Recent workshops at Secondary Schools

I've been doing a number of practice-led workshops in Secondary schools lately, including Knutsford Academy in Cheshire and Cowley International College, St Helens.  I thought I'd share a few pictures here.

Both schools wanted me to work with KS4 & KS5, although the sessions are equally suitable for younger age groups.  I started both sessions with a show and tell of my work, having brought original artworks, documentation, specialist materials and contextual reference books for them to handle and explore.  Students are able to ask questions about the work - it's production, the ideas behind it, and about the practicalities of working as an artist.

My practice is responsive to what I observe around me, so with Knutsford Academy we spent a while roaming the school, making observational drawings of small patterns and details that we would use in works later.  Following that, I've demonstrated a number of techniques, including using graphite powder, stencils, waxes, erasing, polishing and more.  Students created a study sheet exploring the materials, most of which are readily available in school, with more specialist items being provided by me.

The students of Knutsford Academy spent a whole day with me, so were able to really get their teeth into their work, with the afternoon providing time for them to explore creating an animated drawing using the techniques from the morning.

The graphite samples were mounted onto small panels and used to create an installation on the classroom wall, with other sample drawings being available to go into portfolios towards assessment.

 

In Cowley International College we looked at both my graphite works and my recent body of work featuring arrows and signage.  This day was structured differently as I met 5 different classes for 1 hour each.  The students were again able to handle original artworks, and spent some time looking at the works, determining how and why the artworks had been made before sharing their findings with the rest of the class.

A short practical activity rounded off the session, with students able to experiment with graphite powder and stencils or to 'draw' using my collection of custom made rubber stamps.  The teachers will now develop work within the Art and Design curriculum including contextual references to my practice and taking forward some of the techniques demonstrated.

Animating at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery

Saturday saw me working with 'Young Harris' the group of young people who meet at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery on a regular basis.  We did some experiments with animation using drawings.  We're planning to create a larger 'drawn' animation on the Harris Flights, which will be a temporary staircase entrance to the museum, at the end of the month, so watch this space.

Two Installations: "a remarkable architecture of stairs" and "Would you tell me, please..."

Previous works by Claire Weetman have studied the movement of people within micro environments: How do individuals navigate a single street or public square, what are the places of transition in public spaces and how can people’s movement be documented within those spaces? During 2012 Weetman spent seven weeks in two of the most populated cities in the world; Istanbul and Shanghai. Explorations of these two megalopolises raised questions about population and public space, considering a macro scale of population movement, growth, and urbanisation: How do public spaces shape population movement on micro and macro scales? How is population shift evidenced in changing public spaces?

These questions have shaped two installations, developed over days and nights spent exploring Shanghai, unable to read Chinese characters, following signage, becoming disoriented, exploring a new area, retracing routes. People-watching in busy urban parks. Ballroom dancing between badminton players and plane trees to Chinese tango melodies. Emerging from underground stations on escalators, getting lost ascending and descending one shopping-mall-filled skyscraper after another. Always on the move, always somewhere new, always exploring.

The methods used to collect material for Weetman’s new work reflect her active exploration inspired by the constant rhythm of the city. Photographs and video clips documenting her passage in the city were filmed quickly and discreetly, barely breaking step as she navigated the city.

Installation view: a remarkable architecture of stairs"

Shanghai’s population increased exponentially from 1979 to 2010. Surprisingly, for such rapid growth, per-capita living space has increased at pace with population. This ability to give more people more room within the same geographical area may seem an unlikely statistic, but it makes sense considering the development of the city landscape, from flat marshland to a vision of monumental skyscrapers in the space of 20 years.

Day to day, the physical experience of the city’s change from low rise to high rise life is the stairway. Linear stairs and escalators punctuate the bustle of the metro station, the pace of walkways on the street, and the calm of a 10-storey shopping mall. Henri Lefebvre refers to this in his text on “Rhythmanalysis” which discusses how “stairs rhythm the walk through the city, while at the same time serving as transition between different rhythms... their blatant monumentality imposes on the body and consciousness the requirement of passing from one rhythm to another rhythm, as yet unknown, to be discovered.”

Weetman was guided through the expansive city by a wide array of arrows, an internationally recognisable symbol, on ceilings, walls, and floors. As the skyscrapers are evidence of a changing public space due to population shifts, the increased use of arrows symbolise the increasing population. Without these arrows to direct the mass transit of people through Shanghai’s metro system it feels as though the heavily populated city might grind to a halt.

Installation view: "Would you tell me, please.."  Interactive digital projection.

Weetman collected photographs of arrows from across the city. In the act of collecting them, the arrows are transformed from a signifier to follow through the city into a marker that traces places the artist has been. Weetman presents this dual interpretation of the arrows in her digital interactive work ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ She asks her audience who is guiding who? Am I exploring this place of my own free will? Do I follow the arrows? Are the arrows following me? Or, are my actions being pushed in a certain direction by external forces?

Claire Weetman is an artist who, since 2009, has worked internationally on exchanges, residencies and exhibitions in cities including Linz, Schiedam, Istanbul and Shanghai. She studied Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University (2003), and in 2011 co-founded the artist-led studios and artist network Platform Art St Helens.

A selection of original photograms are available to purchase from the Bluecoat. This work has been made possible with a Re:View professional development bursary from a-n.

Claire Weetman presents two new installations at the Bluecoat

'A remarkable architecture of stairs'

and

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

at the Bluecoat
Friday 26 July - Sunday 15 September

Open daily 10am - 6pm. Free.

I'm presenting two new installations in the Vide at the Bluecoat: a multi-screen video installation and an interactive animated floor projection that recalls my experiences of disorientation in Shanghai in 2012.

 

A series of unique photograms will be on sale at Tickets & Information throughout the duration of the installation.

 
Artist Talk
Saturday 17 August 2pm - meet in the Vide
The Bluecoat. School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX

Portfolio NW
Featuring artists Rebecca Chesney, Tadhg Devlin, Dave Evans, 0point3recurring (David Henckel, Dan Wilkinson & Leon Hardman), Hannah Wooll, Kai-Oi Jay Yung, this exhibition runs concurrently with Claire's installations.