Jennifer Nelson

USA

In conjunction with the ev+a exhibition theme of generosity, I begin with an assumption: war, poverty and intolerance are at odds with any description of generosity. Further, our economic models, acted out as they are in relation to one another on a global scale, and without a binding, international social principle, aggravate economic inequality and are at odds with generosity. I call for the promotion and proliferation of generous acts. But how do we begin?

PSYCHIC DISOBEDIENCE AND ESOTERIC ACTS,
OR THE SECRET PRACTICE OF ALTERNATE SOCIAL PARADIGMS

The term disobedience, coming after a first qualifier, links it to its more common use – civil disobedience. But the inward nature of a psychic or esoteric investigation may appear selfdefeating to actual social change. Actions hidden from public view or deeply riddled with irony and self-doubt seem ill-equipped to confront the worldwide social inequality, blatant expressions of religious and racial intolerance, suppression of civil liberties, and the turn to violence as a solution.

Psychic disobedience is a kind of secret school where the keepers of an approach can guard and share information in a society which, if it knew of its presence, would destroy it. The widespread destruction of generosity is surely unintentional, the result of our attention being directed to other things considered more immediate – a self-fulfilling definition of what is considered pragmatic and ‘real’.

In this antagonistic framework, generosity can first be practiced as a form of mental resistance to a dominant frame of values – a secret personal practice of generous thoughts. Here, in our minds, we speak back to an ignorant or cruel system or authority. We ask questions, express rage, and fantasise about different actions and approaches. These thoughts are physical acts. A synapse is fired in part of the brain; it travels; it mobilises the endocrine system. Enough of such thoughts alter our relation to our bodies and the movements that emerge from them. I call this psychic disobedience because a secret resistance engages both our mental cognition and our emotive cognition. It has

(Text: give(a)way catalogue, 2006)