Holding On
A response to the Phaistos Project, as seen here.
The Phaistos Project takes inspiration from the Phaistos Disc, a circular slab of clay dating back to around 1700 BC with 45 distinct symnbols. The project ‘translates current concerns — political, economic, ecological, cultural, or social challenges — into collections of forty-five unique symbols.’
Our hands are an extension of our thinking mind, they are how we interact with our environment. Through touching, we create and we connect. However, after the onset of COVID-19, almost overnight, physical contact became minimal. These forty-five symbols interrogate what motivated the local community of Falmouth, Cornwall, during a time of uncertainty by capturing the impact of this global event on individuals. Each visual is a translation of marks left by the project’s participants’ gripping onto clay slabs when provoked to think about what kept them going during the pandemic.