As The AjA Project team unloaded square panels of wood, acrylic medium, tables and brushes from a parked SUV and began to set-up shop at the City Heights Farmers Market on a recent Saturday, curious passersby stopped to ask, “What are you guys doing?”
Josemar Gonzalez, The AjA Project’s graphic designer and story+LINES project contributor, described an 8-foot wooden satellite-like sculpture that AjA will construct to “project the community’s voices into the world.”
The sculpture will be the culminating piece in story+LINES, a multimedia exploration of identity, migration and freedom, story+LINES calls on the community to take part in the creative process and produce artworks that empower and speak true to their personal journeys, whether they span continents, state lines or city blocks. Their stories intersect in video and public art to weave a multimedia tapestry that captures the nuance and vibrancy of the community.
Photo transfer portraits will be used to construct a satellite-like sculpture. The piece will “project the community’s voices into the world.”
Story+LINES began with an all-day participatory event and exhibition in May 2013. It featured art exhibits, audience-generated art and public art installations. Drawing a crowd of 150, the event brought together diverse demographics and created opportunities for cross-dialog, multi-cultural expression and social discourse.
Participants recorded their personal journeys on film and made portraits of themselves using photos transferred to pieces of plywood. In total, the satellite structure requires 160 of the photo transfer panels.
The participatory workshops turned the observer into the artist, inviting the audience to take part in the creative process and produce artworks in multiple formats.
Calling on the community to take part in an artistic endeavor isn’t new for The AjA Project. Since 2000, AjA has taught participatory photography as a reflective arts-based tool to help participants document and analyze their personal and social environment.
Made possible by a generous grant from the James Irvine Foundation and conceived by world-renowned artist and founder of The AjA Project, Shinpei Takeda, the final story+LINES exhibit will be displayed somewhere in City Heights in early 2014.
But AjA Executive Director of the AjA Project, Sandra Ainslie, said that it’s not just about the final exhibit.
story+LINES calls on residents to record their stories about the journeys that brought them to their present place or self.
“The intention behind story+LINES is to engage the community in storytelling and participatory practice,” said Ainslie. “AjA’s mission is about teaching participatory photography to reflect, document, share experiences, and ultimately affect positive change within oneself and within the community.”
AjA’s workshops will go on the road this fall, with the next happening at FilAm Fest in National City from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Paradise Valley Road between Woodman and Gilmartin. AjA will be teaming up with Pacific Arts Movement’s Drive-By Cinema to hold a photo transfer and storytelling workshop using the inside of the truck as a photo booth.
For more information on the story+LINES project and upcoming workshops, visit www.speakcityheights.org/storylines or contact AjA Program and Artistic Coordinator Julia Richardson at julia@ajaproject.org.
