Working with Jo Dunlop, a fellow 1st Year Fine Art Student and fellow ex-Year Zero colleague we worked together to set up a collaborative piece of the back of a Drawing Workshop, as part of our 1st Year experience. Jo had the original idea, which we discussed and then she took on and got the ball rolling on the basis I did the crit when everyone brought back their worked on pieces.
We decided on starting with a 5metre x 1.5metre piece of Fabiano that was fixed up on the landing outside our studio (PS1). A sign up sheet was produced with 13 people actually participating, a very pleasing response considering everyone's existing commitments and the short turn-around time. People could draw, paint, make marks however they pleased but not in oil as we need to divide up the finished piece and re-distribute at the end of the day.
There was no brief. Just draw. As soon as the initial mark was made everyone soon pitched in. Oil pastels, charcoal, graphite, gesso, acrylic, chalk, tape, clay... Seeing everyone engaged was particularly pleasing. The riotous side of things was kept in good order and the paper soon became covered. Reactions to other participant's marks was pretty much the order of the day.
In an hour and a half it was pretty much covered. A total of about 20 hours of creative work. Some delicate and small creations, larger pieces and additions as well as a selection of quite bold statements, some overwriting, some working with the lines, blocks and areas created. The finished piece was very pleasing to view. It took up a large space and had appeared very rapidly.
There was very little, if any figurative work on the final piece. No brief had been given, no direction, no topic so it was interesting to see the final piece where everyone had worked together, even though everyone operated as individuals. The final piece could be considered a piece on its own. But that wasn't what we had planned.
Some of the detail was fascinating in itself. Cropped down there was very interesting areas. Areas that could be explored as inspiration for future iteration. Or just as images in their own right. The borders between different people people's marks and works completely broken down. Where does one piece start and another end.
Time to divide for part 2.
The second part of the whole project was to divide the large piece up and give everyone a section to take away and work on, bring back after the weekend and display the developed work. We did consider whether everyone could choose an area or whether we just equally divided the work up and allocated a piece to everyone. In the end we divided it into x14 pieces and let everyone select their section. One piece was left. Abandoned. It was the only piece that had already had a piece cut out of it. This became 'displayed' where it was left, on the floor of PS1.
Before the afternoon was out pieces were already being returned and hung. We didn't want this to be massively curated but more a short display of how everyone had interpreted their section. The results were great to see, very diverse, very creative not only in their development but also in the way they were displayed. A fascinating exercise that everyone engaged with. Really good feedback and clearly an exercise that was enjoyable and rewarding. Jo and I discussed how we could do something similar but perhaps with a brief, or a hidden brief to see what sort of results might come from that.
Curation and thank you time.
The engagement of the whole project was probably one of the most pleasing elements. The amount of people who signed up. How everyone was very active in creating the big piece. The variety of ways the divided pieces were developed and how much everyone enjoyed the whole process. Everyone seemed to get a really positive outcome.
After thanking everyone for their involvement and expressing our gratitude to everyone for the their engagement it was great to hear the comments come back from all those who had not only got involved in the first place but also taken a piece away, redeveloped it over a weekend, displayed it and stayed on into the evening to see all the pieces displayed and discuss the process and outcome. Thank you Jo for instigating and offering me the job of co-conspirator.
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