Chaos, Creativity and Crayons
September 8, 2001
Storm King Art Center, NY
Participants: Leslie Van Gelder, Heather McConnell, Leigh Neithardt, and Julie Leff
At what moment are we supposed to give up our childish things for the mantle of adulthood? What happens to the parts of us that remain capable of play? Why do we lose our spontaneity? When did we stop rolling down hills?
We could not have picked a more ideal location to have those conversations. The Storm King Art Center is an outdoor sculpture garden on the side of a mountain in New York. At Storm King art blends with landscape and the sky and hills become parts of our pallette. Calder sculptures and giant stone marbles lead us back to old questions about what is art (and why are we never allowed to climb on it?!?)
Armed with a pile of poetry written from second to fourth grade we explored what it meant to spontaneously create. Sitting on our blanket in a grove of trees (eating an illicit lunch) we shared memories from childhood, stories of the history of our fantasy worlds of play, and moments when we knew we were not "supposed to" play like that anymore. We talked about people who planned their lives, the conventions of society, and who are the gatekeepers who keep us from staying childlike. What about those people who "never grow up?"
After so much conversation we were in need of a little play of our own. The hills of Storm King are irresistible for rolling. We rolled sideways and sommersaulted. Rediscovered cartwheels and roundoffs. Corrupted innocent bystanders who suddenly remembered that it was not only ok to roll down a hill, it was fun!
Lying on our backs, dizzy and exhausted, we remembered what it means to open ourselves up to play, chaos, and a new point of view.
Our Situques
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Recommended Reading:
James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games
Leonard Shlain, Art and Physics
Peter London, No More Secondhand Art
Joseph Meeker, The Comedy of Survival
John Briggs and F. David Peat, Seven Life Lessons of Chaos