During the First lockdown Alinah Azedeh was
co-commissioned by Craftspace and
Midlands Arts Centre for our forthcoming national touring exhibition ‘We Are
Commoners’ to produce Craft in Common, five workshop films “themed to relate to
a human value or experience such as; courage, care, connection, loss and
emotional repair” . The first film
Medals Making Medals for Everyday Courage was the basis for a small project to
stimulate intergenerational conversations in the LGBTQ+ community that I was
asked to lead. The concept was very
simple; help people within this community make medals that celebrate their, or
someone they know, courage, and whilst making them talk in groups about
themselves and their life experience. Alinah Azadeh describes it as “It’s courageous
to: try new things, reach out for
support, feel and share difficult feelings, be strong for others, tell truth to
those who you love, find joy in small things and to keep focusing on what you
love and have rather than what is lacking.”
I don’t usually run with someone else’s ideas; if I am
doing a workshop then I devise it.
However, Medals for Everyday Courage is such a beautifully complete
concept and it seemed a logical step on from my #patchoflove project from the
Second lockdown. If truth be told I am jealous that I didn’t think it up in the
first place! ‘But the whole idea about Commoning is that practice is open
source and collaborative; you don’t own the concept or work but pass it on for
others to use.
Its been a joy to do.
I thought about the kind of courageous characteristics I might want to
celebrate and it rapidly became personal and it was particular events or people
that I wanted to make the medals for; sleeping under canvas as an act of
protection in lockdown; days in inadequate PPE or days and days in the full
blue astronaut gear; getting out of bed in the morning when everything, and I
mean everything is going against you.
The Public workshop was lovely, in spite of the charming
traffic warden who gave me a ticket for leaving my car for 2 minutes whilst I
went to get the gate opened outside the LGBT Centre. Although there were only 8 of us making
because of social distancing measures in the room. We had great conversations and some beautiful
medals made. They ranged from medals for
a 5-year-old daughter to medals for exploring gender identity
So here are some
pictures
