Make do and mend
Rod Oram on world cooperation
Are we so caught up in our own lives, so blinkered by our own information bubbles, so demoralised by the world’s complexity we are retreating into our own realities to help us cope?
If we are, then The Art of Participation, Lee Mingwei’s exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery, offers rich insight into how we relate to other people, particularly strangers, and how we build trust and understanding.
The world sorely needs such help. Societies are shattering, politics are polarising, economies are stagnating and truth is becoming evermore subjective.
Some consequences are Brexit, the poisonous US election, the rise of neo-nationalism, the tsunami of forced migration and escalating international tensions.
On these and other subjects it seems impossible for people to find common understanding of the issues, common purpose for solving them and common wealth from the benefits of doing so.
Given such conditions, many people look enviously at us.
Our politics are stable, our economy is growing and we seem to be creating a cohesive, multicultural society.
All that’s good. But global influences impinge on us too.
We have to learn how to navigate this fraught new world, we have to contribute solutions to the political, economic and environmental challenges. Here are three we must tackle: Inequality: Our economy is creating jobs but real wage increases are very modest. They will remain so while our productivity growth is among the weakest in the OECD.
Meanwhile, our wealth inequality is rising rapidly. The top 10 per cent of households hold half of total wealth; the bottom 40 per cent hold 3 per cent.
To create a wealthier, more equal society we have to solve myriad business, economic, educational, housing, health and other problems.
To do that, we need creative new policies and strategies, and longterm, society-wide commitment to them.
Immigration: Auckland is now the fourth most immigrant intensive city in the world. Some 40 per cent of its citizens were born abroad.
Of the cities ahead of us, Toronto and Vancouver show us how to create vibrant, harmonious and highly multicultural communities; Brussels shows us the hell-hole that happens when we don’t.
To a lesser extent, all of New Zealand has the same challenge. Above all, how do we build a multicultural society based on the Treaty of Waitangi?
Environment: This coming year, many people will have to come together to make some big, difficult decisions – on water quality in some of our biggest catchments; and on greenhouse gas emissions across the economy – if we are to start to restore the ecosystem on which our wealth depends. These are tasks for all of us. The Art of Participation can help. In it, Lee, a Taiwanese artist, has created eight projects to help people experience the richness of relating to others, details at nz2050.com/LeeParticipation.
One lets people write a longintended letter to a friend or relative. The ones sealed and addressed will be posted at the end of the exhibition.
The open, anonymous ones are left for others to read. Many are deeply moving apologies made and forgiveness sought for long held hurts.
Another, the Sleep Project was inspired by Lee’s overnight train journey as a teenager from Paris to Prague when his sleeping compartment companion told of his life as a Holocaust survivor.
Societies are shattering, politics are polarising, economies are stagnating and truth is becoming evermore subjective.
To experience what Lee calls this ‘‘extreme intimacy and trust when confronted with an unknown other,’’ pairs of strangers are sleeping overnight in the exhibition on occasions during its run.
I was recently one of a pair. The magic of the gallery at night and the conversation we shared were memorable.
With the Mending Project, people bring a cherished object for repair, and share stories about it with the repairer as the work is done.
Bright threads from spools on the wall to each item are creating a rich web of connections in the gallery as more and more items are made good.
This ‘‘commemorates the repair,’’ Lee writes.
‘‘Something good was done here, a gift was given, this fabric is better than before.’’
So, wishing you all the joy of participation in this most glorious of Kiwi seasons from Christmas to Waitangi Day.