October 2017, I was invited to design and lead a workshop at The Ferens Gallery in Hull, in response to the Turner Prize, currently on show there. My remit was to create a one day drawing workshop accessible to all, inspired by one of the Turner Prize artists and informed by my own practice.
I selected the playful composite figures and hybrid identities of Lubaina Himid’s work: ‘…to communicate, negotiate, see what is the same about us and glory in our differences..’ I also work with the composite figure, often via collage and mixed media. I made use of these processes in the workshop within the ‘Exquisite Corpse’ format, whereby hybrid figures are made by 4 different ‘hands’. This means there is no single authorship, the drawings are a collaboration, until the moment comes to individualise a figure, to develop and consolidate it. I took the participants on a kind of ‘visual journey’, introducing one medium/process after another.
The outcomes were truly striking drawings, that collectively presented a powerful presence in the studio.
