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Posted on August 31st 2021
Art Highlights 2020-21
Although COVID impacted greatly on the access we have to the wider world, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the positives experiences that the art department enjoyed during this difficult period and celebrate the successes. Here are some of the highlights from 2020-2021.
Ms Stanhope
Processions Exhibition – Women Making History
An HGAED student banner went on display at the Women Making History event at London Scottish House, June 7th 2021 – July 11th 2021.
As you may remember, we worked in collaboration with artist Heather Agyepong to create a banner celebrating women of colour activists, as part of the 2018 PROCESSIONS march through London. Processions was a mass participation art event which took place on Sunday 10 June celebrating 100 years since women got the right to vote, developed and created by the arts organisation Artichoke.
Artichoke selected 100 artists to work with different community groups around the UK, with each artist creating a banner in collaboration with the group to be part of the procession through the four capitals of the UK – London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
Year 9 Fine Art students were lucky enough to be one of the groups selected to work with the artist Heather Agyepong. Heather exhibited at HGAED in our own ID gallery in 2017 and also led a Debate Cake discussion. She loved working with us so much that when Artichoke approached her, she said there couldn’t be any other group she would rather collaborate with. Heather wanted to focus on celebrating women of colour activists, whilst appreciating not all women gained the right to vote as you had to be over the age of 30 and own property.
Each student had a different activist to research and explore, and they responded to this through attempting to embody the spirit of the activist. Their physical responses were photographed to go onto the banner and processed through the streets of London.
Three years on the banners went on display to the public at London’s Scottish House. Artichoke stated they wanted to display the banners to continue to the legacy and provide an opportunity to reflect on the banners’ calls for equality, to examine the pace of progress and to be inspired to keep pushing for change.
It was amazing to see the banners up close and appreciate the detail, care and craft which had gone in to creating them. HGAED’s banner has since been returned to school for all students to see.
ARTiculation prize 2020
Year 12 Student Jenna represented our academy in the London regional final of the ARTiculation prize in March 20202, a national competition where students between 16-18 are invited to give a presentation on an artwork of their choice.
The public speaking competition champions the appreciation and discussion of art and encourages participants to develop their confidence through expressing they options throughs and reactions to the visual world. Participants are judged by selected art historians, critics and curators on delivery and presentation as well as conveying their thoughts and ideas about the art work.
Due to covid-19 regulations, the regional final was hosted online and was judged curator, cultural historian and broadcaster Gus Casely-Hayford
Jenna was selected to represent the school after success in the school heats. She then went on to win her London regional heat. Jenna choose to speak about US Vogue December 2020 cover which featured Harry Styles on the cover. Styles was the first male to be on the magazine cover in its 127 year history. She dissected the photograph by Tyler Mitchell and styled by gender fluid designer Harris Reed.
Gus Casely-Hayford commended Jenna on her thought provoking presentation and stated she had a ‘beautifully crafted argument’.
Jenna’s presentation has been spotlighted on the Articulation website and can be viewed here https://vimeo.com/509858291.
Es Devlin – Bold Tendencies
A group of Year 10 Students were fortunate to be invited to a talk by Es Devlin held at Bold Tendencies in Peckham on the evening of September 22nd 2020.
Es Devlin is a world renowned set designer, famous for her work in theatre as well as designing for global superstars such as Adele, Stormzy and has designed the sets for the Brit awards. She also created Mirror maze which was hosted at Bold Tendencies in Peckham. They also heard form Fraser T Smith the producer behind Stomzy and Dave’s hit albums
Es spoke about her journey into the world of set design and the process of her creative journeys, the trails and tribulations of working with celebrities, but most of all she spoke about the joy of working in the creative industries and huge opportunities out there for creatively minded people. Her top tip to just keep going and don’t give up.
Shared sky In partnership with Es Devlin studio
Footage has been gathered from six different people in different locations across the globe. One of the participants selected to take part in Es Devlin’s Project is HGAED student Shri. Over the summer holidays 2020 Shri was invited to make a short film about her experiences with the sky. In Autumn 2021, Benton from Es Devlin Studios came to interview her.
Shri’s film was paired with a woman from Malawi who also shared her experiences with the sky.
Shared sky gathers footage of sky from different locations around the world – locations that experience divergent climactic, social and political conditions – on two opposing LED screens. By placing one above the other in a collection of pairs, the work seeks to foster dialogue and debate around a series of global issues. It is an invitation to reflect on the experiences of different people, in different places, at different times.
The sky is near and far above us and below us. Everywhere and nowhere – and even though it unties us, it has the capacity to alert us to those things that, for better, and for worse, separate us too.
The installation was held at St Johns Church, Hackney. Find out more at https://saint.church/sharedsky/
Year 9 T shirts – Products of our environment
Year 9 HGAED students have collaborated with University of the Arts London and St Gabriel's school for a t-shirt designing project called ‘Products of our Environment’.
Students were asked to research and design collaboratively looking more closely at our environments and how they shape us. The students were given the brief to create designs that promotes diversity and inclusion, the purpose of the campaign being to make a positive impact and difference within our local and wider communities.
The project took place over three days, with two days based at UAL's Camberwell campus.
During the two-day visit to UAL: Camberwell College of Arts, students had the opportunity to learn two different screen printing methods, stencilling and exposing screens and to print their designs onto t shirts. They also got to explore the campus, work with expert technicians and meet current students to find out what it is like to study a creative subject at university.
RA Young Artists Show
We were delighted to have two students selected for the Royal Academy Young Artists Summer show in 2020. Both creating highly original and exciting work. Tabitha was also selected as one of the overall winners. This meant Tabitha received a voucher worth £100 and the art department received funding to buy table top easels and acrylic paints which prompted the introduction of a painting course for year 10 students.
In 2021 we also had two students selected for the online summer show in 2021.
- Leah ‘After Matisse’- Year 11 - 2021
- Michaela ‘ The Wedding’ - Year 7 - 2021
UAL - set and costume design project
Year 9 artists have been involved in a set and costume design project with UAL (University of the Arts London). The project is part of a wider collaboration that aims to support more diversity within the creative industries.
The creative industries are immense and impact on all aspects of our lives. From the moment we awake to the moment we go to sleep our lives are full of the wonders that creative people have dreamt up, designed and brought to life. From our homes designed by architects, our clothes and jewellery designed and made in the fashion industry, the apps on our phones, the products we buy designed or packaged by product and graphic designers, the TV and films we enjoy on a daily basis, the list goes on and on. If you spend a moment thinking about how many things in our lives stem from this industry, then you can begin to understand its importance. However, what is lacking within this industry is diversity.
The project that the yr. 9 artists have been involved with is a part of this wider endeavour to promote the industry and support budding creatives in accessing future courses and understanding what is involved in a creative career by opening up opportunities to work with recent graduates from UAL. The aim is that after we pilot the project at HGAED it can be shared across other schools in London and Nationally.
This year we have been working with two recent graduates from UAL, Renzo and Laura. Renzo is a set designer and Laura is a costume designer. They supported the development of this project where students were asked to create a set and costume design for an imaginary island. How the island manifested itself and who or what inhabited the island was totally up to the yr. 9 artists.
Each Year 9 art group chose the most successful design from their class to be put forward to Renzo and Laura for them to decide on the final winning design. The winning design was by Jayda and Rahima – Plastic beach
.
Archive by other means
We were asked by the South London Gallery to trail a resource that explored the colonial endeavours of anthropologist Northcoat Thomas.
The resource was developed by the Art Assassins, a group of young people who meet weekly at the SLG and create various projects. This project explored the archive collected by Northcoat Thomas from his visits to indigenous communities in what is now known as Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The resource shares the Art Assassins exploration of the archive and the problematic racist colonial narratives that the archive promotes. The resource also explores how the Art Assassins try to take back this history, to challenge it and find ways of unlearning and reimaging the future.
Year 10 students were invited to trail the resource and fed back to the South London Gallery with their thoughts and opinions on the resource. They found the resource a really important learning tool, with many of them stating how colonialism is rarely spoken about in society and this helped them to understand a different element of the vast endeavour of the colonial empire, rather than just hearing about the slave trade. Their feedback helped to shape the resource which is now available for all teachers to use and is hosted on the Making Sense website: https://makingsense.hotglue.me/
Peckham Festival – Shared Fragments with Amy Leung
We were fortunate to have the artist Amy Leung working as our artist in residence from 2020-21.Although COVID meant the initial plan for the residency was curtailed, Amy still developed work in collaboration with our students and this was celebrated during the Peckham Festival last September.
The project was focused on creating connections between Amy’s work, A-level and GCSE students’ work, and the wider community. The Shared Fragments exploration initially introduced themes of breathing, repetition, movement and care working with various groups of GCSE and A' Level students.
Students explored materials and processes, playing with ideas and reflecting upon newly introduced Covid precautions. These precautions impacted creating and collaborating together in the classroom and the work that evolved through these creative conversations is a culmination of persistent, playful explorations responding to such unusual circumstances.
This two-year exploration supported various creative conversations with students in the classroom. However, as always a vital aspect of our explorations is to ensure the research evolves with and through the local community. Bringing the creative discussion out beyond the walls of the classroom to engage with a local audience was more of a challenge this time with the pandemic. However, through the Peckham Festival, we were once again able to share the creative research of HGAED artists in collaboration with Amy Leung - this time showcasing the creative research of Nadia Uddin and Jenna Blomeyer.
Nadia explored stereotypes around her Muslim identity and challenged the audience to see beyond this into the every day experiences of her life. Jenna’s creative research explored the impact of heteronormativity on our perceptions of gender. You can read more about these projects on the CCE website:
https://centreforcreativeexplorations.weebly.com/shared-fragments.html
