Jacqueline Mabey: Failed Projects
Introduction
Jacqueline Mabey is my first interview in this series. I am indebted to Jacqueline’s wealth of knowledge and her generosity in sharing her thoughts and experiences. While writing this introduction I have interviewed nearly a dozen performance makers; I still return to this interview with delight. Jacqueline makes spaces that think about, reflects upon and attempts to alter the way we live our lives.
Jacqueline Mabey Failed Projects
What do you do? What is your position?
Jacqueline calls herself an “artworker.” She says, “I’m not an artist, I create context...I create spaces for art as discourse.” She views her work as, “an extension of art, not art itself.”
What does it mean to “create” a space?
Jacqueline's work is created around the existing space. She wants to create an environment to solicit openness, not competition and has teaching spaces within many of her exhibits. These courses,lectures and discussions are “collaborative [and]...conscious raising.” In the MOMA she co-organized a piece with three floors to facilitate different people's learning styles: the first floor was a library, the second floor was discussion spaces, the third floor was for eating and socializing.
When designing a space you need to be aware of what you want and how to facilitate this. For example, people aren’t going to speak for extended periods if they don't have somewhere to sit down.
What type of media do you use?
Jacqueline is interested in new media art and technology. Her work is more about performance and consciousness raising than physical objects.
How did you find collaborators?
When Jacqueline worked with a close friend it felt like they had been working together for a long time because, “we talk through ideas so often.” She often turns to her friends and network of peers for collaboration.
What content interests you within feminism?
Jacqueline is interested in feminism's relationship with art. She want to expand and challenge our “understanding of gender.” She believes in “liberatory politics” which means the lack of competition will result in better treatment for everyone. Jacqueline cautions that “art is not a means to an end… Art creates a speculative space that can change consciousness, then we go and change the world.”
What motivates you to keep working in this world?
“I don’t know what else to do...art has always been the most difficult thing.” Within art, “there aren’t really perimeters” and “nothing is as interesting...challenging...scary.” Jacqueline adds “I get bored easy.”
What lead you to create work like this from your past?
Jacqueline is excited by creating projects that “fail” that aren’t about perfection. She promotes the “banner of failure.” Jacqueline is also inspired by DIY music scene of youth and says art, “saved my life.”
Inspirations
Her inspirations include:
Her community and historical figures and groups like: Lucy Lippard, Lesbian Herstory Archive and 70s women action groups. She is inspired by the “politics for bodies in space and art” and motivated by a desire for direct action.
What is your Pedagogy?
Jacqueline explores how to shape conversations, how to work with teenagers. She credits a radical pedagogy with Alt.edu which gives courses online as well as Paulo Freire.
How do you develop ideas?
Jacqueline says that, “culture always comes from someplace.” She’s always reading a book on theory, fiction and news. She is always obsessed with something, ruminating on a lecture, critique or opinion. She also says deadlines really help work get done.
Is your work economically sustainable?
It can be difficult to get by, but I don’t like bosses.”
Is your work emotionally sustainable?
“I don’t want to imagine my life without it [art]...It’s the only thing that makes me happy because it’s hard.”
Do you get feedback for you work? How do you solicit feedback, from who?
Jacqueline speaks differently when speaking for herself than when speaking as a representative of a collaborative project like Art+Feminism She describes her straight forward talk as “gloves off hockey fighting.” However, Jacqueline cautions, “you can’t see your own mistakes.” You have to listen to criticism. You have to be “responsive and responsible to the community”
Tell me more about the project you are doing at Bennington
There will be objects, text and art, the work is really about people's interactions with the material and each other. Jacqueline wants to do workshops (modules) in: organizing bodies in space, feminist organizing, empathy and embodiment.
Tell me more about your project with Wikipedia
Jacqueline points out that the name really helped get people to participate. The idea was to get more women authors, especially because it is so contentious to be a women when writing something. She calls this an “open source project.” The Art+Feminism collaborative
created an organizer's kit and hundreds of events have been organized worldwide under the banner of Art+Feminism.
What would you do if you were part of a governing body?
Feminism is a lens, Jacqueline wants to look at other ways to organize the world. She wonders what freedom and equality could really look like as far as the structure of power is concerned. Jacqueline would change the education system in the United States to be funded in a model similar to Canada or the EU.”
Do you have any projects you view as impossible to implement in real life?
“The success of Art+Feminism was not something we could have predicted...[there are] two things in the title that nobody likes! But look at opportunities for what they are.” Jacqueline doesn’t think of things as impossible but “not yet possible.”
Do you have any advice for young artists/ feminists/ activists?
Jacqueline tries to provide mentorship and internships. She gives advice when asked for it, “I don’t have all the answers...I don’t feel like an adult.” Jacqueline tries to share her experiences, she thinks the sentiment around feminism is changing which “makes me hopeful.” Jacqueline hopes laws and institutions are just “slow to catch up.”
To see more visit the Failed Projects website by clicking the link.
