Guided Tour
Smiles appeared on all of the faces of the pupils from Daniel James School, whilst they viewed Richard Higletts ‘Song for Jack’ DVD, at the National Waterfront Museum. In three words ‘they loved it’. Sophie commented, ‘it’s such a different type of art to what we normally see, its great’. The work spoke for itself and ideas started flowing straight away about how they could create works of art inspired by this performance.
On the way to Jennie Savage’s installation, we walked along the beach posing the question: What does the sea means to us?. Kirsty said, ‘it makes me forget all of my problems’ and Jade said, ‘it makes me dream about a dream place’.
This put us in good stead for Jennie’s installation.
While viewing the work, the pupils became quite philosophical. ‘People could come here to think about life in general’ said Kirsty. ‘It’s a good place to clear your mind, its serene’, Josh commented and ‘Imagine you saw this at sunset with beautiful colours reflecting off the water’ said Jade.
Claire the art teacher said, ‘its such a great experience for them. They never get to see this type of work first hand and this tour is a totally new experience for them. It really does open their horizons about art’.
I am really looking forward to my school visit as the pupils seemed to be buzzing with inspiration.
Watching Richard Higlett’s ‘Canine Choir’ film at the National Waterfront Museum
Looking at Richard Higlett’s display about the ‘Canine Choir’ at the National Waterfront Museum
Artworks 2008
What an extremely productive two days were to be had at Daniel James Community School. On arrival the children were prepared for work, and I mean work, the class as a whole produced up to ten mini concept projects as a response to the Locws 08 tour.
This was a ‘hands- on’ group, who very much enjoyed the making of the product, without missing out on a good understanding of conceptual art.
The class were engaged in their projects, not without facing hurdles to problem solve along the way. ‘It was a real challenge on how to make Homeboy stand up’ says Lewis. ‘The models were interesting to build’ says Jade.
A flavour of some of these projects were:
‘Jack is back’, a singing sculpture with built in mouth speaker and recorded cd by Keiran and Scott.
‘A Song on a Pier by Jack’ made by Amy,
Sophie and Holly mixing two and three dimensional painting with sculpture.
Zoe and Bethan made ‘Dog recording studios’ x three. These were models of different recording studios for dogs with fine attention to detail. ‘A funky fun thing to do’, said Zoe.
It was great to work with enthused children who weren’t scared of hard work.
Claire Middleton the Head of Art comments: ‘The experience of working with Locws has been fantastic. It has broadened their horizons and blown them away. Looking at and having the opportunity to work with working Welsh Artists has been amazing and has really enriched their artwork as well as being a positive experience. Pupils have been inspired to use their work as a starting point for a whole unit of work. The work pupils have done is going to reach their immediate community, brothers and sisters in the school. ‘Previous work done with David Marchant has inspired current pupils also, as it is on exhibition in Swansea Museum. Response from parents has been extremely positive which is having a positive effect on younger pupils’.
Claire Middleton
Head of Art
Daniel James Community School
‘A Song on a Pier by Jack’
One of the three dog recording studios
‘Window on a Window’
‘Home-boy’
Technical work making a cd
Making one of the dogs
The making of ‘Jack’
‘J For Jack’