Rebel Art School – Day 2

In the second day of our ‘Rebel Art School’ children worked with artist Kate Squires to make more sculptural works that extended their creative thinking.

In DAY ONE (click the link for a reminder) children thought about how to break rules and began to un-learn some of their preconceived ideas about creating.

Over the two days the children constantly re-evaluated what they were doing as Kate changed their materials, instructions, groupings and scenario’s to create new challenges at every turn.

Their first hurdle was to negotiate a silent working environment as Kate refused to speak for the first 2 hours, communicating only with gestures and a tin whistle! It was quite startling the effect this had on the atmosphere!

Four stations created, each with an instruction and a selection of materials to work with.

Sculpture that hangs, Sculpture that stacks, Sculpture that uses your body and Sculpture with no gaps.

They got going with purpose, experimenting with what they had and the possibilities open to them.

Some serious structural engineering went on to make things balance.

Lots of negotiations took place as they shared materials and began to work together with new friends.

A strict time limit was given for each station as the children moved around the room. They were allowed to dismantle things as they went, build on what others had created and make changes. This allowed a real sense of collaboration and experimentation as the children let go of what they had created, invited new ideas and saw how others built from their starting points. This helped them become less precious about their work and let it go.

It was amazing to see the many different interpretations of a single instruction. In, ‘Sculpture that uses the body’ some made performances, some made costumes and others turned themselves into sculptures.

Other groups joined themselves together into one giant sculpture

Each time the whistle blew we moved round and started again.

Some pieces kept growing and growing, taking over the space.

Others needed slow contemplation and adjustment as they progressed.

It was interesting to see little snippets of previous sculptures emerging in new creations – can you spot any? The spidery straws in the top of these plant pots took on a new life as flags in the next stacked creation.

You had to look hard for intricate details like this little man hanging from a tiny piece of string, who could be hoisted up and down from one piece.

There was an atmosphere of purposeful activity, as everyone worked together, switching between their own ideas, helping each other, creating together, moving from one idea to the next, watching, laughing and quietly chatting.

After lunch Kate showed us some images of her own work and other artists that work in similar ways to how we had been working. We often show children images of artists work to inspire them, but Kate reversed this concept by showing them work similar to their own, after they had made it giving weight to their ideas and pushing them further.