricky to figure out where/when to push an audience and where/when to just BE with the audience in a sharing space.

I can't believe it has taken so long to take a serious look at this issue of feminist art and southern culture. Rather than a departure from the work I was doing prior, this is actually a deepening and framing of a topic that has gotten increasingly broad. Although I was looking at Life Learning and how it related to the various projects I am doing around cultivating/enhancing SOCIAL CAPITAL for community driven development....it does come down to some core issues that have been allowed to fester....given only band-aid attention.

The TimeLine itself though is not judgmental, it just is. It does not judge what did or did not happen, so I believe it will create a neutral space for multiple realities to co-exist allowing us to stand face to face with paradox, lies, truth, and recollections of them all.

I am using the IHMC Concept Mapping Tool to work out my idea for the online installation. Currently my idea is to use two different photographs to do two versions on different websites...the photographs will show different perspectives. On one the convergence point is clear with a more overhead view while the other is more straight on at ground level.
Interaction - Posting Events on the TimeLine
At this time my plan is to use existing tools to allow others to add events to the TimeLine - both personal and public history events. So you might add your birthday, the day you met your partner, the birthdays of your children, or when your parents married.

Then alongside that are the historical events that take place around the world but are not noted in history books or perhaps only one side is told.
Now is your chance to chime in. Do you have a website about your parents escape from their nation of origin during political upheaval? Add that event and link to the resource in the TimeLine.

At this point I am planning to make it as easy as possible for people to contribute but at the same to deter SPAM posts.

IF YOU WANT TO COLLABORATE TO DEVELOP THIS PIECE - LET'S CONNECT!

Where is this Going?
I will be looking for alternate sites to install the piece to be videoed and photographed - I have two that are of special interest to me at this time.

The next incarnation of the online installation will be that those envelop years getting the most Attention will create a breeze - representing what we have termed Attention Gravity.

Next phase of interaction will be a postal project - I will invite people to contribute handmade envelops and post cards to represent A REQUEST FOR or GIFT OF Forgiveness. The place for those to be mailed will be posted once I have these first two installations done online.