Showing posts with label art sessions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art sessions. Show all posts
Publication
Game under development
The game is now going to be built on this square layout.
It already looks more like a board game!!!
Play board game! Working title: Asylum.
The walks and our mapping exercises started coming together in a form of a board game - working title: Asylum. In the game you are making your way from the Home Office (the starting point, the moment of arrival) through various locations (Central Library, police station, All Saints Red Cross, Friendship House, ASDA, the beach) to reach the Home Office again (this time to receive your British Passport).
The game is still in the making so bear with us while we continue working on it!
We have already started talking about launching the game as a commercial product, although we all agreed that there is not much fun in playing the game live - 24/7.
Asylum counters - made out of pictures of us all.
Jinnie, Karim and Ania discuss the game rules.
Saadia - our first winner!
The first trip out
Going out! (prep)
We spent all winter Friday afternoons (and quite a few of cold spring ones too!) inside the Friendship House. Nearly all this time has been spent on making work that will enter gallery spaces and galleries are not necessarily easy to access for everybody. White gallery spaces can be intimidating - some people commented that they are not sure if they can simply enter them as they are. Maybe tie is required? Maybe you need to know something about what you are about to see inside to be able to enter. Crossing the threshold of the unfamiliar space even if it has large sign 'free' on it is not always easy.
People we are working with live their life in the city - move around it on foot or by bus. It makes sense to me to create with them work that can be put back in the environment their access, they are part of - and look for ways to leave their mark on it.
Seeing a couple of elderly ladies watching the film on BBC Big Screen made an incredible impression on me - they were watching intensely a series of faces talking to them. I hope they realised that the faces belong to the people who cross the same square, who shop in the same shops and stand in the same queues.
We started mapping people's journeys around the city, we started searching for spaces where the routes of two or more of us cross, we carefully watch spaces we like visiting but also must visit. Not sure where this is going to take us just yet, but I think we are searching for shared locus.
Cotton coasters
We started the embroidery on cotton coasters in February. More then 20 people spent their time stitching shapes of words and drawings. Now the work is ready - all thanks to Mary Jane (Sallie's mum) who came up with the idea of how to hang it all! We temporarily hung it above the refreshments table. Hanging cotton coaster - too pretty to rest hot mugs on them.
Mary-Jane, Mike and Sultana working on the final work.
Haji, Sultana, Saadia, myself and Abbas working on final arrangements.
Foil
Foil is an interesting material - it is flexible, shiny, cheap and easy to work with. Everyone seems to have an experience of foil - no matter if one cooks or not. Foil = take away. Foil = food. Foil = raw. Foil = cover.
We covered our limbs with foil and made foil casts. Aisha volunteerd to have her entire body foil covered. Foil is flexible but fragile - we made holes and punctures in our casts before making a perfect one. The foil casts stayed in shape but again once freed of the body underneath their fragility tripled.
We are going to play a bit more with these temporary casts. Watch this space!
Julia watching while Ania and Noor are covering Aisha in foil.
Abdul also had his arm foil-cast done.
All about foil
foil 1 |foil|verb [ trans. ]prevent (something considered wrong or undesirable) from succeeding• Hunting (of a hunted animal) run over or cross (ground or a scent or track) in such a way as to confuse the hounds.noun1 Hunting the track or scent of a hunted animal.2 archaic a setback in an enterprise; a defeat.
foil 2noun1 metal hammered or rolled into a thin flexible sheet, used chiefly forcovering or wrapping food : aluminum foil.2 a person or thing that contrasts with and so emphasizes and enhances the qualities of another
foil 2noun1 metal hammered or rolled into a thin flexible sheet, used chiefly forcovering or wrapping food : aluminum foil.2 a person or thing that contrasts with and so emphasizes and enhances the qualities of another
Exhibition in Portsmouth! Soon!
The main work of the exhibition will be a collection of the mobile phones (still growing collection!). We keep realising that for asylum seekers a mobile phone is more then a helpful device. A whole range of mobile phones has been created, almost all of them are an accurate copies of the real phones belonging to the participants.
One of the pictures in the exhibition is going to be the image of Sultana above taken by Vathani
Miriam's Solution
We have spent three sessions talking to the camera. All the talks have been edited and we have now 3 short films ready! Miriam's Solution can be seen only on-line but two other films will be screened at BBC Big Screen in Portsmouth City Centre! First screenings will take place on 23rd April and the films are going to be broadcast for 3 months!
All this would not be possible without a brilliant filmmaker Lou Pack!Thank you Lou!
Making films
We are making films in Feb and March. We have only 3 sessions to record everyone who wants to be recorded. We have created a tiny studio in the Friendship House. We have a bit of trouble recording sound especially when large lorries are passing by exactly when interesting things are said. Recreating them does not feel same, nor sounds same.
We are working with filmmaker Lou Pack. Editing comes in next!
Sewing words
We started sewing! Needles and cotton threads are the latest available materials. Sewing is seen as a very feminine activity, but some men are having a go! And there is a fair bit of helping going on, people finishing each other designs for each other, commenting on choice of colours and chosen shapes.
Loads of writing-sewing is going on in a few alphabets and languages.
On the picture: Winnie in the background and Rahim's hand with his work saying Allāh / the God.
Panoramic Centre
Panoramic pictures are a big hit especially with all the guys! Technology rulez! But pretty much everyone is having a go at using this function and we are coming up with pretty good results.
We have been experimenting with panoramic pics for a few weeks now and here are some of the attempts. We have managed to capture people more then one in the same picture (above Rosamund can be seen twice in the same photo; below Les also twice!)
All Saints Centre - second visit
During our recent visit to the All Saints Centre we were sending more paper text messages. On this occassion Halim and Ania formed Temporary Paper Mobile Phone Committee.Paper mobile phones are going to be exhibited soon! Watch this space.
Next visit to All Saints Centre: 1st February 2010. We will be there at 10am.
