Amanda Lovelee- amandalovelee.com
My work, mostly video and photography, is about the search for connections between people and the search for a utopic social structure where genuine connections thrive. My role ranges from artist to scientist to anthropologist, weaving data, stories and my own experiences to create non-linear narratives about the fragility of human connections and relationships. Through observation and documentation I collect evidence of a group’s identity and its individual’s idiosyncrasies. Some of my recent work explored family history, the lives of beekeepers, and a community of ice fishermen.
I believe that finding, preserving and constructing a space for physical connection is an urgent issue. As a society that faces the collapse of communities how do we continue to form visceral, face-to-face connections? This is why I have begun The Call and Answer Project, a project that will create a space for physical connection and an awareness of the need for such connections.
Wonderful work, Amanda! I would also like to invite you to come to Tapestry Folkdance Center in Minneapolis (http://www.tapestryfolkdance.org/), where community is alive and well and we hold hands with strangers all the time. We do international dancing on Friday nights, contra (and sometimes squares) on Saturday nights, and English Country dancing on Sundays, not to mention a wide variety of other dancing. Come hold OUR hands!