By: Sue Tansley, Head of Art
On Thursday October 5th, 2017, nineteen Sixth Form students studying the Photography endorsement of the Art and Design A level travelled to London.
Despite the, usual, appalling traffic we arrived at The Photographers Gallery ready to be amazed by the Gregory Crewdson exhibition. The contemporary American photographer creates what he calls tableux of American suburbs or landscapes with melancholy people in surreal or unusual situations. These images confused and challenged our students and forced them to ask many questions of themselves and of the images.
We then travelled to the Saatchi gallery where the education department took us on a tour of the Iconoclasts Exhibition followed by a workshop, based on the work of Aaron Fowler. The term Iconoclast was explained to our students and the tour of this diverse exhibition helped them to understand and to be able to ask questions; forming opinions on the work. They all wanted to touch the sculpture made from feathers and wondered why some of the work had been chosen. The workshop asked them to consider contemporary issues of politics or current affairs and recreate them using collage and/or assemblage. This was a great way to channel the ideas presented in the exhibition and then go back to see more of the work on display before the long journey home.
