Statement, Skill and Performance
On the last 8th of May of 2021, and under the title of Experimental Wall painting Performance Workshop, Guido de Boer conducted an unusual on day lettering workshop at the former Visions, in Barcelona. The workshop revolved around the idea, of What do you want to say? with the intention of putting the mind and the hand to work together, in the favour of the message. After showing us some examples, the students, including Laura, could distillate the ideas behind it and how those defined the three parts of the workshop: Statement (what you say), Skill (what you do) and Performance (how you do it).
The Statement
What is a Statement? A definite or clear expression of something in speech or writing. Laura found that defining it was the most difficult part, for instance. The Statement shouldn’t be a question, because you don’t know the answers, but something that is in your mind at that moment, so she started thinking “What to say when you don’t know what to say” and then she realised that the fact of ‘saying it’, was enough but ‘meaning it’, as a way to let others approaching you.
The Skill
The idea of not having expectations was also key to the process, together with playfulness and the use of big paper and bigger tools than pencil to sketch. Despite Laura could choose lettering or type, she decided to use writing to follow Guido’s path of using the hand, the wrist, the arm, the shoulder and the body 🙂
Laura tried different surfaces, writing tools and inks, being the round brush and black china ink on the gallery wall, the best options for her purpose, simple, honest and direct.
The Performance
It consisted of the wall painting recorded under Guido’s eye. Laura wrote “say it” on a semi-circular shape, covering the amount of space she could afford with her extended arms. Please watch the movie 🙂 and the reel about this workshop at his instagram account.