Stanley Picker Gallery

The Liquid Game Workshop Review
First published in The Griffin Newsletter, Southborough High School (February 2014 edition)

Year 12 & 13 trip to the Stanley Picker Gallery by Gemma Kwon (12LMN)

From what Ive heard from some art students, all art trips to galleries and museums are the same. As a student who, until now, hadnt studied art for 3 years, I had no experience or much interest in visiting an art gallery. I therefore took the opportunity to visit the Stanley Picker Gallery along with my 6th Form art class in order to see for myself what it was really like. It was also my second trip since joining Southborough 6th Form so I was looking forward to it anyway.

When we went into the gallery, we met Natalie Kay, the Participation Curator, and she talked us through a little bit about the gallery and the artists. We then split into groups so we could take turns to go in the exhibition room. While the first group went in, the rest of us went just outside the gallery where there was the Hogsmill River. The task was to look at a section of a part of the river and sketch it, trying to emphasize the details e.g. the water flowing. The rules were to keep the pencil on the paper without taking it off the paper even once. The idea was that in the end, the sketch should look like loads of lines joined together, quite in detail if done well. It was a new technique and most of us struggled as we have never tried this technique before.

I was in the last group so I was one of the last people to go into the Gallery and have a look. As we went in, it felt a little mysterious, since it was all dark and all you can see is a little screen showing slides of pictures of different things like bones and fossils. There was also a big board of text next to it, approximately a paragraph. I dont exactly remember what all of it said, but there was a part which got me thinking and also which Mr Crooks pointed out. It was three words, love the unknown. I thought about this, asking myself how can you love something that is almost unexpected and not identifiable? We then went into the main part of the exhibition; it was quite dark and felt very mysterious as we were also given a torch each. First, I was really confused because of the dim atmosphere and the spooky curtains that were blowing away as we walked into the exhibition. When we got further inside, there was a little room which had different artworks around the walls, ceiling and even the floor. It felt like we were surrounded by different elements of artworks all around. The interesting part was that there were different moving images, different layers to suggest like its all one piece. There were also some sort of scent and sound in the room which really made the atmosphere mysterious with the works in the room. We used the torches to look at the artworks which were stuck on the wall; there were a variety- faces and textures all into one piece, like a collage. I really liked the artists idea, how the works surrounded us, the people in there. Also I loved the idea of putting the moving images on the floor and I particularly liked it when the sea waves were coming in, making us feel like were really there at the seaside.

We did quite a few tasks overall throughout the trip, which was rather unexpected as I thought we would be doing more of the looking-around the gallery, looking at the paintings and sculptures made by different artists. What I personally think that made the trip quite fun and interesting was that we all did something practical, creating something that wasnt planned and in such short time as well.

Personally, I was surprised how creative everyone was, even the teachers were really getting into the task! I could feel that everyone had a great passion in art. I also found it enjoyable when we all got together and tried the technique used by the artist, filming our own backgrounds and putting our own work up on the wall and trying different things to make it into one. I thought it was going to be really hard and complicated but was quite surprised from the outcome which came out really cool and I certainly discovered a new way of creating art.

At the end of the day, I realized how love the unknown gave me a lesson in art, relating that art isnt all about planning and getting the artwork to look perfect. From personal experience, I was more into design technology in my previous school, so for me, I was used to getting the perfect measurements and getting the drawing to look easy and clear to understand. However, from the trip, I have realized how its good to try new things- sometimes you think it just wont look good but actually, you wouldnt even know because you havent even tried. Ive also learnt how art isnt all about the amazing paintings and the sculptures but the history of the artwork and the artist. Looking at artwork in more depth allows you to see the real beauty of art- if you look closely enough; you can actually feel some sort of emotions that the artists have put into their work. Its not about how perfect the artwork looks but the emotions and thoughts that has gone into the work. Ive also realized its not just about the paintings and sculptures that are classified as art but its about delivering some sort of message to the person who is looking at your work and that art can be shown through visual, sound, smell and emotions.