This past Saturday, I spent the day in the forecourt of the York City Art Gallery, participating in a project called Sensory Stories: Art Outside the Frame. Saturday's event was the culmination of 5 months of planning, and was wholly produced by a group of volunteers, mostly graduate and postgraduate students from the University of York. I started volunteering with the group in December.
Our purpose was to engage the community in activities that would allow them to experience art in a different way, with senses other than sight alone. All of our activities were based on works of art in the York City Art Gallery, which houses a very impressive and varied collection.
These are some of the activities we created...
Matt tells the story of a duel which took place on the stretch of the River Ouse featured in the picture behind him. The actual work of art is inside the gallery. Part of our project was to encourage passing visitors to go into the gallery to see the original art for themselves.
Simon is discussing the historic evidence that can be gleaned from works of art. He is doing his doctoral thesis on city walls, and is talking about the sketches behind him, which show that once upon a time the York city walls had houses on top of them and attached behind them. The second piece shows the original Lendal Bridge over the River Ouse, which at that time housed the city council offices.
Holly Clarkson, who choreographed a dance, is holding a copy of the painting, which features soldiers at Victoria Station, waiting to board the trains that would take them back to the front during World War Two. The dancers behind performed a piece based on the emotions of the various soldiers and the theme of time stopping and starting.
This group, The Phenomenotes, based their performance on the same art work, and sang a variety of songs from the War era. The video below is one of their performances.
You can't help swaying along to this one...
and if you like that, here's another...
I really enjoyed these singers; made me think
of my Granny and Granddad.
I never realized what a great view of the Minster you had from the Art Gallery! Too bad it was cloudy again!
The gallery has a variety of art works, including costumes. This activity featured wood block printing which is found on clothing that was brought back from India during the Colonial period. Participants were encouraged to color one of the sections on this sash, for later display. They were also able to print their own piece of fabric to color in and take home with them.
This was one that I did. I found the coloring to be very relaxing. This particular shape reminded me of the
mandalas that Buddhist monks make.
This is The Anonymous Rose by Jason Periton. My group's activity was based on this work of art, which features painting on glass. We did not use glass, but copied some of the other techniques used here. We started with a large piece of fabric, which we blocked into sections using masking tape, and added the basic outline of the York Rose. We provided a variety of items to be used as stencils, including doilies, old jewelry, pieces of chain, leaves, kitchen utensils, and keys. These were used to create positive and negative imprints, using spray paints and ink sprays. People passing by were invited to add to our art work. Our youngest artist was 4 and our oldest artist was about 65.
A lot of people turned us down too. They said they weren't artists, not realizing that to be an artist, all you have to do is make art. There is no special license awarded, which makes one an artist. Look below to see our end product, a master piece created by the York Community with a little help from Alex, Susan, and me.
Art Outside the Frame: The York Rose
From the Beginning...
Early on...
Hour 2...
A Family Affair...the daughter painted while Mom, Dad, and sister gave directions.
Imagine, in a strong Yorkshire accent, Dad shouts "Put some pink in t' middle!"
Hehehe, one of the best parts of the day!
Before we removed the tape...
The End.
