News: London Schools Project 2016

I am once again very fortunate to be invited to develop, lead and realize this years autumn schools project in the east end of London, working with the same three schools I have for the last 4 years. The work of these 4 years has been a result of the vision and belief in the value of the arts and creativity in education displayed and passionately driven forward by the Leadership team at Newport primary school, Prue Barnes-Kemp, Lisa McIntyre and Ashley Walker. They have created an opportunity for those so often with few chances to develop a creative identity, a platform on which to discover new skills and bring a voice to the often silent imaginations of so many young people. The 240 odd children I will work with, will again this year explore creatively the UN convention on the rights of the child, seeking to understand what such a convention means to them and their life and why it is important. The subject is in many ways so large as to leave you struggling to comprehend. To help the young people find a route into such a grand theme, the project will approach the subject from the basis of asking what does 'home' mean to you and how is it important. A concept of 'home' and that of a safe place or environment, in some form or other, underpins as much as one third of the articles in the convention. The nature of 'protection' will aswell feed into the creative process. 

My initial ideas can be gleaned from these first few papers tackling the project in my sketchbook. 

News: film of Project360 installation 2015

News: The final installation

The installation was installed in the relative small space of the Marmelo Kitchen (169 Francis Rd, London E10 6NT), who had kindly offered to stage the final exhibition of the project. It was to make for an intimate location, in some way fittingly so, as the viewers found themselves in the act of viewing the work having to consider the 'views of others'. And many others there were too, as the crowd proved so large as to pour out into the street and take possession of the pavement. 

News: Project 360 - Final installation

The installation itself was based on the same basis of that of the projects work, in that it too was to work in the 360 - viewed from all sides. The 360 spin portraits were positioned on the 'outer ring' of the installation, each projecting an article from the UN convention on the rights of a child, presented in 'Flickbook film viewers'. Whilst at the core of the work, becoming the background to the spin portraits, reflected and explored the 'background' of the conventions articles. 

Installation: Project360. 23. November. 2015

Installation: Project360. 23. November. 2015

Installation: Project360. 23. November. 2015

Installation: Project360. 23. November. 2015

Installation: Project360. 23. November. 2015

Installation: Project360. 23. November. 2015

News: Talking without words.

Can you write a poem without words? Can you say what it is without naming it? Can you express yourself, both fact and feeling, in only images? Do you speak a visual language? This is the challenge that each pupil had to confront in every aspect of the project 360. In the third workshop each looked to ways to describe various articles from the UN convention on the rights of a child, not to purely record something but to project the very nature of an article, to photograph an ideal - a hope and promise.

                                     

News: Visual Language

Pupils were to go through the process of understanding and implementing a manner of creating images which recognized the 'image frame', composition, foreground and background, symbolism, the art of telling a story and trying to create images which have ideas. This learning curve start with the simple task of creating a drawn portrait - one though which uses the whole available space and considers it as an expression rather then a clinical record. Plus it's always fun to see how much you can achieve in just 60 seconds!

60 second portraits

News: Being close and far in the same moment

It has always been a key point for me to instill the idea that a image and how we read it, is the sum of many parts. An image can ask more questions than it answers and the opportunity and possibility of abstraction should be seen as a launchpad not a blind alley. So with the third workshop session I look to the children to explore the possibility through more abstract motifs the projection of ideas and consequences of what it is to have and not have various articles from the UN charter. They used the limitations of the camera to enhance the ideas using the foreground and background to great effect.