This week we introduce another new artist and teacher partnership joining the new phase of the Virtually There project, teacher Wendy Davey from Killard House School and visual artist Julie Forrester.

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Teacher Wendy Davey at Killard House School

I have been Teaching Art & Design at Killard House School for 10 yrs having previously taught in Russia and London which was an invaluable experience giving me the opportunity to be involved in a number of Community Art Projects.

Before teaching I worked in Cumbria designing, making and selling bespoke furniture. For the last 10 years I have been developing the Art & Design teaching to children with Moderate Learning Difficulties, alongside my involved with the Prince’s Trust and the Young Enterprise N.I.

Within the last 3 years I have been working with the local exam board CCEA developing my skills and using my experience through my role as Principal Moderator for Entry level Art & Design; thus having a direct influence on the way Art & Design is taught in Northern Ireland.

Cork based Visual Artists Julie Forrester

My working practice arises out of projects with people, this project encounter provides a catalyst for delving into areas of perception, materiality and presence. Research is process based and intuitive and can take the form of making, reading and responding to shared or observed discoveries.  Results are often provisional – halting places – rather than completed or fully-formed products, and can take the form of object, arrangement, enactment, moving image, sound, drawing and writing.

I have been involved with Virtually There on projects at Our Lady of Lourdes and Sacred Heart Primary Schools.  My experience of the project has been that work is very much influenced by the remoteness of virtual contact. Presence hovers, responses are delayed, there is plenty of room for slippage and (mis)interpretation, a kind of creative corruption. This delay inspired our process at Our Lady of Lourdes where we developed a practice of instruction drawings inspired by the works of Sol le Wit and other Fluxus artists. Our ‘drawing recipes’ were a playful strategy to explore the gap between one artist’s intention and another’s interpretation. Works toured with the Virtually There exhibitions, providing a dynamic tool for visitor interactions.

I am excited by the performative potential of materials. In The Sacred Heart School we were looking at discarded objects as performing characters. This approach led us to develop ideas on a theme park called “Wasteland” – suggested by teacher Natasha Harriott’s interest in Banksy’s (anti)theme park “Dismaland”. Again, studio activity mirrored classroom activity and vice versa, becoming an immersive creative loop.

I am very much looking forward to teaming up with Wendy Davey and her year 10s. Teenagers! It will be exciting to see what emerges between us in the coming weeks. We are getting to grips with the technology at the moment, and we are beginning by playing with parallel universes of virtual and material, helped along by a visit to David Hockney’s “I draw I do” at the Mac.

You can also view Julie’s project journal’s at projects.kidsown.ie/killard-house-school-artist-journal/.