Art Gallery Takeover: Anselm Kiefer Museums at Night 2015

Mob Masterpiece!

I've been a bit quiet over here on my blog recently as I have a lot of projects on at the moment, all requiring my time and attention. I've missed keeping this up to date, it's an important part of how I document, reflect and evaluate the work I do. So, here's a brief post about one of the smaller (in terms of time!) projects I've been involved in recently.

A starting point

Tools

Materials

This was my third year being involved with Museums at Night at Tullie House. For the past two years I've run life drawing sessions, first fancy dress life drawing and last year steampunk life drawing but this year I was doing something a bit different; helping to create a mob masterpiece. The current exhibition is the excellent Artists Rooms: Anselm Kiefer show so all the activities were centred around and inspired by his works. There was a dance performance with specially written music in the gallery space and then different creative activities for people in the atrium and community room.

Getting started

Getting stuck in!

More colours

Mob Materpiece was based in the Community Room as we were able to be quite messy in there! Working on a huge canvas (over 2m x 3m) I encouraged people to come and help me create a Kiefer inspired Cumbrian landscape using paint and various collage materials. I started off by sketching out a very basic landscape as I have found that people are often reluctant to work on a totally blank canvas. The idea was that this was just a starting point, my intention being that over the course of the evening the piece would change and evolve into something unique, which it did. I did have to laugh to myself when one person said "why does it have to be so prescriptive, why can't people do what they want?" and I replied "they can, that's the idea" and handed them a brush on a stick.

Progressing

Progressing

Progressing

Partly because the canvas was so large, partly because it's an interesting challenge and partly because it helps people loosen up about painting we mostly worked with brushes taped to bamboo canes. This makes fine, detailed work quite difficult but does allow big, expressive marks to be made. I also took along some plant material I'd collected, which one guy used very effectively as a brush/mark making tool, and we also added in tissue paper, raffia, thread and glitter for extra texture as the piece progressed. We mostly used emulsion paint left over from various projects in the gallery which gave us an interesting palette that actually ended up working really well.

Adding some detail

Plant additions

Painting with plants

It was great seeing the piece develop over the evening as different people came and made their mark. Some people just made a few strokes, others got really involved, throwing, drizzling, splattering and using their hands to apply the paint. There was a really fun atmosphere and people were really willing to get stuck in which made the evening fly by! What I found really interesting was how the piece changed so many times during the course of the evening but we've still ended up with quite a landscape-esque piece of work.

Progressing

Progressing

Progressing

I really enjoyed running this activity, it was great getting loads of people, staff and visitors, involved and I think the finished piece is great. The energy that went into creating it is really reflected in the final piece. I love the different surfaces that have been created, it has a Kiefer/Pollock/Ayres/Mad people of Carlisle feel about it! The piece is currently on display in the community room at Tullie House so if you're in the area go check it out!

My boots at the end of the night!

An Installation: Anselm Kiefer Artists Rooms Project

Embossed patterns on metallic paper

One of the big projects I am working on at the moment is a project with James Rennie School and Beaumont College in Carlisle, both of whom support children and young people with disabilities. The project was commissioned by Tullie House in connection with their Anselm Kiefer exhibition which is supported by Artists Rooms and the project is being run by Prism Arts. The work we are making is in response to both the work of Kiefer and also the site of the old Roman Wall, which runs through the Tullie House gardens.

My samples using conductive thread and paint

My samples using conductive thread and paint

My samples using conductive thread and paint

I am working with another artist, Mark Newport, on the project who works with sound and technology. With our participants we are creating an interactive installation which examines themes such as war and occupation, landscape and mythology. One of the things we want to explore is how places and structures can change over time. For example, the wall can be seen as a symbol of occupation and all the suffering that can bring but now it is also seen as a cultural heritage site, people come to visit the site from all over and to walk it's path.

Drawings from our visit to the Kiefer exhibition at Tullie House

Drawings from our visit to the Kiefer exhibition at Tullie House

Drawings from our visit to the Kiefer exhibition at Tullie House

I am really excited to be working with Mark on this project as it is giving us an opportunity to explore some ideas we've been talking about for a few years now but never had the right project to work on them. We are almost halfway through the project now and starting to get a good idea of what the final installation will look and sound like. We are creating a series of fabric pieces which will hang in the trees above the line of the wall. These pieces will incorporate lights and sounds, created by the participants, which are activated by sensors in the fabric pieces. The sensors themselves will be pieces of copper foil, embossed by patterns created by the participants in response to Kiefer's work and Roman artefacts.

Collage work

Frottage experiments

Working into a collaged surface

One of the ways both Mark and I are working with the participants is to build up layers, just as the wall is buried under layers of history, we will be making layers of sound and fabric. I began by working with collage with the participants, encouraging them to layer up different textures and colours. We experimented with frottage (rubbings) and using tea to stain our papers and make them more interesting. We then moved on to looking at patterns, using the collages we'd already made as a base to work on. For inspiration for our patterns we looked at Roman artefacts and coins and different sound wave shapes. I'd been given some metallic paper so we started playing around working on the back to create embossed patterns on the front.

Using tea to prepare our papers

Using tea to prepare our papers

Using tea to prepare our papers

This led to the idea of working on copper foil, using this material would allow us to create the capacitive sensors we need to activate the lights and sounds and would also allow us to incorporate our patterns into the work through embossing. I'm just waiting for the copper foil to arrive so we can try it out!

Patterns on metallic paper

Pattern making using carbon paper

'Embossing' the metallic paper

This week we worked on string print blocks using the patterns we created last week. We will use these blocks to print up different pieces of fabric that we can then begin to layer together to create our final piece. It's exciting seeing the work start to come together, it's been quite a difficult project as the themes are quite heavy and the young people have sometimes struggled to work with these issues. However, the more 'making' we do the more they are able to express their ideas and thoughts.

Working on string print blocks

Working on string print blocks

Working on string print blocks