no money

[Rajni Shah]

I did a show the other week, in an outdoor place, it's the one called give what you can, take what you need. We sit around a big dining table, and give people a pound in an envelope and ask them to use it as inspiration to buy or find or make something and bring it to the table. One girl brought the pound back and said she was going to buy something then she just couldn't stop thinking about how much a pound would mean to so many other people in the world and therefore how misguided the project was, wasting money, encouraging consumerism instead of facilitating change. It was interesting to me. In a way, I'd much rather do the piece without pounds, encouraging people to bring something to the table and meet other people. But that way we'd exclude those who felt they had nothing to offer and reach far fewer people. It's been puzzling me, how you do away with all the objects and find a way to the sentiment of change or opening that you wish to explore. I suppose that made me think about the show in Charleston and the gifts that were left over. Because all we were trying to do was create a flow of energy through the gallery, people giving and taking and walking and talking. But somehow all the gallery was trying to do, through the history of galleries and the air in that place, was keep everything precious and removed, to retain the objects. My ideal show would have nothing left at the end. A gallery empty of objects but full of people, and no money having changed hands at all.

[Rajni Shah]

Yes it's interesting how tied up we are in 'getting something in return'. Though in fact this is what people were invited to do at the gallery, take a gift and leave something for a stranger. And what is interesting is also that we feel what we leave in return has to be a product, something tangible, because this is what we are taught has meaning. I guess that when I give something to someone on the street, in some way I do hope they will give something in return, not to me but to someone else at some point, or that they'll give me the time of day to receive my gift and engage in what I am doing, the questions I'm asking. Even just getting people to think about giving and letting go is something that I think people find quite challenging. It was interesting in the cafe because the gifts were not directly from people working there - they were merely serving the gifts as an offering - and yet you say they were uncomfortable doing this... I think we could all do with being a bit better at both giving and receiving, and try and recognise the strictures within which we all operate on a daily basis.

[Gwylene Gallimard & Jean-Marie Mauclet]

The Following are notes from Observers: "Shannon Douglas: participated in your workshop. She compared it to Christmas and felt so strange about giving gifts without receiving something in return. It raised questions in her mind about gift giving. Feels if she had received a gift, she would not accept it because she had nothing to give back...
Latonnya Wallace was giving gifts at the café, she was uncomfortable and chose not to know what the outcome could be.
Brent Lacy participated with gift giving. On opening day he was part of the group that gave $1 to strangers. He was nervous about giving the gifts, it is not something you do in everyday life. He had a range of responses. Some people were extremely happy that someone had talked to them, resulted in small talk but some meetings were extremely awkward, no eye contact, trying to ignore the situation. Very surprised that within a two-block area there was such a range of people. When asked about the point of this project, he would give his interpretation and the artist’s perspective. But he didn’t want the receiver of the gift to make the association of receiving a $ and having to check out the exhibit."

[Gwylene Gallimard & Jean-Marie Mauclet]

In Charleston, the sign said "This is our Gift Exchange". Actually the lack of exchange in the gift giving at the cafe or at the opening seems to have puzzled a lot of people, since there was no real exchange. It puzzled the person giving and the person receiving. Doubts about oneself and the other. Fear on both sides.