Guided Tour
The pupils approached the artworks with open, inquisitive minds and with very interesting responses.
Alongside the beauty of St Mary’s church, Rhona Byrnes’ projection posed a good starting point, which Niall commented on, ‘the work visually shows you aspects of Swansea you weren’t aware of’.
Torsten Lauschmann’s, Piecework orchestra, opened up the subject of -What is art? Jessica saying, ‘all the art I knew about was drawing and painting’. She was inspired by Torsten’s work calling it ‘funky’, with Shane replying, ‘art is everywhere’.
Sara Rees’ Kairos was very well received, with a large cohort of pupils believing the work showed a comparison between classes.
Niamh McCann’s sculptural mural was viewed and generated varied opinions, some were on a political level, comparing capitalism with communism and with the ospreys representing freedom – (Nicky.) The graffiti being left exposed on the side of the work posing the question of identity.
The pupils responded well to the work of Milena at Swansea museum using political words such as ‘propaganda’ and ‘one sided interpretation’ when discussing the work We still do not know where will be the last cemetery.
We ended our tour with Rebecca Gould’s work in the Norwegian Church. Which seemed to challenge their conception of what the work was trying to say, and even after an explanation, the group were still questioning this piece of art.
The tour was very inspiring for the pupils and generated some strong ideas to work with back at their school environment.
Looking at Niamh McCann’s mural on the back of the Dylan Thomas Theatre
Looking at Sara Rees’s work in Swansea Marina
Artworks
The students were very much engaged with Sara Rees and Torsten Lauschmann and the results were outstanding creating a poverty-stricken hut from the future and a small mechanical orchestra.
It seemed that, due to the fact that the students had no restrictions for what they could create, the artwork produced seemed to fit all the criteria for good art, as it solemnly portrayed feelings and empathy for their chosen subject matter.
When asked the question – ‘Do you think what you produced is art?’ Everyone replied, ‘yes, definitely’.
‘We are able to create something that someone professional has done and I never thought it could be this good’ (Jemma).
‘I really enjoyed using materials that I wouldn’t normally use in school’ (Sean).
‘It was much better than drawing on paper’ (Terri-Ann).
‘It was really encouraging to make something like this yourself’ (Shane).
‘The art has shown us how other people may live’ (Jessica).
To view the Daniel James mechanical orchestra: Click here.
Building the poverty-stricken hut from the future
Painting the poverty-stricken hut from the future
Painting stencils onto the poverty-stricken hut from the future
Detail of the poverty-stricken hut from the future
The poverty-stricken hut from the future