Change and transition, for some, comes with a deep sense of unease. In these unsettled moments, the default behaviour for creatives is to turn to their hands and start compulsively creating as a way through. The making isn’t a hobby, or a way to pass time, it’s a near obsessive act of exploration as a means to find clarity of mind.  

Counsel is an annual, collaborative project, inviting womxn all over the world to share how they use making as an act of exploration and healing. The inaugural exhibition in 2019 invited visitors to explore the artifacts that come with this compulsion to create and design in times of uncertainty. The show explored the work of three women, at three distinct crossroads, and the habitual, ritual, meditative making - making with no purpose in mind, no audience, no explicit intention - that serves as a way of progressing through processing restlessness, anxiety, uncertainty, sadness and worry. As the show is about process, the work is both finished and unfinished, by design. Each piece marks a moment of progress and motion, even understanding and wonder. What can feel like “purposeless” making can turn out to be a journey through exploring our relationships with the ordinary, the routine, the ego, our identity, and our purpose. The things that get made become expressions of this process, loaded with the wayfinding needed to get us to where we need to be next.   

Contributors

Zahra Ebrahim

Jen Arron

Rhya Tamašauskas

Hailey Kuckein