I AM AN ARTIST
Roman and I have conducted the I AM project with different international school communities throughout the world. Now we are presenting it in a rural Australian school where the majority of students come from poor socio-economic backgrounds and over a third are of Aboriginal descent. Will the outcomes be different from previous projects in international settings, or is there a universality to children's artistic expression, regardless of where they come from and their life experiences?
We enter into the spirit of the project with our long held belief, that all children are artists and have their own story to tell. Facilitating their expression is our aim, but we don't assume that every child will participate, and the reason is simple. For us to work with any group of adults or children, the bottom line is a mutual feeling of Respect. However Respect is born of Trust. When Trust has been violated repeatedly then Respect is absent. What is in its place? Suspicion, Indifference and Anger. We have two days to engender Respect in children who have experienced abuse and neglect and who have low levels of literacy, poor self esteem and suffer from a range of learning disabilities. So begins our journey to assist this group of twenty primary school students to express their identity, dreams and feelings through their artworks.
A key to facilitating the process of trust building is oral storytelling. While storytelling has a myriad of applications in the classroom, it is of prime value in this project in establishing a safe level of communication between the students and project presenters. To tell a traditional tale is to present the listener with an unconditional gift that does not demand acknowledgement, affinity or even acceptance. Each listener has their own personal relationship with the story that they can choose to retell, discuss, ignore or privately ponder on.
The journey begins and tentative links of trust are forged. Not everyone stays, but those that do are curious and want more. They begin their first artworks outside with chalk on walls. It lasts as long as the break time when other students rub most of it off, but we have documented their work with photographs and most importantly they have had the experience of free drawing on the walls. It is the process that is important. They are introduced to abstract expressionism, graffiti, scribble and various forms of markmaking are shown to be valid forms of artistic expression. They are shown that their own works are not so different to those of famous artists like Cy Twombly, Jean Michel Basquiat and Colin McCahon.
By the end of the second day we have rescued some works from the bin. Accepting appreciation about their creations has been difficult for some students; they don't trust that what they have drawn is worth keeping. Upon reflection they have come to accept that perhaps there is some merit in their work, so it is uncrumpled and kept. We photograph them holding their final works. Most are pleased with what they have created and when we ask them at the end of the day who they are, most respond with the words: I am an artist. Not only are the artworks expressions of their own creativity, they are testament to their resilience.
The project concludes with the children attending the launch of an exhibition of their artworks, curated by Taree Public Library, and on view from Wednesday 22nd September 2010.
A book of the artworks has also been created. Each child has been given their own copy of the book and a certificate acknowledging their work. The book is now available as part of the Greater Taree Library collection.
An online version can be viewed at our website
