Petra Valdimarsdóttir's Workshop at Western Academy of Beijing
BEIJING-
In collaboration between Western Academy of Beijing and Red Gate Residency, in March 2014 Red Gate Resident Petra Valdimarsdóttir planned a three-week art workshop with 110 Grade 5 students and their art teacher Tarna Eupene. The result was a thought provoking and socially relevant project for the students, and a book presenting their work. This workshop marked the official beginning of a partnership between Western Academy of Beijing and Red Gate Residency.
Graphic by Petra Valdimarsdóttir
Petra Valdimarsdóttir, a visual artist and graphic designer from Reykjavik, Iceland, based in Berlin, Germany, called her workshop READING THE NEWS.
Valdimarsdóttir allotted three classes to carry out the workshop. She began by introducing herself and her work to the students. Valdimarsdottir and the students discussed the importance of art and the impact that some artists have had on society. Valdimarsdóttir’s own work involves collecting and archiving large quantities of information and putting them into unconventional visual forms, or ‘info-graphics’, thus making the information more accessible.
Below, an image of Valdimarsdóttir’s work:
At the start of each class, Valdimarsdóttir presented on some of her favourite artists to WAB students. WAB students were also asked to choose an artist or a painting to introduce to their classmates.
THE PROJECT
Using Petra’s framework for creating their work, WAB students were asked to combine words, images and letters from newspapers to create their own news story in the form of a collage. With a wide variety of newspapers, some glue, a pair of scissors and a square piece of paper, students created collages concerning topics they feel are insufficiently represented in the news. The collages turned into literal and figurative interpretations of words, information and pictures, all with a message that was important to the student.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
The final product for the workshop is a printed and bound book designed by Valdimarsdóttir and Eupene, entitled Reading the News. It is a compilation of all the WAB students’ collages. In the introduction to the book, Petra and Tarna noted that these collages mark a point in time between the last days of the printed press and the inevitable migration to news information in purely digital format.
Both Petra and Tarna were thrilled about the project. This was Petra’s first project with kids and said she had not expected it to be such a fulfilling experience, “The students took the project really seriously, and were extremely aware of their political and social environment—it was really fun to see.”
For more information about Petra, visit her website http:/petrappm.nl
For more information about Western Academy of Beijing, www.wab.edu