Alexandra Brown’s Reflection of a Magical Women facilitated Collaboration to create more and new words whilst responding to another artist’s artwork in a shared space.

I see myself on the walls and throughout this land…. See for yourself. by Marisa Mack

Why did Magical Women approach me?

My initial engagement with Magical Women was somewhat ‘accidental’. Elinor mentored me during my time at university where I was studying at postgrad level. We lost contact and out of the blue, over 5 years later, Elinor accidentally messaged me, mistaking me for a current student.

I responded to her message, and we began to share what we had been up to since we last spoke.

In the process of this, I shared an article I had written last year called ‘Is Britain still racist?’. Elinor then told me about Magical Women and the work she is currently seeking to build upon with Neurodivergent women.

She asked if I would like to contribute and get involved and I was happy to. A few weeks later I sent her a prose I had written which I had not titled at the time, but is now referred to as ‘Pain’. The prose took on this name because it was written from a place of an anguishing pain, I have become all too familiar with. The evening I wrote the prose, I was given two options, I could cry about it or write about it.

Usually I opt for the former, but during this particular evening, I decided to do the latter. The feeling of relief and lightness I felt was incredibly therapeutic. Having shared it with a few close friends prior to sending it to Elinor, I knew I had created something worth sharing.

I then decided a few days later to send it to Elinor to see if it was good enough to be platformed on Magical Women.

How did Elinor initially respond to my prose?

Initially when I sent my prose to Elinor, whilst she liked it, she said she felt it was ‘incomplete’. As a way of adding to my prose she suggested a possible collaboration, which would involve an artist responding to my work. Confident within myself that I did not wish to add anymore to my prose and I excited at the prospect to work with an artist, I decided to work in collaboration with another artist.

The initial project with the collaborating artist

Elinor initially facilitated a meeting in which both the artist and I could meet, share our interpretations of each other’s work and come to an agreement about when to meet again.

The artist initially responded to my work with an art piece.

A few weeks later, both myself and the other artist went ahead with the collaboration without Magical Women’s holding of the space.

The meeting was immensely powerful and highly insightful. I was humbled to listen to the story of the artist and how my words touched upon both her and her family’s history. I will always look back and think of that time and space with fond and warm memories.

It was particularly powerful as, like me, the artist was a black woman. Despite our ethnic background and personal experiences being vastly different, our pain was the same. The realisation of this, ‘beautified’ our painful memories, allowed for introspective reflection and allowed for growth to emerge.

The process

Whilst I do not wish to share the contents of our conversation as it was both incredibly personal and intimate, whilst we discussed our work, and lives, she began to draw a piece which would act as an additional response to my prose. As she did this I responded in words to her art piece and conversation we were having. It was a multi-faceted project.

These were the words that I produced during the Collaboration

“I am burning with desire
for a place I can call my own

Where I can immerse myself
within the richness and fullness
of my very essence

A place where I can turn
nightmares into dreams

A place where the multitudes of worlds
in which I dwell can collide and its impact
is one of vibrancy, acceptance and wholeness

In this place I can turn water into wine

And love in my language

In this place, I am no longer consumed
by the pain that once devoured me”

I remember the feeling of peace I felt as I was writing this. Even now, as I recall that moment, the air feels lighter.

The importance of the collaboration

It was important that I worked with another black woman on this project, I think that when you share a very specific part of your identity with another person, time spent explaining who you are is better spent sharing who you are.

Though I was disappointed and somewhat saddened that the original collaboration is no longer going ahead, and the collaborator had to withdraw based on personal reasons, I am grateful for the space and discourse that it allowed. I am also grateful to Magical Women for the space and time it provided me to work through certain aspects of my life with another black woman.

My hope is that everyone who reads my words and sees the artistic responses will find their own narrative and voice in it, however small, however abstract. I used to believe that the truth was neither black nor white, rather it lay in the grey. But this collaboration taught me that sometimes the truth can sometimes be retold in many ways, through many mediums and through many people.

For this lesson, I am eternal grateful.

Curator’s Note: Please note, Marisa Mack was not the collaborating artist but has generously allowed us to use her art to accompany Alexandra Brown’s reflections.

Making Space for Reflections

The Power in the Shared Space // Alexandra Brown