ELLIE BARRETT

ALL KINDS OF HANDS

All Kinds of Hands: an exhibition of co-produced sculpture

CURATOR
Ellie Barrett

All Kinds of Hands imagined sculpture as something formed by different people. Offering new models for making which venture beyond individual vision, works by five artists from across the UK presented sculpture as a means of engaging communities, welcoming alternative perspectives, and positioning art practice as a collaborative field. Pieces on display included object-based artworks, sculptural environments and site specific projects exhibited via documentation. The exhibition morphed the gallery from a place of silent contemplation into a space for making, talking, exploring and playing.

Five different approaches to involving people in the making process are embodied in each practice. Ellie Barrett uses the playgroup setting to facilitate intergenerational collaboration through exploring domestic craft materials. Nisha Duggal invites conversation through making and walking to encourage consideration of the relationship between belonging and landscape. Beata Podstawa works closely with her son in order to access her own imaginative view of the world. Assunta Ruocco offers a co-created space for making, activated by a workshop to share collaborative creative methods developed with her daughter Lou. Sarah Ryder works with children to create a reconfigurable setting for explorative play, presenting sculpture as fluctuating and changeable. All of these approaches are directly concerned with increasing public access to art making, involving different voices in shaping works of sculpture, and considering shared experiences – such as playing, drawing, walking and talking – as existing ways of producing.

I exhibited Tangles 1 – 6, which were co-produced by young children aged 0-5 and their grown ups. From January to March, I ran a series of six free creative playgroups (“Everyday Play”) in Morecambe. Parents and carers were invited to engage in unstructured, explorative play with their children using six materials (masking tape, pipe cleaners, tin foil, toilet roll, tissue paper, wool). Each material has different textures, colours and functions. They may be manipulated and combined in many different ways without specialist equipment or training. Attendees made toys, costumes, dens, sculptures and playscapes. The six sculptures were made by gathering all the remnants of play into a single object at the end of each session, creating a complex form which entraps hours of creative exploration. My 3-year-old daughter was a collaborator in the development of the sessions and sculptures.

These sculptures were exhibited alongside documentation of the playgroup sessions, and a series of textile banners which were used as prompts and environment setting. These questions each relate to ways of playing with my daughter, activities which informed the development of the playgroups.

Since working with children was an underlying theme of many of the works, the exhibition involved family friendly events, including a child-inclusive opening event and a creative workshop led by Assunta Ruocco and her 9-year-old daughter, Lou. The space presented opportunities for children and adults to intervene in the works, responding to the pieces on display.