The Body and Beyond: Constructing and transcending human form:
I originally designed and ran this series of 4 workshops in 2015, for art students to come and work with objects at the Pitt Rivers museum and to explore new ways of seeing, drawing and making art.
I look forward to running these workshops at other venues and using a wide range of cultural and every day objects, as single workshops or as a series.
These workshops focus on different aspects of cultural representation or use of the body in art. Workshops 1 -3 progress from thinking about specific cultural conventions of representing the body, to how the human form is altered using body art, and then an exploration of metaphorical and imaginary bodies. Workshop 4 explores how the body is used in art as a gateway to other experiences and understanding.
Starting from conventional representational drawing and progressing to performance drawing and the embodied line, these are informative and interactive, with practical and theoretical components.
I contextualise objects and themes and discuss the body in relation to specific cultural practices.
The aim of the sessions is to develop new ways of seeing, explore cross-cultural and non-Western ideas about body and representation, and to develop greater confidence and creative freedom in drawing, rather than the more traditional approach of tutoring students on the technicalities of representational drawing.
Workshop 1 – Conventions of Representation
Workshop 2 – The Altered Body
Workshop 3 – Metaphorical Bodies
Workshop 4 – Beyond the Body
