Friday at the Metal Workshop was very interesting. When I arrived I sat at the table, and began to converse with my fellow peers who were present. Then suddenly, in mid sentence, I became aware of a young boy named Zeven(sp?). He seemed very quiet, and slightly overwhelmed by the presence of so many people who weren't in his age bracket. As we began the workshop I tried my best to enjoy myself and create something out of metal but I couldn't help but return to the fact that the young boy was very disconnected. For the first half hour this troubled me and made me feel upset. After a talk with Julian, I regained my sense and decided I would take it upon myself to try to see this boy smile, because for me that was the real challenge... making him feel a part of something and engaged.
So, I came back from my walk and decided to befriend the young critter. Hahaha, I began to walk with him around BICAS. At first we just talked about Bikes. What kind of Bikes he liked? If he liked bikes at all? What were his pastimes? Then we entered the art gallery and began to wander. Some sense of wonder came into his eyes. Which was interesting to watch. He began to ask me what some of the art pieces were for... what their purposes were. It was interesting to see that how he reacted to the pieces, and to see what he found interesting. Then he saw the large crack in between te BICAS floor space and the BICAS art gallery. It is a large crevice, about 2 1/2 inches in width that seems to go on forever. He peered down into the abyss and asked, "What is this for?" I sat with him as he was transfixed. I teased, I don't know maybe they hide the boogeyman down there... it seems awfully lonely. He replied that he thought that maybe spiders and monsters were down there. As his voice trailed off and he stared, I realized how interesting this whole observation was. I asked him if he wanted to make a spider? Out of metal like the lizard which was next to the crack. He got up, agreed, and seemed very excited. So we returned to the workshop table with a new fervor, and a new purpose.
We began to collect pieces to contruct our metal spider. He was very animate on how the piece should look, and finding all the pieces he needed. As we worked, a new image came out of our piece. He decided, that the beginnings of a spider looked more like an image of a man climbing. We adorned him with a bowtie.
I won't go as far to say that staring into the abyss made Zeven(sp?) think about struggle, and the ultimate loneliness which is he human condition. Climbing out of the darkness, or into it. I won't even go as far to say that the abyss might have unearthed some childlike fear of the unknown. But it is possible. We may never know what truly made the boy create "the climbing human" as he called it. But I do know, that that walk was integral in making him feel truly a part of the program. I believe that he found purpose in this walk, his opinions, and he began to loosen up. Experiencing the space, he found that it as well as he had a purpose and a function. I know first hand that people hate feeling like their presence is unneeded or worse, just filler.
Overall, I think the workshop was a good learning experience. I didn't end up getting to weld anything, I got too involved with hanging out with Zevin, but, I did get to see him smile. Somehow, that became enough of a purpose for me.
Very cool. :)
-Shantaye McMorrow
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