And so 30 minutes of Hand Holding every day for 2012 begins. Jess Thorpe was the first wonderful individual to join me in my new found daily practice. I’m really excited to see where this takes me, the people and activities I will encounter.
30 minutes for 30 years
Lou Brodie 
Hi. I like the idea of your project. I looked at your photos and I am wandering how important it was to capture the hands holding on camera? I am wandering if it was possible to capture more the differences of hands and also the different ways of holding hands? Most of the images show white hands and what looks to be relatively young hands. And I like the idea of approaching strangers and different people and holding hands…which is what I think you were hoping to do. Am I right? Do you have any other visual record of your project besides the photos in this blog?
Hi Andjelija
Thanks so much for your comment. You pose some interesting questions. I’ll try to answer a few here but if you feel like meeting I’m in Toronto until Wednesday. When I first started the project I had no artistic agenda I simply wanted to commit myself to a personal daily action. Taking a photograph of the 2 hands together offers me a way of remembering. I’m more interested in the social practice of the work and so perhaps was not discerning enough when it came to the capturing of the images. However honestly I quite like their haphazard nature.
You are absolutely correct to point out that the majority of hands are white – Glasgow where I am based has no where near the diversity you have in Toronto but it is perhaps also reflective of those that cross my path. The age range of those I have held hands with goes from 4 year old to 70. My initial idea grew out of a celebration of the people in my life, of taking stock of my social circle and what it meant to ask them for intimacy that was not romantic – meeting strangers and expanding to different people came a little later. I started the project before I understood it and I am still learning what it means to attempt this action everyday. Coming to new cities like Toronto and crossing paths with people like yourself make it all the more richer.
I don’t have another visual record of my project because my brain doesn’t work like that, my practice is in creating performance so I have made a performance of it which shifts in response to were I am at in the year. This will no doubt become a tool for reflection in 2013 when I have some distance from what I have undertaken.
Would love to hear more from you if you have any other thoughts – or get in touch if you’d like to meet up.
Lou