exposed!

what a weekend! i stepped over my own boundaries, overcame my own fears, bonded with new people and became closer to some who were already friends, learned that nobody has a perfect body and began work on what is, for me, a major piece of autobiographical art. it was the weekend of the torso project.

probably the best part was selecting the headlines i wanted to swathe myself in.

i've come to feel rather not particularly american after nigh on 15 years of living outside the country of my birth.  but there are still moments when i am deeply, culturally bound by my heritage - like at the thought of standing topless and (gasp!) braless and allowing someone who i just met to cover me in plaster. i actually had nightmares about it two nights before it happened. a streak of deep conservatism surfaces within me and i'll admit feeling some measure of resentment for it, even while i am utterly helpless against it. but i took a deep breath and swallowed my fears (after expressing them and laughing quite a lot about them (for which i am grateful to those who helped me do that)).

between the future and the past - could it be more appropriate?

but when it came down to it and women around the room (24 of them), working in pairs, shed their tops and stood there in all of their real glory, it was actually quite ok. and despite having someone else drape strips of plaster on my entire upper body (the kind casts are made of when you have a broken arm), it was both intimate and not. because it was also a chemical process (plaster gets warm as it hardens), and a logistical puzzle - placing the strips so they clung to one another and built the next layer. it began to harden quickly and felt more like a suit of armor than something particularly intimate (which perhaps also bears reflection).

travel-related on the inside - political on the outside.

in the end, standing there exposed and as real as it gets was quite ok. and it was an amazing experience - intimate and fun and full of laughter and expressions of fears and creativity and excitement. and my goodness, what an experience it was. to be lived and felt and shared.

i covered the inside with travel-related headlines and bits of news stories - as i am formed by travel, perhaps most of all. the outside is quite political, but also contains inside jokes - like a cartoon about facebook drawn by my friend political cartoonist jens hage - who loves breasts and who i stuck right there on my own breast, in a kind of gesture of love and abiding friendship. a joke of the kind he will appreciate.

i've only just begun decorating it. it will be interesting to see where it takes me. it has only begun to whisper to me of where it wants to go. stay tuned.

and if you'd like to gather a group of women (you by no means need to have 24 of them) and do something similar, perhaps with an eye on a global exhibition - shoot me an email (jknachti (at) gmail (dot) com).

i'm not really very good with kids

the participants in the photo outing.

i'm not really that good with kids - other people's kids, that is.  so it's a little ironic that twice this week, i've intentionally put myself in the position of leading a group of kids - once for a photo fun outing at my local library and today i gave showmanship lessons at a riding camp at our riding club. oh, and i might add that i had to do both in a language not my own.  the showmanship was pretty hard because i realized i didn't know any of the terminology in danish, but luckily, the group was a bit older and so they could figure out what i meant from the english i mixed in.

i asked them to photograph sculpture from a different angle.

i actually volunteered for both activities, so i can't even say i was forced. but i do wonder a little bit what made me do it.  definitely pushing myself out of my comfort zone. perhaps a desire to share something i think is fun - both photography and working with a horse in a new way? and of course, sabin - who was part of both "classes." it was a little weird that i chose showmanship because i'm not sure i was ever a really big fan of it back in the day, but i ended up consistently good at it and i found it fun to show it to a group of kids who know their horses well, but had never tried it. they definitely found it challenging.

getting down on the ground and making trash look pretty.

in both instances, i am overawed by the ability of children to be open and soak in what's presented to them. for the photo class, i stressed that i wanted them to look at things from a different angle - literally. and they did. they laid on the ground, they photographed the clouds, they took photos underneath cars and made detritus left on the street look artistic by getting close and personal with it. they were inspired and so was i. and as for the showmanship, they got to know and work with their horses in a new way - one which i think both parties appreciated. but they couldn't believe that you have to be able to set up your horse within 4 seconds. that takes a lot of work.

the assignment was to photograph happiness - this is what one of them came up with. isn't it clever?

ultimately, i come away from both experiences a little bit better person - more patient and more in awe of the capacity of children to take in new things in an open manner. and much more appreciative of the teachers out there who do it every day.  thank you for that, any teachers who might be reading this.

* all photos in this post were taken by the children who attended the course at the library.