Instruction Chloë Bass
Walk to inspire
Following dramatic social events, Chloë Bass kept snapshots and diary entries. In her artwork, she connects this personal memorabilia with the official announcement. For COME CLOSER the artist wrote an instruction for the public.
A Telescope
Begin by walking. The direction of your walk does not matter. The point of your walk is to give space between yourself, and something you’re looking to learn more about through distance. Walk until the rhythm of walking has entered your body unconsciously – until you are no longer focused on the fact of your walking.
Focus on a single sensation in your body, for example: the wind on the back of your neck, or the light crossing the skin on your hands. How does that sensation carry language?
Raise your eyes to the world around you. Does anything appear suddenly very beautiful? Is anything suddenly very shocking? Is there something there that you’ve never noticed before?
If there are any other people nearby, consider them. What are they doing? How do they appear to be feeling? Are these actions and observed emotions familiar to you, or are they alienating? Where is your place among these people?
Perhaps all of these immediate considerations have reminded you of something else in your life: a current event (personal or political), a task related to home or work life, a celebration, or a form of mourning. (These are only examples.) Consider the link between what is there with you in the moment, and what is there with you only by association, or memory.
Keep walking. Walk until you feel finished. Throughout the walk, or at its end, put these ideas together in writing, in photographs, in sketches, or in a combination of all three. See where the distance took you. Discover which ideas, once far-away, collapsed together to become something new.
Repeat as necessary.