The Art of Giving (production)

Friday night I attended The Art of Giving, a multi-disciplinary art production about - you guessed it - the art of giving. Film, music, song, dance, story, photography, ceramics, quilting, painting, drawing, cookies (real ones, not the computer kind), and now a website (Art of Giving)... it was all there, sixteen Yellowknife artists gathered by France Benoit to celebrate the ways in which Yellowknifers give.

In her introductory comments, France made a wise point about the difference between "random acts of kindness" and "regular acts of kindness," the former being nice, of course, but the second constituting the very fabric of a community that "works." Her project began a few years ago with a brief documentary about the weekly - Wednesday - footwashing program at the Salvation Army, here in town. You can view it via the Art of Giving website: click on the very first film box, the one showing the sock, to access "Hand to Toe" (Art of Giving). The film gained considerable traction in subsequent years, with national and international screenings. One of its beauties - also true for the other films - is that only hands and feet are shown, caring hands and appreciative feet, highlighting France's philosophy that the best giving is also relatively anonymous.

France also reiterated the point all the films make - when you give, you get given back. So it makes sense that if one gives regularly instead of sporadically, one will also receive regularly instead of sporadically. Something to mull over.

The films are little gems, each one of them, and it's hard to pick a favorite. I did particularly enjoy "Line it up" (top row, third one over) because it made me think of those exquisite TV ads celebrating what's special about Newfoundland, and reminded me of my many years of hanging washing on a line, outdoors. That film provides another perspective of "opus," a series of coherent works which coalesce into a complete whole and give life meaning. Who could imagine that clotheslines might provide the material for the creation of an opus! The (two) people in the film reflect the fact that there are many Newfoundlanders in Yellowknife, and that they put their stamp on the community!

Not included in the website, as far as I could see, was a collection of photographs illustrating giving by means of a detail of one activity - a choir friend's hands (I know only because she told me) addressing an envelope in her Amnesty International work, weathered hands holding a hose watering down a skating rink, that sort of thing. The exquisite beauty of the photographs was also in the touch of colour set against an otherwise black-and-white background, for example the light blue water coming out of the hose. A similar technique was used for the photos about the Avens Cottage, which cares for people suffering from dementia - find the pictures at the bottom of the smaller block on the right, in its own row ("You are my Sunshine").

The evening was a reminder that there are many good people in the world, and that a functioning community  depends on all these good people. One of them is certainly France Benoit, who put it all together and made most of the films (in addition to starting the Farmers Market here, and being a gardener extraordinaire). Thank you, France!