The Larks and Ravens

Yesterday, the Larks and Ravens visited The Royal Mint where UK money is made.

It left us with more questions than answers in our attempt to unravel value..

The “friendly entrance” to the Visitor Centre suggests someone’s keen to protect something valuable in here…

Then there’s a shop selling money. What is this £5 coin worth? … oh … £1980  if I buy it… but still only £5 if I spend it…

“However, please note that whilst the coins are legal tender, banks are not obliged to accept the coins” So, this is “legal tender” that banks (“I promise to pay the bearer” etc aren’t obliged to accept? Can I buy a pint at the pub with it? Would it taste different from a pint bought with a  normal £5?

Magpies being attracted to shiny objects is a myth but what about humans?  “The background surface or field areas of proof coins are highly-polished, shiny and mirror-like. In fact, when you stand back and look at a proof, you’ll see your reflection on its surface.”

Digital money might be more straightforward in value exchange terms- you can’t buy a debit card and £5 spent via a card is always £5….. well at least I think so…

But, at The Royal Mint, where making money is indeed making money, asking when coins might finally be phased out is greeted as a sacrilegious question…

When the marks on the wall have all gone, what marks remain?

We come away from the 6 weeks marked – marked by what we’ve drawn, by what others have drawn and the conversations and contributions exchanged.

Thank you Newport Market.

What’s next?

Six weeks

of

experimenting, inviting and receiving conversations, responses, working with and alongside strangers, creating a focus

then

what’s next?

“You will of course paint it over ”

“that one is cool, leave it”

energy came, went and came again as the white undercoat swept across three

weeks of attention and some exceptional moments of human connection, but leaving one small area framed is enough to show

value

from six weeks of exchanging energy and attention

So when does a pile of old shellac 78rpm records become rubbish/ lose value?

The records are heavy, not just to lift, carry or store but with histories, that is what a record is.

So are the marks left behind on the market walls, offered not just by us but by the people who come and question ‘what are you doing?’ or offer up their own energy and insights

exploring value

So today the three of us prepared a grid to enlarge an image of a £10 note.

For some reason after painting small red circles I became involved in Jane herself, my highlight was the exchange of looking with the delightful Sandy who works on the stall opposite our site and who plies us with cake and tea. But today it  was the gift of looking that absolutely took my breadth away. Rarely have I had the privilege of working so intensely with a comparative stranger.

It was inspirational.

What is the work? Who is it for?

Traders, workers in the market, visitors, regulars, customers, express curiosity about what three women are doing in the market space, focussed but without apparent sense every Monday. What do they see? Who are we in this? performers, facilitators, researches, traders?  What is the conversation between us (Larks and Ravens) and them? What meaning is made together?

They may see – 3 women occupying a market stall, cleaning, making good, making the time of day, approaching, receiving, exchanging? What is happening here? It is a question, it is a start of questions that begin a conversation

The 3 of us working together as Larks and Ravens have questions that are similar but different, perhaps they are driven from different places. What happens when you give attention, what do you value? What is money? An alternative currency? What is paying attention? My questions? How do you experience a stranger, how do you start a conversation, what motivates any action in the first place?

What has been exchanged so far? time, friendliness, curiosity, care, attention, offers of help, sharing of morsels of lives offered up, feelings, playing along, taking a risk, the willingness to not take oneself too seriously and the willingness to offer up something more serious.

It is difficult at this point to explain my presence here, to explain exactly what it is we are doing. It is quite raw to act out in a place where I can’t give those answers. I do know that the only way we might begin to understand the work and to really know what the question is, is to keep on doing and turning up. And slowly and by reliably returning it may become a conversation that belongs to this place. I hope that we give as much as I feel we take, the gestures of warmth come frequently and the offers of tea are really appreciated.

So what were we doing today in Newport Market?

Death ..denied…

Growth … applauded…

In the natural world, they are part of the same…