Lets Take a Journey!

Today I spent a very creative day at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth and took part in two workshops. AM & PM

Theme of the day, A JOURNEY (although I did feel like I was in therapy most of the time)

We began by putting pencil to paper and without the pencil leaving the paper we had to draw what we were thinking/feeling anything went as long as we drew one continuous line. Sounds easy but apart from getting cramp in my hand I also felt very vulnerable. So lets take a look.

The squiggle at the bottom of the page represents me (a little erratic at the moment) the bars represent the feeling of being trapped and what is a long road to feeling free and in a good place. However when I got to the end of the road I began to daydream with softer lines and images of wings/flight(my goals).

Deep stuff hey and that was just the introduction . Phew ! and swiftly moving on.

We were then taken into the Pilkinton Room and asked to record what we saw and it was pointed out after this exercise that as predicted (by our guide/artist Matt) we sat down and set up camp concentrating on one piece of art. So once again we were taught to expand our thinking by considering the space we were in and taking a journey by  walking around the room at an extremely slow pace recording in our sketchbooks.

Pilkinton Room

The outcome was really interesting as I looked at the space I was in & art work very differently from the 1st time round. I concentrated on the room as a space in the form of lines representing the steps, frames & tape and then the spaces in the artwork which were translated as shapes in my sketch book. See below.

                               

The  film 1395 Days Without Red by Sejla Kameric & Anri Sala was next. This shows a woman walking through Sniper Alley in Sarajevo. The woman played by the actress Maribel Verdu relives the the experience of the trauma of the siege. It was her individual journey.

This led to us following someone stealth mode without them knowing & logging down a detailed account of their actions around the gallery. Introducing Alex (AKA the fringe  or bangs if your from the USA).

11.37am swept fringe (bangs) away from face.

11.38am swept fringe away from face

11.39 am swept fringe away from face and flicked through a file.

11.40 am leaves table to view art on wall and once again sweeps fringe away from face.

11.41am returns to original seat at table and sweeps fringe twice. Begins to flick through file.

11.42am draws in sketch pad and sweeps fringe one last time.

When gathered back to the main room we revealed what our mission had been and read out our detailed accounts to the second half of the group. Apart from all feeling very conscious about the way we carry ourselves and our nervous behaviour it made me think about my journey to work and how I probably miss so much in an effort to get to where I'm going. Always rushing and never taking in my surroundings.

Last exercise of the morning was to come up with an idea for a journey around the art gallery.

For example I came up with the concept of only going into the rooms where people with nice shoes lead me. I then had to exchange my idea with another member of the group and I was only allowed to walk into the rooms where I naturally stepped on my left foot next. This route was recorded via tracing paper over a map of the gallery. see below.

I traced my route on tracing paper

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This was the result and I really liked the shape and line so on the journey home I turned it into a repeated print which I am hoping to use at some point on a garment. I'm thinking embroidery or print on a garment.

I wasn't as keen on the afternoons activities as we had to create a figure from the artwork then use the shapes from this to design on the floor using various materials. Apart from bruised knees from working on the floor and a lack of air con time was running short and this exercise felt rushed and unfulfilled as personally I would much rather work on a smaller scale, however I have posted photos below to give you an idea of the afternoons activities.

So that's me completely analysed and creatively thinking outside the box again. x