relations & aesthetics: from our bodies, to others, and to our environments

The “relational art” that I’m interested in is facilitating an environment that creates human relations which consider the whole of our being, including, how our bodies encounter and move along each other, how we voice and converse with each other, how we connect emotionally from these shared experiences. 

Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei once said in his interview: “The humanistic nature of relational art is very strong. There is a strong sense of ritual involved. This ritual is not a religious ceremony or a specific type of ritual. Each of us has our own special rituals when it comes to sleeping, eating, walking, or picking flowers etc. These are personal rituals that we develop ourselves—not something we need to learn, but rather something that naturally emerges from each of us from living life. Therefore, the audience would approach and find resonance with this type of relational artworks based on our shared fundamental human experiences, rather than via knowledge learnt from our culture, education or other means.”

To relate, in some way is to communicate. “relational art” then for me is about reading the verbal and behavioural cues from other people, the spatial and sensory cues from the physical space, at the same time, being aware of our own voice, bodily movements, and emotions, while crafting our responses as the exchange unfolds in every moment. The aesthetics of it lies in constantly doing so to provoke thoughts, emotions and connections amongst each other, and to maintain or intentionally create new relational order during the experience (within the rules and commitments that were clearly or subtly established beforehand.) Since cues from the physical space play an important part to provoking specific body behaviours, emotions, and interactions, curating these elements such as spatial e.g. the arrangement of objects, sensory e.g. lighting, textures, sounds, temperature, and interactive e.g. instructions, are also key components in creating “relational art”.

It is about: 

• the art in facilitation, asserting intentional responses to the present moments during the event, as well as the artistic treatments as preparation before the event
• the art in installation, curating the necessary elements in the space to induce relations and connections
• the art in breathing, understanding and responding to the rhythm and the dynamics happening during the event