on conversation - agreeing to cook the world together

image by Theodore Zeldin

Sophie Munns

The text above is by eminent thinker Theodore Zeldin who has been an inspiration for some years now after reading his seminal 'Intimate history of humanity' and 'Conversations' which was published following his BBC4 lectures on conversation. I tracked him to a philanthropic foundation he launched - 'the Oxford Muse' - some time later and have at times worked directly with his ideas like  conversation dinners and text in art work.

In 2008 I had the time to rethink completely where I was going in my Art Practice and I wrote to the Oxford Muse foundation in the UK and exchanged emails for a time with one of the staff there. I was looking into how I might engage further with the conversation dinner idea I had experimented with partly pursuing my own interests and then discovering the Muse model for this form of innovative social collaboration. One day Kim at OM said "Theodore wants to phone you to speak personally - when will you be home?"

He rang me that week and talked for over half an hour - by far the most dense conversation of my life in its sweep and profundity and searching questions. I made notes - thankfully! And I sat on that exchange for a long time after pondering how I might activate some of the ideas he prompted me to consider. Maybe I find myself mentioning this tonight because there is perhaps an opportunity coming up that will allow space for such possibilities as he spoke of to come into play. I'm realising this as I write.  More soon on that... 

To read more click Muse Ideas. Some years ago i watched a webcast of a 2 hour talk he gave at the Tate Modern. Muse ideas will take you to similar links. There you will also see at this website Zeldin's own art work that frequently accompanies the text for the Oxford Muse.

The following images are employing text from his book Conversation that I wanted to consider more fully.

*click on the artworks to enlarge if you wish to be able to read the text

these 2 pages below actually join up

Today I have had some amazing conversations and communications through the blog, via email and over the phone... many more memorable and enriching ones than I usually have in one day. Plans being made, ideas being exchanged and thoughts being shared... when communications flow and understanding and cooperation is increased the world is indeed a brighter place!

And thats something to be extremely thankful for!!

when an artist's studio is in her house...

A wave of nostalgia last night after showing friends photos from my previous home I sold and left in April last year prompted me to post them here now. My studio was in the centre of my home just off the living room, with a view through to the outdoor living space which was much used as it had good rain-proof roofing over it. My whole home was my studio really - classes also took place in the living room, studio or outdoors depending on what was happening at the time. Dinners and gatherings were very fluid and common. There was barely a thing growing in te garden when I arrived...a lilly pilly tree and some palms. I planted front and back and in the 5 years I was there it grew to look quite prolific and lived in.

The house had been built as residence for the adjoining school room...Newcastle's first Girl's Finishing School my 93 yr old Neighbour told me. He recounted endless fascinating tales through the century that his family had owned the house opposite.

I adored painting all the rooms in the house over time in different palettes according to mood. The kitchen took ages for me to decide... And it was a good choice for a kitchen I came to feel...I used to love cooking there. The living room area had a palette of greys although I left the section under the dado rail white, then painted a livable warm grey in the mid section, then finished the top with a blend or stormy greys that changed as one's eyed moved around the room. I also wrote the first stanza of the most wondeful poem by Pablo Neruda 'poesia' just above the picture rail...why I did not photograph this i dont know... perjhaps clicking on the photo with the table might reveal this writing. 

When i think back to the studio productivity of this time i am amazed. I was working as a casual teacher...so there was a lot of variation in available time for the studio - mind you - I was burning the candle at both ends (cant do that any more - it took its toll!). Still, its pleasing to look back and remember the cohesiveness of the life I had in this home and studio...it was very much an inside/outside lifestyle and the garden was ever-present!

2 new projects

abstracted seedpod form...inspired by living in a relatively lush, green environment for a city ... with a diversity of sub-tropical plants and trees where rainfall has been abundant of late.

from a journal page

When I started  blogging back in May I didn't quite perceive just what I would need to learn to have a well functioning blog. Just now I have finally sorted out the facility to link properly as I write a post. No doubt some have been put off to  find this previously not working. Better late than never I say! Also I have to thank Paul from the totally fabulous BibliOddyssey who gave me some excellent advice this week.

So the blog is the first new project...the second project relates to an ongoing theme in my studio that is finding new life and purpose - the  focus on seeds and seedpods. 

I had been working with a seedpod motif, rather an abstracted form, for some years. It would appear in my paintings like a talisman from who knows where. Then I relocated to Brisbane and everywhere I walked there would be seedpods falling from the trees, some light, fragile and floating in the breeze. Others were almost hefty and you had to avoid being hit on the head as they thudded to the ground. I would pick up whichever pods were around as I walked and in a short space of time I was enraptured with these prolific symbols of the abundance of nature. 

A whole series of concepts and interests began weaving together around this seed theme... a passion for knowing about the food we eat, for good cooking traditions, reverence for farmers who's slog brings this produce to our table (especially those farmers who work extra hard at eco-friendly cultivation methods), the table as a location for true conversation, the crtical political implications of the fact it is said that 6 companies- Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont. Mitsui, Aventis and Dow- now control 98% of the world's seed sales. This figures I quoted from 'ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE- A year of food life' by Barbara Kingsolver. This book was a gift from a dear friend in Newcastle (Aust), Maureen Beckett who is very involved in the timely and valuable Transitions Towns project in Newcastle and the local Permaculture movement. Seed-saving is as crucial now as it ever was, yet for entirely different reasons in many cases.

Schools are sprouting kitchen garden programmes, people are flocking to plant at least a herb garden and where possible a vegetable patch. In Australia recently many were avid watchers of 'Around the world in 80 days', UK gardener Monty Don's wonderful show on gardens around the globe. Quite a few featured gardens were in some way motivated by critical ecological and political issues faced in different communities around the world.

Artist Paul Klee wrote of the seed in his formative Notebook Vol 2: The Nature Of Nature: "despite its primitive smallness, a seed is an energy centre charged to the highest degree". This notebook is an inspiration as I currently work towards unfolding a programme that can be applied in either community and school contexts that brings together the Visual with the realm of Seeds Forms- specifically referring to these larger concerns and values around the overlooked but extraordinary world of seeds. More on this topic at a later date.

  

                                                                

                                                                                                                    

Paul Klee: 'Monument in the fertile country', 1929

Alice Rawsthorn on Good Design

Click on the School of Life blog link on my blogs list  (theschooloflife.typepad.com) and you can read Alice Rawsthorn's Call to Arms for young designers where she states that there are 6.5 billion people on the planet, 90% of them cant afford basic products and services. Half, nearly 3 billion, dont have regular access to food, shelter or clean water. Yet whenever we read, or talk, about design its invariably about something that's intended to be sold to one of the privileged minorty- the richest 10%.

And so she writes ...and provokes us to think. She celebrates that so many young designers are addressing that need rather than automatically continuing to design products that will probably end up in landfill before long. I read somewhere the other ay that London's landfill would be all used up in 3 or 4 years time. No wonder aware young designers are thinking hard!

seedpod conversation dinner project

This is the front and back of the A4 sized card placed on the table for participants at the recently held trial night for a new project I am hoping to conduct here in brisbane. I have run similar events before, and over many years have made it a regular thing to bring people together who may not have met before for dinner at my table, where-ever I have been living at the time.

There have been numerous reasons for creating such a tradition...in part the fact I have relocated at times and wanted to foster new connections has been significant. But more than that, I think all of us have something to gain from being included in new conversations and the sharing of food and conviviality. Added to this is a deep love of shopping at markets, finding good produce and interesting tastes and exploring cuisines that celebrate seasonal produce.

As an artist many long solo hours have been dedicated to my studio and therefore the need to create occasions to enjoy with others is a priority. Cooking is a very creative endeavour in itself and with a social role. The cross-pollination that can occur at the table

also feeds wonderfully back into the studio...enriching the sense of connectedness to what is happening for others.

This is also a time for thinking hard about the future of food...not taking for granted thesource of our food and its ongoing availability and quality. Climate, water, soil, seeds are such critical political issues and these dinners will serve simultaneously as a celebration of food and focus on important related matters.

 The actual conversation menu has been in large part inspired by www.oxfordmuse.com, particularly the extraordinary thinker Theodore Zeldin who founded this philanthropic organisation in Oxford in the late 1990's. He has written extensively over his long academic career, in more recent years exploring the profound importance, as he sees it, of real conversation between people of all different backgrounds, life experiences and opportunities. Social justice underpins this work, as does a strong sense of what he believes is possible when there is an increase of cooperation and ideas and opportunities fostered by true and mutual human exchange. It is definitely a view worth considering...and this project is Sophie's attempt to find a local and convivial way to further explore the various ideas mentioned. One can spend a saturday evening at home watching The Bill or relaxing  (which is no doubt life-restoring at times ) ...but here is an idea that offers the creativity of good food, company, a rare opportunity for meeting at the table in a unique exchange...and who knows what new seeds will be planted!