Inter-view
Blue Room at the Bluecoat
Blue Room meet David Blandy
Blue Room are a group of adults with learning disabilities based at the Bluecoat. Three different groups of people meet on a weekly basis to make art together, working in response to exhibitions on show at the Bluecoat. In June 2006, Blue Room’s steering group recruited a pool of 5 artists’ to work with them on different projects.
The Blue Room members all have different levels of experience of working with contemporary art. The Thursday group includes some of our most experienced members, who are familiar on working on Biennial related projects. They are supporting the rest of the group who are getting their first taste of the Liverpool Biennial.
The Thursday group worked with artist Andrew Weston this spring, looking at the work of David Blandy who will show his work at the Bluecoat this autumn. Blandy often takes on an alter-ego through his work. His latest alter ego is the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim who undertakes pilgrimages to search for things or imaginary people. The group are exploring this approach and have created their own alter egos, becoming Blandy himself. They are working with artist Sally Olding throughout the summer, to continue this research through animation. This will go live on the internet through the inter-view website.
Blue Room will complete their investigation with performance artist Adela Jones during autumn. They will be able to experience Blandy’s work first hand when it is on show at the Bluecoat.
Notes by artist: Adela Jones
We were very interested in the idea of David Blandy wanting to become someone else. The Bluecoat presents some of David’s experiences as the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim. Through our workshops we have been thinking about what it would be like to be someone else. Activities have involved thinking about who we would be, what we would do, where we would go and what we could achieve.
So far the group have ‘become’ an interesting mix of people inspired familiar faces and those they admire: From Elvis and James Bond girls to bus drivers, Olympic swimmers, magician’s and superheroes. The group created funky ‘fan’ style t-shirts to wear and help us get into being the person they most admired. Their Alter Egos have been writing David Blandy illustrated postcards.
When the group interviewed David earlier in the year he told them that space was his favourite place, the first thing the group did was create a song called ‘Space is a beautiful place’. This was also a reaction to seeing all the record sleeves in the show and thinking about music. They group went on to design CD covers for their song and develop hand painted slides to create fantastical backdrops and imagery to work with. They have thought a lot about what their favourite place would be if actually were the person they wanted to become.
We are going to be exploring our new ideas further and possibly interviewing members of the public about who they would like to become!
The Blue Room members all have different levels of experience of working with contemporary art. The Thursday group includes some of our most experienced members, who are familiar on working on Biennial related projects. They are supporting the rest of the group who are getting their first taste of the Liverpool Biennial.
The Thursday group worked with artist Andrew Weston this spring, looking at the work of David Blandy who will show his work at the Bluecoat this autumn. Blandy often takes on an alter-ego through his work. His latest alter ego is the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim who undertakes pilgrimages to search for things or imaginary people. The group are exploring this approach and have created their own alter egos, becoming Blandy himself. They are working with artist Sally Olding throughout the summer, to continue this research through animation. This will go live on the internet through the inter-view website.
Blue Room will complete their investigation with performance artist Adela Jones during autumn. They will be able to experience Blandy’s work first hand when it is on show at the Bluecoat.
A response to the work of David Blandy
Notes by artist: Adela Jones
We were very interested in the idea of David Blandy wanting to become someone else. The Bluecoat presents some of David’s experiences as the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim. Through our workshops we have been thinking about what it would be like to be someone else. Activities have involved thinking about who we would be, what we would do, where we would go and what we could achieve.
So far the group have ‘become’ an interesting mix of people inspired familiar faces and those they admire: From Elvis and James Bond girls to bus drivers, Olympic swimmers, magician’s and superheroes. The group created funky ‘fan’ style t-shirts to wear and help us get into being the person they most admired. Their Alter Egos have been writing David Blandy illustrated postcards.
When the group interviewed David earlier in the year he told them that space was his favourite place, the first thing the group did was create a song called ‘Space is a beautiful place’. This was also a reaction to seeing all the record sleeves in the show and thinking about music. They group went on to design CD covers for their song and develop hand painted slides to create fantastical backdrops and imagery to work with. They have thought a lot about what their favourite place would be if actually were the person they wanted to become.
We are going to be exploring our new ideas further and possibly interviewing members of the public about who they would like to become!
Images
