Our next workshop in the series is a street art workshop at Aspex Gallery with local artist Roo Abrook. The inspiration for this element of the project came to me after I had been away from Portsmouth for a few years and on my return was surprised to see so much wonderful street art around the city. In particular I loved all the paste-ups and this really captured my imagination. I thought, what if someone were to use this kind of street art to cast a spell, as a form of urban shamanism. That was very much one of the starting points for the whole project.
So we invite you all to join artist Roo Abrook in a street art workshop that will get you making your own PASTE-UP ready to exhibit and share with the world. Yes, we do plan to put them up around the city (I am encouraged to say legally with bluetac and sellotape).
If you don’t know already, a PASTE-UP is a kind of street art that usually takes the form of a poster that is either handmade or printed, often using stencils and collage to create an image. The advantage of this technique is that it can be prepared away from the street where it will be finally displayed. Allowing the artist to develop complex and enthralling images with which to decorate the urban environment. Watch the video below if you want to see some paste-up artists in action.
The theme for this workshop will be URBAN MAGIC. We would like to challenge the participants to imagine their paste-up as a form of spell casting, a manifestation of the urban shaman, influencing us to ‘open our eyes and see the magic around us’. Our aim is for the work produced at the workshop to tie in with the wider project themes and imagery. But we also want to provide an open space for people to be creative.
The workshop is for all ages (16+) and any experience. You don’t need to bring anything other than your creativity and enthusiasm. At the end of the day you will take away a finished piece(s) of work and there may also be an opportunity to include it in a forthcoming exhibition. If you want to find out more about the exhibition check out the page on this website that has all you could possibly need to know.
Roo Abrook works with mixed media collage using her own original paintings mainly depicting portraits of women and children, posing questions about beauty, youth, and time. Drawing on Edwardian postcards, lens generated imagery of flora and fauna she assembles collages using a combination of traditional and experimental printing, mark making and screen prints with acrylic paints, spray paints, pencils, pens, spray guns, varnishes and finishes.
Join us at Aspex Gallery for this workshop in creative shamanism for the urban artist!
Tickets are £10 inc. materials (numbers will be limited to 12 places). You can purchase these directly via the Eventbrite page for the project HERE!
10am-4pm (with a lunch break), Sunday 15th September 2019, Aspex Gallery, Gunwharf Quays, The Vulcan, Portsmouth, PO1 3BF.
Supported by Arts Council England, Groundlings Theatre, Aspex Gallery and University of Portsmouth.
A ‘Cursed City - Dark Tide’ event: https://thesnowwitch.com/
Publicity image: e-lepidoptera by @thisisludo (Paris 2010)