Artcrimes

I had a busy week and met some interesting people when I was down in London delivering my two courses for Lighthouse. The Setting up a GCSE Digital Photography course was packed out and very busy. Raising boy’s achievement in Art and Design was also well attended and the afternoon planning session gave delegates a genuine chance to share their ideas and their creativity in planning some schemes of work. The courses are popular and will run again next term, you can check dates and locations out on the website: just search for me on the tutor menu.
Lighthouse Professional Development

On Friday, I met up with Performance artist Sophie Lisa Beresford
link to Sophie
and we went to see the Performance piece that had been designed and planned by three year ten students on a GCSE Art and Design course. I have worked with the students since March and the class topic has been to look at Contemporary Art and then create a piece of work which has a message.

Three of the students have chosen to work as a collaborative group which, of course, led them to finding out how collaborative artists work together. For example,Tim Noble and Sue Webster, and the Chapman Brothers. The group became fascinated by Franko B the “live” artist and did lots of research including e-mail correspondence with him.
Franko B

They also found Gillian Wearing an interesting artist and liked her use of masks. Stefan Sagmeister also inspired them with the use of text and the human body in his work.

Their Performance piece was very conceptual, developing from an interpretation of music through colour and also touching on synesthesia in Art.
Synesthesia in Art

Using music relating to colour and preferences of the rest of their class (who took part in a survey), they developed a piece where one stood perfectly still in a white suit and mask whilst the other two responded to different types of music by selecting corresponding colours and then dripping and splashing these onto him. It was all beautifully choreographed and planned. The choice of music was inspired. Watching the layers of paint build up on the white suit and the background was like watching a stop frame animation.

After the event the group chatted with Sophie to explain their work, share their sketchbooks and get valuable feedback from her. She was very impressed.

They have decided to continue as a collaborative group for the rest of their GCSE course. GCSE Art courses now accept collaborative work, as long as the individual contributions of members of a group can be identified.

Franko B will also be getting more emails telling him about the performance.Perhaps we can get Franko into school some time!

I have found the whole project a real inspiration to me as a teacher/facilitator. The creativity of young people is extraordinary, and giving them the freedom to explore non conventional art forms brought out the very best in them. This group’s understanding of Performance Art is better than many adults that I have met. Their exploration of concept, process, mood, and meaning was original, inventive. It is just the beginning of something which will flourish.
Well done all of you.

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” Albert Einstein