Project Lab #3

In session 3 we started putting our ideas into action! time to get on with some making and organising. This ranged from recording conversations about race onto tape, Suzanne lacy style to making a 'Feminist Filing Cabinet' to 3d Cardboard redesign of the city to devising and writing fantasy travel journals to making placards about community! (and loads of others!

However... in the excitment of the session I didn't manage to take any photos. Just completely forgot. I'm Sorry! it was a good one too. I will make up for it with EXTRA good photos next week which will involve presenting the projects in a pop-up temporary gallery space!

The People's Museum Session #2

We started collating the information we had been collecting and the ideas we were researching. We explored what was important and WHY.

The People's Mueum Session #1.1

...soooo I made it here on the tube. Just! (thank you broken escalator)

We set about document and recording sites across the school. In small collectives the students selected their favourite locationshe school grounds and shared why these spaces were important to everyday life at Highbury Grove.

The spaces were:
-The benches by the basketball court for their quiet tranquility.
-An area behind the track by the windmill because it was the most scenic spot, and from there you could see everything!
-The duck pond (not because of the ducks!) but because it is a public space where students can interact with 'the outside world'

We made mixed media drawings and used 35mm slide film and 120 medium format to photograph these areas. We should have our pictures ready for next session. Here are a selection of some of the drawings:

 

 

 

 

Project Lab #2

Project Books!

Session 2 saw us constructing books to collate out research.  Using a variety of bits and bobs of paper and a range of binding and connecting techniques we made books to store ideas and information relating to each individual project. Each book was unique and students made decisions on the most appropriate way to represent their project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The People's Museum #1

Today sees the first session of  The People's Museum. This project will initially be managed by year 8 specialist school students. For the last two weeks they have been collecting objects and drawings documenting their day to day lives and their immediate environment for the first two exhibits US and HERE.

Now... Just need to get all this on the tube so we can start building!

The people's museum will launch at The Highbury Grove Community Festival on Saturday 7th June.

The Project Lab #1

Working with year 9 students as part of their specialist school programme we are creating 'The Project Lab' - a place for experimentation, collaboration and sharing.

During the first session we conducted research into 'active' artistic practice and the ideas behind the actions. There was one rule: they were not allowed to ask "yeah, but, what's this got to do with art?" until after half term!

The group had the choice to work individually or to create collectives and start to explore the ideas that are important them...

A list of the proposed ideas so far are...

• female identity in the social media age
• zines & vines
• dark and light spaces in the city
• textures and missed details
• randomness- everything's mixed up!
• race and sterotypes
• mapping, adventures & exploring

Getting started...

On 22nd April 2014 I started as Artist in Residence at Highbury Grove School, a project coordinated by Cubitt Education. And I was very excited!

I am interested in exploring the space where art is made, developed, seen and evaluated. Making and production in collaboration with the Highbury Grove community will prove to be an exciting and challenging exploration of contemporary art and exhibition construction, who and what it is for and why we insist on doing it!  I am interested in considering, and asking others to consider with me, the democratisation of art and what constitutes an artistic action or object. I like to construct situations or create props that function to bring into public view what is usually private or unacknowledged. In many of my previous projects I have worked in collaboration with other groups or individuals who operate outside of what is traditionally understood as an “art” practice. I'm ready! bring it on!

Through this blog I will document the residency and offer a space for sharing the information and discoveries we make as a community.