I was part of an Walker Art Gallery intervention last year when i was a first year. I have decided to join the first years this year to develop my work from last year and see how far i can push it. It is a good opportunity so why not do the intervention again? I feel i will benefit from this opportunity.
From last year I was interested in children's drawings and the way they see the paintings they have drawn. For example, drawing a sad painting with happy faces and bright colours, or focusing on one aspect of the painting. Seeing just the shapes in the painting rather than the scenery, or really focusing on one figure in the paining and trying really hard to replicate it through their own individual perception and skill. It was and still is very fascinating to me. Last year i did experiment with children's drawings by photoshopping their drawings into the frame of the painting they have drawn.
For the intervention last year I ended up overlapping children's drawings with the original paining. I adjusted the original painting to the size of the children's drawings. I loved the transparency of them and the way you could also see your reflection in the glass. An interaction between yourself, the painting and the drawing.
This piece of work was a result in me walking into one of the rooms in the Walker and seeing a group of school children on floor with paper and a pencils nearby, drawing what they saw. They were on a school trip from a nearby primary school. They were between 5/6 year olds. I was inspired by them so i asked the teachers if i could have the drawings. That moment was so important to me that i still remember it, and that moment has pushed me to do a performance this year. The performance consists of me wearing school uniform - white shirt, red school jumper, black trousers, and black shoes. I will not wear any makeup, will have my hair in a bun or ponytail. No earnings or nail polish. Basically my identity will be gone. I will be a child, replicating how children draw. I will sit on the floor as the children that i saw and try and go back on myself - be a child - try to unlearn the drawing skills that i have. I will be using gallery materials that they provide for school trips. I will stay in room 8 of the Walker gallery, circulating round and drawing from 11:00am - 16:00pm with breaks.
I have been reading about children's development in drawing (from random scribbling to controlled scribbling to lines and patterns, people and objects) and how they perceive things, to better understand what children focus on and how they draw. I have also asked the Walker Art Gallery whether i could join on one of the trips before the intervention, to study and observe children's mannerisms. So i will have this on the 10/03/16 for a couple of hours.
I have named the performance "Katie", i took the name from one of the paintings that one of the children has drawn by George Frederic Watts (Katie, 1882). It was one of my favorite drawings by a child and it really did fit really well with the performance. As though i was Katie whilst performing, another character.
I will make sure there will be a person to film me and take pictures of the performance on the day. It will be interesting for me to go back anf wach the film and reflect what i did whilst in the Walker.
Link to my last years response to the Walker intervention - click here
~ Ev
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