students shelter from the rain

Year 10 GCSE Art & Design students draw from bunk beds to shelter from the rain

On 3rd December Year 10 GCSE Art & Design students visited Tate Modern, where they experienced Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s Turbine Hall installation; TH.2058 and explored the Idea and Objects and the Material Gestures Collections.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s Turbine Hall installation TH.2058 looks 50 years into the future, as inhabitants of London take shelter in the Turbine hall from never ending rain mixed with a collection of homage’s to artists who have exhibited in the past in the Turbine Hall.

The students wondered the installation, crawling under giant sculptures of flowers and spiders and climbing into bunk beds to draw what they could see! There was plenty discussion whether what they were experiencing, particularly the bunk beds, was art or not and whether it was important whether the artist made all the pieces themselves or employed assistants.

Next the students visited the two collections, paying particular attention to the works of Paul McCarthy, Sophie Calle, Martin Creed and Marlene Dumas. Many students found McCarthy’s work shocking and ‘rude’, Creed’s work clever but pretentious, Dumas’s work beautiful and Calle’s work fascinating. There were also comments made by students at the end of the trip that despite enjoying their visit, they preferred the Brit School’s Strand Visual Arts & Design Year 13 show, which was quite a compliment to Year 13, (well done!).

Gillian Wearing: The Aftermath

So, our task was to go out and convince the lovely inhabitants of selhurst to come and aid us with our project. Our project being the re-creation of the work of photographer Gillian Wearing. Armed with a camera, a large stack of paper and a marker pen, we headed towards the daunting prospects of talking to people that weren't from school (a nightmare, i know).
In retrospect, it went really well; we emulated the geurilla art aspect of Wearings work to a good degree, and I think this was what made it so good. The range of people we managed to drag in to participate is reflectd well in the answers we got e.g. ''SUZUKI GSXR 1100''...Perhaps standing outside Halfords for participants was not wise, a lot of the answers were vehicle based.
I think that Wearings use of composition, coupled with her subjects, creates impact through a single image. I would hope that we have given justice to the way in which she works, and now I know never to say the line...''Hello, I'm an art student, could I have a few minutes of your time.''

After Gillian Wearing.

In our lesson we decided to go down the road to a big road junction and do some art research in a similar style as a survey. We copied the style of Gillian Wearing's art by walking around (in and out of shops) asking people what was on their mind/what they were just thinking of and then getting them to write it down so we could take a picture of them with it.

First of all we decided how we could go round asking these questions without having people run away from us or just walk straight past. We thought the better way of getting peoples attention was to ask them if they could quickly write down what they were thinking on a white piece of paper for our art project. This got most people interested then after this we asked if we could take a picture of them holing up what they had written.

After this we set off down the road to see what was on peoples minds. Most people seemed open to having a go but didn't necessarily get the whole point and most just wrote down that they were cold or that they were thinking about getting home or would do something completely different like draw a little picture.

We found that men and people in shops were more open to doing this. I'm not too sure why this was, maybe women are more busy and have places to be on a Thursday around 4 o'clock or maybe men are just less scared of a group of teenagers.

Overall I thought it was a good exercise and we got some very interesting answers, I'm now thinking of ways I can incorporate this with my work.

After Gilian Wearing

As a group we explored Wearing’s techniques of live art by asking random people on the street what they were thinking and writing it down and then taking a photo of them.
The purpose of this experiment was to practically explore another form of live art. This type of live art engages with a wider audience and we could find out quite a lot from people by the answers they wrote down for us.
We approached different types of people to get a varied response: black, white, Asian, old, young. We approached people at bus stops, in shops and at garages to get a wide range of people. We did not approach people who seemed busy, stressed or had children with them because we did not want to draw too much attention to ourselves as this could distract others away from us.
I felt that the experiment was very successful and it proves that live art can connect or engage with everyone unlike something personal like a painting or a 2d or 3d object.

After Gillian Wearing

This activity was interesting and enjoyable we had the chance to work with the community and find out a bit more about the different people who live in the area. We tried to keep our question as open ended as possible and tried not to probe people to direct there answer in any direction. This was a good activity to start us of with getting used to working with the public. Often we judge people by how they look which makes us think they will respond in a certain way, this activity shows the opposite the people you think that would respond in a negative way where the most positive and enthusiastic. This enabled us to meet and talk to new people and find out a bit about there character.

This work was inspired by Gillian Wearing who uses this method within one of her live art projects, I found her photographs very compelling and they really inspired me to create some work with similar connotations. It would be interesting to pursue this social experiment further, using different ages groups and areas to see what sort of responses I get.

Gillian Wearing

We were given the task to go around Croydon, and ask people what they were thinking at that exact time, inspired by Gillian Wearing’s work. It was important to ask people that didn’t look that busy, so we were most likely to have a positive response. My group asked people of all different ages, both male and female, to get a varied response. Most of the people were happy to write down what they were thinking at that time; however one person was not happy with us taking a picture of them holding their response next to their chest.

Most of the people wrote quite obvious answers to begin with- that they were feeling cold, couldn’t wait to get home etc. So we decided to change the question slightly and ask them what was on their mind/ personal thoughts. This gave us more information as to who they were and what they were doing with their lives. One man wrote that he hated his job, another that he could wait to go and see his grandson.

I enjoyed this exercise because it gave me to opportunity to talk to people I wouldn’t normally, and find out what their thoughts were.

Tosin Year 13 BTEC National Art and Design

Gillian Wearing inspired.

We were set out to ask people we had never met, to write down an expression or a quote of some sort inspired by there initial thoughts or inspirations of the day, then take a picture of the person holding up their message. I found approaching people was hard at the beginning, as I was stuck on what to say, however it became easier towards the end. I felt the experience was successful we achieved a better knowledge and experience of live art and also interacted the live art experience to the public we met in Selhurst.
Our approach was friendly, firstly we asked if they would be interested in interacting in a live art project, adding that it wouldn’t take long if they decided to. If they were interested we encouraged them to write down a quote, a thought etc. We had a mix of reactions some people were interested in participating and others didn’t want to be bothered by us.
It was an interesting perspective of art. If I was to repeated this live art experience I would perhaps do it in an area that was more busy and had a larger range of people which I could ask.

after gillian wearing

Our task was to go to a public place and ask people what they were thinking and ask them to write it on a piece of paper so that we could take a picture of them with their thoughts. We also asked them for email addresses.We decided to go to Tescos in Selhurst as we assumed it would be a busy public piece. We started to ask random people making sure that we gave them the purpose of this exercise and also assured them it was strictly for educational purposes. We found that people were very anxious to participate and as soon as we mentioned taking a picture we found they were less inclined to do so. We tried different tactics of approaching people and found that if we mentioned the BRIT School earlier on in the conversation then we got a positive result.I found this research interesting as people seemed to use the excuse they were too busy. The task would have taken them three minutes and I could not believe that people couldn’t even give up that amount of time in their day. However 13 people did participate making it a very worthwhile task. by Luke Jonas Yr13 BTEC National art and design

After Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing is a mixture between live art and photography. One of her most well known pieces of work is Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say. This consists of a series of photographs, each showing a member of the public who Wearing had stopped on the street and got to spontaneously write something down on a piece of paper. Wearing then photographed the people holding the paper. Some of the results are a little surprising: a smart young man dressed in a business suit holds a sign which reads "I'm desperate", while a police officer has written the single word "Help!". In Wearing's words, "A great deal of my work is about questioning handed-down truths".
Wearing uses techniques of documentary and photography, film and television to frame the concerns, words and actions of ordinary people. As well as these pieces which concentrate on individuals, Wearing has made pieces that concentrate on groups of people. One, Sixty Minute Silence (1996) is a video of people dressed in police uniforms sitting as if for a group photograph for an hour. Their initial stillness eventually gives way to fidgeting. Her film Drunk (2000) is of four drunk men staggering around a studio.
In response to her work we went out in groups into Selhurst and spontaneously asked people to write down anything they felt like writing down. A lot of people we asked did not want to participate in the art experiment however those who did provided interesting responses. Some wrote what they were doing, others wrote how they were feeling, some political statements, while others wrote random words.

I found the responses interesting and amusing and were I to do this again in a different area I feel the responses would be different. I really enjoyed this piece of live art and enjoyed the play between live and actual art.

After Gilian wearing

It’s Thursday 27th November and we as a class have left the comfort of our school grounds and are on a pursuit to Whitehorse. This is in aid of what can only be described as a cross between performance art and a social experiment. "What are you thinking?" A question that echoed throughout every group to the public. Stationed along Whitehorse, my group including Tosin and Eloise, we were directed to ask individuals surrounding the petrol station what they were thinking.
In order to document the people and their responses, we asked them if they could write their thoughts down and hold it up as we photographed them. This is an experiment also conducted by the artist Gillian Wearing, who we were working in the style of.
I really enjoyed this experiment and had no queries with going up to people. I found it worked best to ask individuals if they had time to spare, why I was doing it and to blurt out the question, giving them no time to come up with a though-out response.
People were keen to interact and although we got less exciting answers like "I'm tired" or "I'm cold." We got equally interesting and random thoughts like "I like running for buses" and "Why are you so beautiful?" Proving when you address people politely and with respectfully they can always spare a minute

Biannca Nugent- Visual Arts and Design BTEC student

Inspired by Gillian Wearing

On a thursday afternoon we decided to conduct an artistic experiment. The artist Gillian Wearing was the inspiration for the project after she did the same piece. We copied her art on the streets and in the shops of Selhurst. We went out and asked people to write down what they were thinking before we approached them or a statement. It was a broad question which left some of the people wondering what they should write down. Then if they were willing we took a photo of them holding up what they had written. Most people who agreed to helping us out were willing to have their photo taken. It was only really the young girls that didn't want their face in the photo.
We found that men were the easiest to approach and most women didn't really want to participate. Middle-aged women were the least likely to say yes.
As time went on it seemed the question became more narrowed down. When we asked what people were thinking before we started talking to them people found it easier to answer as it was more specific. We even asked what people thought of before they went to bed. This seemed a bit too personal, and many could not recollect. It was easier to shake people's short-term memory. Generally people were very positive and interested by the idea.

Sophie McKay yr13 BTEC National Diploma

Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: afternoon lesson re-enacting Gillian Wearing's work, Thursday 27th November 2008

As part of Unit 59, Multi-Disciplinary work in Fine Art, students are developing approaches to Live Art exploring different methods of engaging with their audience, both on and off site. In Year 12 for Open evening November 2007, students undertook this work with the prospective students but we were keen to consider with them how the work would change out in the public domain in the schools locality at a junction including areas around shops such as Halfords, Staples, a barbers, bus stops, Tescos.

Posts which follow this entitled 'After Gillian Wearing' are the students recording of the experience.

Some background information:


Wearing’s work demonstrates a complex understanding of the alternately comic and tragic experiences of everyday life. She uses the techniques of documentary photography, film and television to frame the concerns, words and actions of ordinary people, often in everyday situations slightly and often subtly displaced in context. This repositioning creates an uneasy sense in the viewer - it forces us to question our preconceptions in face of the image Wearing presents to us. [Taken from British Council website ]


Thoughts we discussed prior to the re-enactments:

• Evaluating examples of Gillian Wearing's work
• Where? Who to ask, what to ask, how to frame the experience? Ask for email addresses?
• Watching the use of the site first, considering where to ask eg going into and/or out of the station? How does change of site affect responses?
• Short term public engagement, community, social, what are we learning?
• Spontaneous approach
• Strangers more honest than people you know?
• Passers by- transient community?
• Highlighting the human connection between us?

A-Block- the show! Comments welcome:)

see photos from our show here.

we'll be wrting more as staff about the hugely enjoyable show, but meanwhile, we'd love to have your comments and reflections on the event.

About A-Block: The programme

Visual Arts and Design OBIE showcase 2008: A-Block


Year 10 BTEC First Diploma Art and Design: The Built Environment
Using an exhibition at the Hayward gallery, Psycho Buildings and particularly the works of Rachel Whiteread as our inspiration students have produced their own sculptural houses. With the structure of their own home as a starting point they developed the pieces expressing how they felt about their house, family members and local community. The result is an eclectic mix of sculptures giving us a wonderful insight in to the minds and family life of our Year 10 strand!

Year 10 Option GCSE Art & Design: Post-it note installation
The Year 10 GCSE students have been exploring the theme Plants with Attitude working so far with 2D processes, drawing, collage and print-making. Throughout Art History artists have ascribed meaning to plants through a variety of media, means and conventions. For example plants have been given magical, medical, spiritual and romantic associations. Each student has selected and researched a specific plant twinned with a theme of interest, such as roses and love. For the OBIE students have produced a collection of narrative mono-prints revealing an often subverted story inspired by this research and presented on the everyday post-it-note as if to suggest these stories are everyday occurrences.

Year 11 BTEC First Diploma Art and Design: Self Portraits
The Year 11 students have been exploring the portrait. They have investigated the meaning of a portrait through history and understand meanings of symbolism and the link between colour and emotion. The students spend a great deal of time investigating the meaning behind their work and how they would make a portrait that represented them accurately. They explored devices and formal elements such as pose, expression, composition, mark making, paint application etc. This project will now evolve into an Alter Ego project, exploring themselves as a ‘celebrity’.

Year 11 Option GCSE Art and Design: Personal space, built environment.
The year 11 Option GCSE group have been looking at the theme ‘Built Environment’ since Term 5 last year. Using their visual enquiries as a start point they have been combining the spaces in which they inhabit when relaxing and when at work to create a purely ‘Personal Environment’. The group have had the freedom to choose the most appropriate media for the job taken from the range they have explored over the last year, the only restriction they have had for these pieces is that it must fit onto a 30 x 30cm tile.

Year 12 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: The Body
Our Yr 12 strand students have been exploring the theme of The Body in a wide and varied array of materials and techniques. Students have explored Photography, Sculpture, Textiles and Painting; they then developed their own take on the body specializing in one or two techniques.
The result is a wide and varied response to what at first appears to be a narrow subject. This being the first time we have allowed our students to be self directed early in their BTEC and it has given them invaluable experience in developing their organization, opinions and skills.

Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: Mixed Media Storybooks
The Year 13 students have been exploring mixed media image making in depth, using traditional and non traditional materials and techniques. They have looked at the use of mixed media imagery in art, design and illustration and selected the most appropriate effect to illustrate a story they devised themselves. The storybooks each comment on a social issue that the students find important. It was vital for them to communicate their message as clearly as possible through the making and presentation of their storybooks in order to fully reach their audience.


Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: Fashion Visualisation / Film Genres
Fashion visualization influenced by film genres. Students explored fashion illustration through mixed media to produce male or female clothing collections.

Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: alTURNERtive Painting Prize
The Year 13’s have been working towards these painted outcomes since Term 5 last year. The project started with a range of workshops based on contemporary and traditional painting practice and was in informed thematically by the ideas and concepts of the artists entered for this years Turner Prize. The students have since explored these themes visually through a broad experimentation with paint and developed these outcomes with a view to them being exhibited for an externally judged prize. These paintings will be judged by Art Professionals Laura Green (contemporary painter) and Deirdre Kelly (Deputy Director of Chisenhale Gallery) as well as being subject to a live public vote on the evening of the OBIE Show.
The project was inspired by the alTURNERtive prize at The Welling School.

AS Graphics: Graphic Illustrations
So far this year, the AS Graphic students have been exploring graphic illustration, using a range of materials and techniques, including photomontages, mixed media image making and computer generated collages. They have been working with the theme of Fairy Tales, investigating illustration through history and different cultures, as well as contemporary styles of illustration. Each student chose a scene from a fairy tale to illustrate, produce an individual response to the narrative and well as designing specific typography to accompany the image.

Year 11 BTEC First Diploma Art and Design and Yr 12/13 BTEC Diploma Art and Design:
Video and Animation Work
A collection of the lens based moving image work made by students over the last academic year. Work has been produced in response to a number of topics, year 11 work was for end of year celebrations, Year 12 was a response to their fashion illustration project, and year 13 work was for their final major project. The work showcases a wide variety of practical techniques ranging from stop- motion to live filming and including hand drawn roto-scoping and puppetry.

Wish Translator
Yr12 students invite you to share a wish (in the wish translator cabin) and will translate it to make it come true.

-------------------------------------------------------

More on the show to follow!

Preparing for A-Block show next Wednesday

The excitement is mounting! Things are really hectic getting ready for our big show next week- sourcing lampshades, writing the programme, buying the prizes for the alTURNERtive prize, organising our fab judges - artist Laura Green and Deputy Director of Chisenhale Gallery Dierdre Kelly, building our confessional style boxes for our Art translator....amongst many many other things. As we get out the rollers and into our painting overalls, many students are mucking in transforming the OBIE theatre into an art show alongside the fantastic technical theatre team who've built our gallery.

Here's a selection of the work in progress:

More images can be found on our flickr account here


Year 13 student Jake Roberts is combining graphic, painting and assemblage techniques for his entry for the alTURNERtive prize

Grainne Mears-Bullen (above)Year 13 is exploring memory and perception visually using contemporary oil painting techniques.

Helena Dillon (above) is exploring themes of mortality exploring traditional techniques in oils on paper for the alTURNERtive prize

Luke Jonas, Year 13 is exploring contemporary culture and issues of race in his piece for the alTURNERtive prize.

Year BTEC First ART and Design students are working on their built environment installation inspired by the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward earlier this year.

Rebecca Pillans is exploring issues of the body and age for her Year 12 BTEC National Diploma outcome for the show.

Crockery is arriving and becoming part of a big cafe-tea room installation that the Year 13s have organised. The audience will be having tea and cakes and reading their graphic novels.

With most of the painting of white walls and plinths unexpectedly completed today, Monday and Tuesday as a team of staff and students start early and finish late hanging the show....and in between get baking cakes too.

First up- our annual showcase!!

more to follow on this-work in progress photos and about the work in the show....

love to see you there!

Old news posts

some old news posts on 2007-8 shows from the main BRIT school news feed click here

december update for info: a couple of comments posted on this have been removed as they were meant for other posts