Guided Tour of Art Across The City 2012
The children from St Josephs were very focused and instantly seem quite perceptive in their comments. ‘Welcome to our shopping centre” said Caitlin referring to Fiona Curren’s work, “It looks like every colour in the world has been turned into wood and put it on a tree”. “It looks like an accident”, says Sam. Alex said is it a jumbled up rainbow with a hole in it. So yet again Fiona Curran’s “Accident looking for somewhere to happen got the mind set of the group to think differently and freely express their views on the Artwork.
The children also quickly unravelled David Blandy’s work asking if it was a game of a man and a devil mixed with guitar hero. Sam referred to it as an Art-cade. Caitlin said, “Is it the devils den”. It was explained that this work was a collaborative piece as the artist worked with a band and an Manga Artist, named Inko. This I find very important as the children will be working in groups within the school environment.
Instantly, when viewing Jock Mooney’s “Swansea Kebab”, a discussion occurred between Harry and Daniel ,“it’s a man”, “it’s a devil” “it’s a man”, this tete a tete, not reaching a conclusion. Caitlin thought that it made up a story of people going to the beach with their dog. Alfie thought the ice cream had measles.
It was explained that even though not on the tour there were other pieces of Art in the exhibition and everyone was given a map to navigate with their parents.
Onward to David Marchant’s ‘Cowin Lush’ neon works. Caitlin asked, “Is the girl dancing”. “She looks quite confused”, said Alfie referring to another. Alfie also commented on “did the artist get his inspiration from Picasso”. After explaining the work Daniel coolly said, “They must be nocturnal”. As the school were interested in Dylan Thomas it was explained that ‘Cowing Lush’ was situated outside the No Sign Bar where Dylan used to drink and his story The Followers giving reference to this bar as the “wine vaults”, himself and other pub users.
All of the children, as usual, enjoyed the playfulness of the ‘Shelters’ created by Tatham & O’Sullivan. They connected with the rainbow designs and also asked why the faces were upside down. The class made some beautiful drawings along the way in preparation for the workshop day.
The more recent work by Rik Bennett and Sean Puleston will be shown on a power point presentation in school as this may also be influential to their final work.
David Marchant 2012
