Meet the Artists: Emma Ainsley and John Phillips
Remembering Together: Orkney Islands have appointed their artist to co-create memorials with communities. Meet Emma Ainsley and John Phillips
Emma Ainsley (video, sound and performance artist) and John Phillips (musician and composer) have been working collaboratively to deliver co-creative projects into care and community settings since 2018. They take an improvisatory ‘jamming’ approach to working alongside people and are driven by a desire to explore and extend connection and communication beyond chat, through a shared creative space. Sessions are focused on sharing an in-the-moment creative experience, with ways for everyone to join in.
John Phillips and Emma Ainsley (image by Emma Ainsley)
Emma and John say: This project calls for a way to give everyone a voice in deciding what their memorial should be like. Our practice is all about co-creating with communities, creating comfortable, safe spaces where everyone’s voice is heard and valued. We take a jamming approach, using many different ways for people to interact – using music, words, poetry, drawing and dancing to have creative in-the-moment conversations, listening and responding to what’s happening in the space. We seek to make the jamming space highly inclusive and accessible, a space for jammers to take control of the flow, express themselves and share. We want to offer a place and an opportunity for people to come together to explore the thoughts, memories, ideas, feelings and experiences of living through the pandemic in Orkney.
We will deliver sessions throughout the islands, working closely with community groups and island trusts, with a focus on meeting with people in their places rather than expecting folk to come to us. We expect to work with smaller groups and individuals in response to the nature of smaller and dispersed communities. The jams will co-create sketches - as themes, threads, shared stories and experiences, and unexpected perspectives emerge.