Nexus is an exhibition that reflects connection, collaboration and partnerships formed by the Education Unit in Cork Prison (Cork ETB).
The Kaleidoscope of painting and print integrated with mosaic, pyrography and match-work create a narrative symbolizing the essence of incarceration. Ceramics and textiles are interwoven to illustrate and combine the practice of observational research alongside craftsmanship. Visual Thinking strategies are employed throughout to encourage investigation through the creative process in partnership with UCC.
Nexus is inspired by kinship in the Education Unit giving agency to every student regardless of experience. This exhibition has been curated to feature a broad scope of work born from individual practice but united in synergy and collective.
VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES
Since 2017, there has been a creative synergy between University College Cork and the Education Unit, Cork Prison, (Cork ETB) fostering visual thinking strategies to disrupt power imbalances by promoting a convivial learning environment in the art studios.
We set up our conversations about art by asking our students: What do you see? How is it made? What questions would you ask of the work? These questions promote a student-centered approach to learning. The studio artworks are student responses to these questions. You can see visual thinking strategies played out in the two totem installations based on close reading by the students of two paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland in this exhibition:
“A Convent Garden, Brittany” by William John Leech, c.1913 and “Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid” by Johannes Vermeer, c.1670.
In “A Convent Garden, Brittany”, Leech’s painting reflects an interest in the religious devotion of the Breton community that Leech shared with many visiting artists. The students, in their response to Leech’s work, have specifically chosen to respond to the artist’s love of sunlight and floral patterns, culminating in the sculptural forms of the lilies as the termination of the totem.
In “Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid” a maidservant stares out of a window, her mistress writes a letter. In the foreground of the original painting on the floor, lie a red seal, a stick of sealing wax and an object which is probably a letter-writing manual, often used for personal correspondence at the time. The students, in their response to Vermeer, have chosen to respond to colour and the pattern of the tiled floor as distilled from the original illusionistic painting. The work of visual thinking strategies, aimed at encouraging students to question how to see with intention by looking closely at a work of art in order to respond to its affect on them, is orientated towards promotion of freedom of creative expression by student-inmates who reflect on their experiences of incarceration as a stage on their journey out of crime.
James G. R. Cronin,
University College Cork
To find out more about the 2022 ‘Story’ exhibition, visit: https://www.spikeislandcork.ie/exhibition-story/
