Repeat After Me

Chapter 52

Pigmentation was teaching me how to do paper cuts in the studio. She'd draw on large sheets of paper and I'd cut around the lines with a scalpel knife to create wheat pastes for the exhibition walls. It was slow work because I had to be careful not to tear the paper.

At noon, we broke for lunch. Pigmentation said, 'The sun is out today. Why don't we eat outside? It would be nice to get some fresh air.'

She opened the studio door and we sat on the step and ate our lunch. Passersby stared at us, sitting by the pavement like this, eating sandwiches with cups of tea beside our feet.

'I love feeling the sun on my face,' Pigmentation said. 'Sometimes I think I'm solar powered.'

This warm sun was even more appreciated on a still winter day, like a dear old friend one hasn't seen for a long time.

'I've been thinking,' Pigmentation said, 'after you've finished school, you should come to Manila with me. I want to assemble a team to do a larger project. I need people I can trust, people with as much heart as guts. It's not pleasant sometimes. You have to take a shit in the strangest places.'

'I think I'd be all right,' I said.

'I've got this idea to install art tarps over the shanties on Manila Bay. People live in makeshift huts built on stilts over the water. The art tarps will hang over the shacks on the bay, like a floating gallery – something for people to look at and to make them smile, just for a moment.

'And I want to work with the charcoal-picking communities to create charcoal drawings. I want those communities to lead the projects, we'd just be a support team. I'm going to try and get some funding from philanthropists, there's a few foundations I've heard of. There's a lot of work to do writing grant applications and stuff. They're pure torture, but it's the only way to get money. This is where my work is heading. Like it's fun creating art, doing commissions and having exhibitions, but what does it all mean?'

It was a big question and one I felt too naïve to answer.

'I'm not going to go on about some monkey shit about art as therapy, we've all heard that. All I think is art can give us hope. Even if it's for one second, it can take us away from the drudgery.'

I blinked at the pavement. I was in the presence of greatness. She was selfless and kind. She had vision. She didn't just talk, she does. She's a superwoman and her superpower is art.

'I'd like to do whatever I can,' I said. 'I'm in awe of what you're doing. I'd love to be a part of it, in any way possible.'

'I'd hoped you'd say that,' Pigmentation said. 'I need people like you. Of course, this is all hypothisising at the moment. First they need to allow international travel again. And who knows when that will be?'