Today was very quiet at the gallery. I think that the cold weather kept many people away.
Having less people (kids especially) around to keep an eye on, enabled me to get much more work done than I had expected. My main task today was to read Ruark Lewis' 'Precis of Survey of Works List'. It took a good part of the day to read all 23 pages of notes on every work he has created to date. Although it was a long and sometimes brain frazzling task, it really concreted his practice for me.
Some brief info: Lewis 'is a visual artist and writer producing in a wide range of media such as painting, drawing, installation, artists-books, public art, theatre, performances, audio and video works. His art tends toward conceptual language, exploring the poetics of spatial history, involving chance procedures and architectural strategies of improvisation.' reference: http://ruarklewis.com/home/
The following are some examples of his works:
Reading (and understanding) Lewis' Precis was important as I have a meeting with him at his studio next Saturday. I am interviewing him for the education kits which I will produce for the exhibition... and hopefully also get some valuable insight into how to engage young people with his highly conceptual, abstract and text based works (which is what I am aiming to base my research paper around).
After going back to teaching this week (and not working at the gallery mon-fri) it was good to come in this morning to see that the education resources that I wrote for the visiting school groups of the current exhibition, have been successful! yay!
It sounds like a challenge having to devise educational kits to engage young people with works that are highly conceptual in nature. I imagine it will be a good learning experience for you, particularly if you're basing part of your research on your paper.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, as you mention you are a teacher, how do you find the transition from classroom to the gallery? To be more specific: you being the one engaging the children and personally transferring knowledge, to relying mainly on the stimulus material that you devise?
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI am findng it a great challenge devising the education kits. I thought it would be similar to writing programs or worksheets for my classes at school, but the hardest thing I am finding is that the education kits and worksheets for the gallery are to be taught mostly in isolation (besides viewing the exhibition). So at school I teach term based programs and units of work and the activities/ discussions/ questions I give the students rely on revision or previous discussion/ explanation of concepts. However, in the education kits I have to provide enough info for students who may not have heard of the artist/ exhibition/ concepts before. And I keep forgetting that I have to make questions/ activities open and broard... because students have to be able to complete them with little teacher input. So I am finding that I am including perhaps too much info into the research kits (which I really like, as a teacher who uses them alot, but I have to create them in line with my Gallery).
Initially creaing ed kits based on highly conceptual artists was challenging, but I have found that the questions that I include really help with the students understanding of the works in the exhibition... and the artmaking activities accompanying the questions can be really open and creative. The conceptual works really promote subjective, imaginative artmaking responses.
I am trying some of them out on my current students and they appear to enjoy them... Or maybe they are just enjoying a change? Anyway, it has been handy to have a few willing guinea-pigs :)
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI believe that understanding the artist and his/her works for the exhibition is very important. I am sure that reading a book about the artist was valuable and helpful for you to prepare for the exhibition. Maybe that why some say 90% of preparing for an exhibition if researching.
What I have found from researching before I have actually met the artist is that some of the understandings I made from reading related materials of the artist could be slightly different from what the artist is meant to express through their artwork. Although there is perfectly right or wrong in the art I think, understanding the real intends of the artist is significant and we should understand correctly what the artist is saying with their works.
I am just wondering how different or same your understanding of the artist made from what you have read with the artist that you understand when you actually met him. It sounds a bit ambiguous, but I am just wondering the feeling you have got when you met him after you have read about him.
Hi Marisa,
ReplyDeletehope everything is going well,
thanks your comments on my journal, and it's time to return ,LOL
sometimes I feel the intern job is unstable, sometimes it's going busy and sometimes it's totally idle. but it's still good on you to read the resources even though 23 pages to learn about the artist. it is quite necessary.
and I am quite interested in this artist as well. be willing to know the artist more. thanks for sharing it.
Good luck, and looking forward to futher information.
Chen
Cheers,