Field Trip # 8 with visual artist & mother Barbara Philipp (Austria)
In Search of Echo
With an echo the volume of the voice becomes stronger and resonates in space. During my art residency in Wald/ Switzerland I was mothered by the landscape in which I was pushed in. The daily walks and hiking paths offered me physical time for reflection. I was mothered by nature and people’s interest and reactions about my work. They echoed my path of research. My children let me go and grow. I was a mothered mother artist. It felt incredible good. Suppose that this would not be an exceptional situation, in which direction could our m/other voices develop? How can our m/other voices echo in society? How to proceed?
At the "Echo- walk", performed in the hills around the village, I invited a group of persons to go with me on a walk and gave them the possibility to meet (their) echo. When we reached the second spot of our walk, they were asked to reflect on their experience and to write it down on a piece of paper, which they then read to the others. This was followed by a discussion. At the last spot of our walk people entered into a dialogue with the thrown back words of an echo.
During the field trip of m/other voices I presented a drawing in which I visualize my travels there and back to my family, who remained in the city, forty minutes away by train. Via Skype my voice could travel and reach distant friends. Also these travels are visualized in strokes.
My identity as an artist and as a mother was empowered in these time and space distances and echoed on both sides.