Collaborative art

I've been hearing a lot lately about this "Six String Nation" thing - a project where these two guys are working together to create a fully functional guitar made from quintessentially Canadian ingredients. Hearing them talk about it on CBC radio the other day made me really think about the project, and why I absolutely love the idea behind it. The man who is creafting the guitar (George Rizsanyi - he's made guitars for the Stones) is making it from a piece of Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle, the blade of Paul Henderson's hockey stick from the famous 1972 series, a plank from the deck of the Bluenose (yay, Nova Scotia!) and other miscellany from every province in the country. The guitar isn't a decorative art piece to represent the country, but it will function as an instrument. It's bringing people together and fostering lots of discussion about Canadian identity and art. There is also a dummy guitar called The Echo being built, which from my understanding will look the same as the 'real' one, but which is outfitted with heat and humidity monitors, a GPS system, and a bunch of other things. The idea behind this one is that it will start out with a Nova Scotian musician, he'll play it for a few days, then pass it along to someone else. The travels of the guitar can be tracked online, through the GPS system. What a cool idea!

Another art project I saw and loved at Harvest Gallery in Wolfville, NS intrigues me in a similar way. It's a large piece that is probably 6 feet long by 4 feet high. A still life of some fall vegetables was divided into a grid, and various artists were asked to reproduce a particular square of the grid in their particular medium. So the final product has sections done in silk screening, oils, weaving, and one was even fresh pumpkin! It's just seems right for art to be collaborative and represent the interconnectedness of people.