On the subject of costume, a short while ago I was invited by ReachOutRCA to work with amazing primary school pupils as part of a series of workshops and subsequent exhibition Paper, Scissors, Draw.
There were two days of making, each split into various tasks.
Firstly, in the school gym hall, I spoke a little about my practice and showed some inspiration.
We discussed the idea of abstracting body forms or the disguising of the body entirely, body parts rearranged to cause distortion or flattened to create a hybrid of shape and image.
The ubiquitous blog-stars Sonia Delaunay, Alexander Girard, Picasso, Phyllis Galembo.
The pupils then picked some reference images and set about identifying and isolating shapes and colours to work with.
Gunta Stölzl, Ruth Hollós-Consemüller, Weiner Werkstätte, Bamileke elephant mask, Ettore Sottsass, Peter Shire, Kente and Ewe fabric.
A major part of the premise for this whole project was to be allowed and encouraged to investigate my own working methods and see how they could be translated into some kind of teaching excercise. Something about re-interpreting a designed object/image that already exists, using your eyes to be selective and extract areas of interest, making decisions quickly and forcing your own hand without too much questioning.
