Collaborative drawings in notebooks
Collaborative drawings in notebooks
Suantrai Montessori with their collaborative drawings
Custom colour mixing and painting
Custom colour mixing and painting
Playing with forms
Making a surface to wear for our human sculptures
Creating forms with our bodies
Creating forms with our bodies in Rathoe NS
Creating forms with our bodies in Rathoe NS
Creating forms with our bodies in Rathoe NS
Creating forms with our bodies in Rathoe NS
Wearable art in Grange NS
Maquette making in Grange NS
Plaster bandage maquette
Instructional diagrams for sculpture design
Instructional diagrams for sculpture design
Maquettes in situ
Workshops & Research
Over the course of eight weeks, I worked with Rathoe National School, Grange National School and Suantrai Montessori to explore ideas of collaboration and participation in public sculpture.
Together, we asked questions such as: Who is public sculpture for? How should it function? How might we interact with a sculpture through our bodies?
We explored the role of colour, surface, balance and gesture in sculpture, alongside ideas of material and scale. We considered how we experience sculpture in relation to our own bodies and how the different components of a sculpture might relate to the human body:
Skeletal system = armature
Muscles = form / body
Skin = surface
Muscles = form / body
Skin = surface
Through a series of practical workshops, the children created collaborative notebooks, paintings using custom-mixed colours, drawings and plaster-bandage maquettes. We looked at examples of sculptures and sculptors, discussed how sculptures can be encountered and used, and imagined how we might physically interact with our own collaborative sculpture.
The children developed their ideas through making, testing and discussion before presenting their sculptures to the group. They created diagrams exploring scale and proportion and spoke about the ideas, movements and interactions they imagined for the final work.
The workshops became an important part of the research and development of the Many Hands sculpture, with the children’s ideas directly informing the form, colour, surface and possibilities for interaction within the finished sculpture.
Once the workshops were completed, I documented the children’s work and began to draw together the ideas that had emerged through the workshops. I then presented a draft proposal for the sculpture to a group of teenagers from the VISUAL Collective. Through discussion and feedback, they helped to identify and refine the important qualities of the work, further shaping the development of the final sculpture.
Workshop photos: Jane Fogarty
An exhibition of the work created by the children and young people of Carlow who participated in the Many Hands project displayed in the Lobby Gallery at VISUAL Carlow. This exhibition and accompanying education programme at the gallery were curated by Clare Breen.
Photos: Brian Cregan
