Smashing Things With Hammers

An introduction to Process Art; a powerful metaphor for the life process itself. This workshop introduces the notion that a work of art can be just as much about process than outcome. It introduces play- through the destruction and reconstruction of everyday objects- as a critically important skill that professional artists use to generate creative process, ideas and discourse. Using Jackie Winsors ‘Exploded Piece’ (1980-1982) as a starting point students are engaged in a short lecture about historically significant Process Artworks and then given the opportunity to try out some process art themselves in Testing Grounds vast, stress free space that invites fun, messy and physical creative exploration by young minds. Students finish the workshop by presenting their reconstructed objects to the group. The workshop is documented by a Testing Grounds team member and sent to the teacher for keepsake.

Duration: 2 hours.

Short introduction to the site followed by a 15 minute historical lecture about performance art using projector (if possible). 1 hour of workshop time (including clean up) followed by 30 minutes of presentation/conclusion.

Materials: Every day objects for smashing (example: watemelon, ceramic kettle, shirt), tapes, threads, string, rope, glue, wire, paper…