Who is able to appreciate your Artwork?

Rachel Jones, Becky Lewis and I, created a workshop at USW about Ableism. We posed the question to all the MA students of Art, health and wellbeing, who is able, who do you enable, who do you disable when you produce work/exhibit work?

Workshop Schedule

Thursday 9th February 2017

30 minutes

Becky, Rachel and Shaun

Intro/aims (3 mins)

Rachel, Shaun and I are all visual artists and a shared interest is how people interpret our work. We have chosen a famous artwork (Klimt- ‘The Kiss’) we want you to respond to this particular painting, working in pairs under a certain restriction. You will all be working from the same painting as when you have all finished we can see how this famous artwork has been interpreted and appreciated in each different way.
Please pair up and each pair goes to one of the workshop stations where either myself, Shaun and Rachel will be there to explain in further detail what you will be doing, offering technical assistance and keeping time.
What we ask you to do may take you out of your comfort zone and you may be using materials you are not familiar with. Communicate with your partner as to how you will do it and we will be on hand to help you if you need it.

Workshops 1- Words- Shaun (20minutes)

Only words or phrases can be used to interpret this painting. Can be descriptive- colour, shapes. Does it evoke any memories, how does it make you feel? This can be written, cut out of newspapers/magazines and collaged onto the paper. Think about the layout on the paper, consider composition, shape, form and scale.

Materials needed- paper, newspapers, magazines, glue, pens, stamps/stencils

Workshop 2- No colour-Rachel (20 minutes)

Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ is a very patterned and colourful painting. However, no colour will be allowed during this short exercise.

To be considered: you don’t have to copy the whole painting- you can pick a smaller part of it that you like or are drawn to. Think about pattern, may want to include text etc. Does the lack of colour effect the painting or how you feel about it?

Materials needed: paper, scissors, glue, charcoal, newsprint

Workshop 3- 3D/ Sculptural- Becky (20 minutes)

This is can be loosely interpreted. Break the image into shapes and how can this be achieved three dimensionally.
May want to include colour, to draw attention to certain parts. Is the pattern going to carry all the way round the form or carried off? (quilling)
Think about the space- how would you want it displayed?

To be considered: again, don’t have to concentrate on the whole image but concentrate on a smaller part.

Materials needed: paper, pens, scissors, sellotape, string, glue.

Conclusion (5 mins)

In participating in this workshop we will have touched upon the notion of ‘restriction’ or ‘impairment’, as we attempt to respond to Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece.

We may have considered briefly what it would be like to have such a restriction permanently in our everyday artistic lives.

Perhaps there are other thoughts to share? (note any response)

*

As students of Art, health and wellbeing and practising artists, we hope that this workshop prompts all of us to think about how we can modify mediums, processes and procedures in our art making to ensure we “enable” rather more than “disable” access to our work.

(Read Out)

We are perhaps guilty of upholding what Harvard Professor, Thomas Hehir describes as “Ableism”(2002). We perhaps perpetuate the idea that “for a child it is better to walk than to roll, speak than to sign, read print than read Braille, spell independently than use a spell check and hang out with nondisabled children rather than other disabled. In short in the eyes of many educators and society it is better for the disabled to do things in [the same] manner as non disabled.

As artists perhaps we should be proactive in the creation of alternative access to our artwork, to be certain it is so much more than just second best “Ableism”?