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Workshops For Young People in 2009
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School Workshops
A series of workshops take place both on and off-site for students from four Westminster, Camden and Islington schools. This year each school will focus on sculpture, with the work students make being exhibited in Deutsche Bank Education Space on the Thursday and Friday of Frieze Art Fair. Check out the blog for further information.
During For Removing, Against Predictions, students work with sculptor Melissa Jordan to explore the image in sculpture. Drawing on her own process, Melissa will introduce them to making collages from movie stills and transforming these into sculptures with plaster, fabric and food dye.
Sculptor Nicolas Deshayes leads Everyday Sculptures, introducing students to the Readymade and its role in 20th century sculpture. Through using this concept and experimenting with everyday materials, students will make an alternative proposal for the Sculpture Park at Frieze Art Fair.
Melissa Jordan
Tell us about your background.
After growing up in Cambridge I moved to London to do art Foundation at Chelsea and stayed there for my BA in Sculpture. Following some time out making work I returned to college for my MA in Sculpture (Royal College of Art).
I’ve had two shows in the Peckham Car Park during the summer since graduating and have group shows planned for autumn/new year in London, Cambridge and Berlin.
The future is filled with making work, showing work, living in London and artist residencies.
Why did you become an artist?
From a young age I was driven by a strong desire to be an artist, nothing else appealed or even got a look in. I never considered another path.
I am happiest to be titled 'artist' as it encompasses the variety of work I now make and can make. When asked by a stranger I typically answer 'artist' and if they enquire further explain that it includes predominantly sculpture, collage, etc.
Describe your workshop with Haverstock and Pimlico schools.
The workshop plans to initiate the creation of sculptures from collages. The main focus of the workshop is transformation in reference to bodies and Mannerism with hints of film noir and absurdity. These themes are combined through image and distortion in collage and sculpture. I endeavour to open the eyes of young people to a more free idea of making/including image in sculpture.
What has your experience been working with young people?
I knew working with the students would open up some of the most basic and crucial questions about my own practice and also prove to be great fun.
The students are bright and open to the new challenges and processes. They engage well with each other and mini crits proved how quickly they pick up art language and understood their own intentions and grappled with other’s ideas.
The students get to meet a young emerging artist which is something I didn't experience myself at that age. I think this gives them a more real idea of what is it plan and make your own work without the idea of someone else's brief/plan.
What have you wanted to get out of the experience?
I know throughout the workshop I will be constantly questioning my own practice and I'm sure the students will also be questioning me. I am looking forward to addressing the crucial decisions I make, that often silent and considered less frequently. It’s a great chance to simultaneously learn and teach.
Nicolas Deshayes
Tell us about your background.
I was born in France but have lived in the UK since 1992. I studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.
Why I became an artist.
Initially it seemed like a way that I could express myself more freely at school and make decisions that were not a result of someone telling me what to do.
I liked the fact that there were no right or wrong answers.
Describe your workshop with Highbury Grove and Grey Coat Hospital schools.
The aim of the workshop was to respond to the context of Frieze Art Fair by asking students to come up with hypothetical proposals for the Frieze Sculpture Park that were, in some capacity, related to the everyday.
Students were introduced to the 'Readymade’ and were subsequently given a selection of already existing objects from which to create their sculptures.
In session one we experimented with pre-selected small objects and vegetables by making a number of quick five minute sculptures. Session two was spent developing final ideas, producing the sculptures and pitching proposals to a panel (the rest of the class). Having identified the winning sculptures, session three takes place at the fair where students will curate and install the successful sculptures alongside documentation of the other proposals as well as tour the fair and Sculpture Park and respond critically to the work on show.
What has your experience been working with young people?
I wanted to demystify the process of working three-dimensionally and particularly to encourage the students to consider how objects around them have connotations that can be taken for granted until they are recontextualised.
I wanted to lead a workshop that I could have found influential at that age; that would have accustomed me to think critically about contemporary art that I might see in galleries or museums, but also how this language might help me to see the world in a different way.
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Weekend Workshops
The weekend public programme consists of free, drop-in sessions. Designed for children between the ages of five and twelve, the workshops aim to encourage an imaginative and fun interpretation of the fair.
Animators Ryan Edquist and Martin Earle lead Transform! a workshop inspired by Frieze Projects artist Stephanie Syjuco's process. Children take part in a bootleg film studio whilst making moving images and optical illusions sourced from Agnes Varda films.
In Constructed Space, animator Anne Harild takes Frieze Projects artist Monika Sosnowska's work as a starting point, encouraging children to explore stop-motion animation while building a big, site-specific 3-D construction in a collaborative group.
Ryan Edquist and Martin Earle
Who we are.
Martin grew up in London. When he was eleven, He bought a 8mm camera at a bargain price of £10. After producing two animated mini-epics he sold the camera at a profit and used the proceeds to pursue a career in rock and roll. Seven years later, he discovered animation again on a foundation in art and design course and sold his guitar.
Ryan was born in a dusty corner of California's San Joaquin Valley, where he grew and played, and thought seriously about things. He earned a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 and an MA in Animation from the Royal College of Art in 2009. He works as an artist and educator, collaborating on artists' films, documentaries, and interdisciplinary art works, while leading animation workshops at the primary, secondary, and university levels, in California, London, and India.
Why are we artists?
If you see something remarkable, when you experience joy, or you are moved by a discovery, when you want to hold a mountain, or you just can't shake this thought that's been dogging you, what do you do? You make art.
Our workshop.
If you think filmmaking is costly, complicated, back-breaking business....then you're doing it all wrong! Before the lights and the camera, there was action....and some stiff paper. Inspired by Stephanie Sjuyco's hand-crafted facsimiles, we'll work in groups to recreate the films of Agnes Varda using old fashioned optical parlor tricks, such as flipbooks and thaumatropes (remember the bird in the cage?). No need to plug in, don't dare dim the lights, these puppies will fit in your pocket and play in the park. By the end of it our fledgling filmmakers will have produced their own low-budget adaptations of the renowned filmmaker's ouvre, and learned what makes those pictures in the magic box dance!
Why we want to work with young people.
We feel our work is very closely related to the games played we played as children - building worlds, telling stories, giving ordinary objects fantastic properties, relishing the simple and astonishing in life. Any opportunity to invent and play is worth seizing! Working with young people restores our sense of perspective and empathy. In order to guide we have to remember where we started, and in remembering we have helped ourselves as much as any student. It's an important investment, paying back into the culture the sort of opportunity and encouragement that, if you didn't have when you were young, you would have wanted.
Anne Harild
Who I am.
I create film and image, working with the mediums of sculpture and animation and often combining the two. I was born in Denmark but have lived in London for several years, completing my MA at the Royal College of Art in 2008. I love to collaborate with other artists, designers and musicians and recently created work with local musicians and artists in West Africa.
Why I became an artist.
I have always enjoyed drawing and making things; perhaps I became an artist because I was curious about the systems, materials, textures, shapes, structures and sound that make up the environments where we live. I enjoy processes of making, building and constructing objects. This practice requires a lot of personal time working alone which is one of the reasons why collaboration is so important to me.
My workshop.
We are going to explore stop motion animation through the processes of drawing and constructing, and the ideas behind creating site-specific sculptural work. Essentially, we are going to construct a building or structure that grows from reeds, twigs, sticks and card, while we record the process. This will result in a short film or animation that explores this procedure.
We will work together in groups while we build, this creating a continuously developing environment as each group becomes the next; in a sense, the groups will collaborate with each other as the structure develops and changes and one is influenced by what has been made previously. The workshop will evolve over the course of the day as we continue to build onto the structure, adding to the animation.
My aim for the workshop.
The aims of the workshop are for the participants to become familiar with fundamental techniques of animation and methods of construction as well as ideas of site-specific sculpture and temporary installations. Hopefully, this will inspire them to find personal ways of developing their own ideas and methods.
We will learn about animation through building and constructing and explore the use of different materials.
I also think it is very important for the participants to experience how to collaborate and the importance of working well together throughout the process. When a workshop is at it’s best, it can highlight areas of one’s own practice and open up ways of reflecting in new ways.
Why I want to work with young people.
I want to work with young people because I enjoy sharing my ideas and work and because they often have different and imaginative ways of looking at the world.
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Frieze Education Archive
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Workshops For Young People in 2008
School Workshops
A series of workshops took place both on and off-site for students from four Westminster, Camden and Islington schools. In Project Space students collaborated with curator Louise O'Hare to get a direct experience of being curators and realising an exhibition. During The Lives (of the Most Excellent Artists) students worked with visual artist, Lucy Pawlak, using documentary film, to discover the working methods and the role of the artist, encouraging them to understand how artists create their identity within the art world.
Workshops For Young People
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Project Space with Louise O’Hare and South Camden and Highbury
Grove Schools
Louise O’Hare
I graduated in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton,
and then worked for Damien Hirst for three years, before starting
to work more exclusively for George Polke. George Polke is currently
running a project space at 3.5 Frederick Terrace. 3.5 Frederick
Terrace is a converted snooker hall in Hackney, East London. I also
work with DOMOBAAL, another gallery in London, and I’m just starting
the MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art.
George Polke www.georgepolke.co.uk
Why I became a curator
I was obsessed with negative space during my art degree, I suppose
it led to an interest in placing objects.
My workshop
Students will come to the George Polke space where I will introduce
them to some ideas about curating: the desire for spectacle; the
purpose of art events, projects, and fairs; what a curator is and
some practical concerns about exhibition making. Each group will
then meet two emerging artists and discuss their work in person
with them. They will curate an exhibition of each artists' work
at Frieze Art Fair on Friday 17th October. Each exhibition will
be up for a brief interlude during the day, underlining the temporary
and event-led nature of art fairs. South Camden School will curate
the exhibitions of Rachel Shannon and the collaborative project,
These Horses, while Highbury Grove School will curate the exhibitions
of David Blandy and Kaoru Tsunoda.
David Blandy www.davidblandy.co.uk
Kaoru Tsunoda www.kaorutsunoda.com
These Horses www.thesehorses.com
Rachel Shannon www.gonetomorrowgallery.co.uk/RACHELSHANNON.html
Working with South Camden and Highbury Grove schools
It will be refreshing to work with people who are not deeply entrenched
in the art world. I want to know what young peoples' responses to
the works are. I hope they are very critical. I hope to introduce
them to different ways of thinking about artworks: what they can
be physically, as well as how their meaning can be altered by context.
I also want to start them thinking about the practical aspects of
the gallery system, reputation, and the making of commodities.
It will be a challenge for the students to curate a show in such
a large group, and with the artists already chosen. I hope that
by discussion with the artists, and by talking about their own responses
to the work, the students will bring something of themselves to
the project. They’ll also get to say they co-curated an exhibition
at Frieze Art Fair 2008.
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The Lives (of the Most Excellent Artists) with Lucy Pawlak
and Pimlico and Haverstock Schools
Lucy Pawlak
I live in Poland (Warsaw and Lodz) and sometimes at my parent’s
house in South London. I divide my time between working very much
alone and working on collaborations with others. The latter work
includes film projects, performances, installations, scripts and
workshops. The former work comprises of a ‘one-man-band Hollywood
project’ in which I play all the parts in the saga of a dysfunctional
family of four. As well as attempting to be the entire cast, I also
aim to be the whole crew: director, set designer, producer and so
on. However, I usually end up asking for help from friends and family.
'Old Lady', Lucy Pawlak, 2008
Why I became an artist
I decided to become an artist when I was about three. However my
certainty about this wavered on various occasions – at three and
a half I thought I might prefer to be Thomas the Tank Engine and
at five I considered the job of Prime Minister. Then I did my BA
in Graphic Design, an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art
and have just finished studying cinematography in Poland. Hence
it is very difficult for me to tell you “how I decided to do what
I do”. In a perfect world to decide to do something I need to be
interested, inspired and curious otherwise I would not want to do
it. This is why I was a very bad barmaid, waitress and gallery attendant.
My workshop
We will perform as social anthropologists. This means we will be
investigators of a particular group in society. Our attention will
be focused on the art world, the art fair and the artist. The workshop
will be structured using a basic scientific methodology. The aim
of this study will be the creation of art world characters built
according to our findings. To create a lively character an in depth
study will be required.
After a period of extensive research we will conduct interviews
with various individuals involved in the art world. From the findings
we will begin to plan the artist characters. This is no recipe –
imagination and creativity are vital at every stage. The final creation
of each character will occur in the Education Space at Frieze Art
Fair. Students will make props for their characters and pose in
costumes they have prepared. Photographic portraits will then be
made and be exhibited on this website.
Working with Pimlico and Haverstock Schools
I do not know very much about the Frieze Art Fair and I imagine
that examining its workings together with a group of A-Level students
will be an utterly brilliant and exciting way to probe and explore
it. I anticipate fresh and original views and opinions on the state
of things.
The best thing that could happen would be that the students get
inspired and that the workshop triggers trains of thought that might
spiral off in all manner of directions. I hope that they will go
away at the end and continue to think independently and develop
their ideas. It would be great if the workshop encouraged them not
to be shy about trying to find things out and not to be afraid of
asking questions.
What I hope to get out of it
I would say exactly the same thing for myself, with the added bonus
that I would like it to challenge some of my preconceived notions
about the fair as I have a few half-baked ideas based on secondary
sources.
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Weekend Workshops
The weekend public programme consisted of free, drop-in sessions. Designed for children between the ages of five and twelve, the workshops aimed to encourage an imaginative and fun response to the fair. Type Club (a collective of graphic designers) presented The Story Wall, a narrative and typographic discovery of Frieze Art Fair. Likewise, A+D+A+D (a group of animators and architects working collectively through drawing) presented Inflated Drawing, a 3-D drawing that explored the international flow of art, artists and other visitors in and out of Frieze Art Fair 2008.
The Story Wall with Type Club
Type Club
Our names are Sarah Gottlieb, Annabel Fraser and Ben Freeman. We
are all typographic designers. This means that we design books,
posters and anything else that involves words and language. We all
live and work in London, although Sarah is from Denmark originally.
We met at the Royal College of Art (RCA) a few years ago. Annabel
used to be an architect, but her love of words and language led
her to join the Communication Art and Design MA at the RCA where
she met Ben and Sarah, who had both already trained as typographic
designers. We all share a passion for printed things and exciting
typography.
Type Club workshop with Ian Gabb at the Royal College of Art, 2008
Our workshop
Each group will watch some very short videos from Frieze Film 2008
and then choose words inspired by them. After that, in groups, we
will get together and make our words using a variety of materials
and lights. The words will become part of a story that will grow
over the course of the day, rather like a film might.
We want to work with young people because
A lot of young people don't get to learn about the origins of fonts.
We all see them on computers but their history is easily forgotten.
We would like to introduce a new generation to the joys of typography
and how it makes language colourful and exciting. Our aim is that
young people who take part in The Story Wall will go away with a
new way of looking at the world. They might start to appreciate
books more, or notice public signs that they didn't see before.
Maybe one day they will even study typography.
Why we do Type Club
We enjoy Type Club, because we all get involved and make some letters
too. It is a rare chance for us to relax and be creative in a new
atmosphere. We are at the same level as the young people on the
day of the fair. Normally they produce the best and most surprising
work though!
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Inflated Drawing with A+D+A+D
A+D+A+D
There are five of us right now: Tessa Baird, Meg Bisineer, Jane
Cheadle, Ketan Lad and Rob Small. We question the conventions (set
ways of doing something) of drawing as a starting point for collaborative
practice. Drawing for us is less about making decisions than the
resolution of processes, happy accidents and internal logics.
We live in London and Manchester, and come from Britain, India,
and South Africa. Having studied different disciplines, we came
together at the Royal College of Art for drawing projects alongside
the courses we specialised in. We now work as architects, animators
and artists. We still draw together.
A+D+A+D's Jane Cheadle drawing in London Fields, summer 2008
Our workshop
The day is designed as a sequence of episodes each playing a specific
role in creating an inflated drawing. The young people, us, and
other objects become the materials, and the games we play allow
us to make something none of us would have expected. Throughout
the day the drawing will progress from 2-D to 3-D as it becomes
increasingly inhabitable. We hope to end-up with a 3-D drawing that
is like a tent: a kind of mock-mini-Frieze Art Fair. That’s because
most of us are architects, we like making models. Rather than thinking
of the fair (and the art world) as a marquee filled with art as
fixed objects, it makes a lot more sense to us to think about it
as groups of art workers and artworks elbowing for space with one
another.
The aim of the workshop
To privilege irreverent (against the official way of doing things)
acts of making and ‘change-fullness’. To highlight the idea that
art is about doing stuff, not just ossified (fixed and unchanging)
objects.
We want to work with young people because
They take playing seriously.
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