The BREAD project – a partnership with Ovalhouse and Stockwell Good Neighbours had a false start, as we had to cancel the original date and reschedule.
My memory of a really good holiday is peppered with moments of having to do yet another email round with my Project Manager, Sabrina, in order to try to reorganize two participant groups, a venue and four artists. It was absolutely crazy in one way, but I also remember this sense that everyone wanted to make it work, so there was a wave of goodwill urging us forwards. The new project shape meant that less people could do it, and that we didn’t get to try put a project which is intended to be a kind of intensive – four days of baking on the trot. But of course that doesn’t mean that it fails. This kind of work is always responsive, responding to people and places and events, and I think that one of the big questions for participatory artists is what you hang onto for dear life and what you let go of. The new shape brought a new pattern; people’s slightly different availability actually revealed new possibilities, and we discovered that baking together really is a process in which you make and reflect and make and discuss and make and then consume! So we all want to do it again…….
IN PRAISE OF BREAD
written by participants to welcome the bread as it came out of the oven
Here you are –
Lovely to look at,
Tickling my taste buds
Tasted
Made by us
And you’ve made it thus far.
And now
We are ready to
Consume you
We mixed you, squeezed you, we kneaded you
And now
We are here to welcome you in our midst
Oh Bread
We thank you
Appearing hot, golden, with that fresh bread smell
Ready to eat
