During the autumn of last year I was working with two secondary schools in Halton as part of the Inspired Responses programme. Inspired Responses is a mini artist residency programme where an artist visits a secondary school, sharing their practice and passing on the skills that they use, before the teacher develops work with the students during the term. The artist returns at the end of the programme to advise on presentation of the work in an exhibition at the Brindley Gallery.
The exhibition is currently showing at The Brindley until 22 February 2014.
With the Heath School we looked at the jet-washed drawings that I have been making recently. We went on a walk around the school photographing and drawing signs, and the students felt as though all of the signs in school were negative, telling them not to do something, or not to go somewhere. So working with their teacher Mrs Wade they have designed signs that are positive actions that can be carried out in school. They developed these designs by cutting stencils from paper and experimented with layouts by painting them onto banners.
The students designs have been turned into digital files that can be cut out on the school’s laser cutting machine. Using a sturdy plastic we have created stencils which have been jet washed onto both the school playground and onto pavements around the Brindley. Here’s a video of the designs being installed:
The after-school club at the Grange looked at a selection of my works about movement and chose the ‘One Minute’ drawings on paper to be inspired by.
These works are about how people move around spaces as viewed from the top floor of a building.
The new building that houses the Grange school is sleek and modern, with curving balconies and staircases where pupils pass through, much like the places in my ‘One minute’ drawings.
We took a walk through the building, taking photographs and videos to record the movement and the shapes of the architecture. Using pencil, graphite sticks, graphite powder and stencils cut from paper the students experimented with making marks, photographing their drawings at a number of stages to create a selection of short animations. Learning from these initial experiments, each student has created their own graphite drawing inspired by moving through the school, taking the ideas and techniques that I’ve shown them and making the work their own. I’m really pleased to see such an interesting range of techniques in their works – I might borrow some of their ideas for my future works.
Inspired Responses 9
The Brindley
High Street
Runcorn
WA7 1BG
18 January – 22 February 2014
The Gallery is open: Mon – Fri 10am – 5.30pm, Sat 10am – 3pm
Closed Sundays & Bank Holidays
