I love comments books. Garnering and gathering responses to the art work, for me, is an integral part of the work and becomes part of it. What it means to people, how it’s experienced. What people feel and think and say in the moment, written in a book is powerful and full of all the feels. We need to hear each others voices and make space for that to happen.

Here’s a wee sample of sharings from ‘TO AVOID FALLING APART’ the Travelling Gallery Exhibition I co-created with fellow artist Emmie McLuskey. The Gallery bus took a two month trip up and down the East Coast of Scotland to many diverse places and spaces, big and small.

The comments are positive (of course, what else would I share!), many reassurring – that what we hoped to achieve we did achieve –  insightful, and thought-provoking. There were a few that were negative of course, and that’s a fine thing. And there will be many more, positive and negative, that people have kept to themselves. There was lots of love for the ‘travelling bus’ too. Thanks for taking the time to write folks. To know what it means to you and what resonates means a lot:

Love the concept of the moving art gallery, very intimate, inspires trust

The world of images held me, softened me

Not what I expected but better than that

Connection!

Thank-you for introducing your Art Bus to us. Very interesting and unusual and cool

Very thoughtful puts a physical spin on a mental idea

Equilibrium!!!

Perhaps we hold each other in body spirit and mind – as without all three we can’t achieve true balance with each other

Very profound

Really nice to pause and reflect on such a different medium. It made me stop and realise what I’ve got. Thank-you

I liked the silence

I loved the idea and the trust of hands clasped

How do we hold each other up?

Great way to be open-minded and make people think

Very interesting, lovely people, great experience, out of the ordinary

I love the exploration of balance and how we support one another

Anything that gets us back into our bodies and moves us from colonial concepts of intelligence – pondering on the terms reciprocity and the holding of one another especially with regards to social justice – amazing and reflective

I loved demonstrating the movements to a wee lass and her mum. Getting moving again in a cosy space. Thank-you

Such a simple and elegant way of sharing a beautiful message

Want to try it

Workshop next time?

I agree. I wish to try this and create the trust and sensations

I think this is amazing art

I liked the moving art

Is there any other movements you could use in art?

It was calming and nice

It was quiet and the lighting felt like a break from lights and things outside

It was interesting as the videos had no sound and most do nowadays. I felt like I could understand what they were saying without it. Inspiring!

Would have been better with Cher!

It was interesting feeling my friends skeleton

Love the words and how they are displayed

I liked all of the facts and I enjoyed it a lot

I liked that we had room to look properly

I found it really fun and the videos and quotes quite helpful

It was very dark and I liked it

A very calm moment in a very busy day

I loved the artists talk – movement in this way wasn’t something I’d ever thought about – not to ignore and hide the natural way. This exhibition felt very healing thank-you

Love the concept and as an autistic person it really speaks to me, and the use of space is delightfully accessible. I will consider this exhibition for a very long time

The poetry is captivating

Absolutely loved the poem and the framing used in the shots – altogether a really emotive exhibit. I’ll be thinking about that poem for a while

Stay creating and hold onto each other