The third and final workshop of the a-n Writer Development Programme 2019-20 took place on Friday 21 February at Tate Liverpool.
Hosted by Liverpool-based writers/editors and co-founders of The Double Negative website Laura Robertson and Mike Pinnington, the afternoon was a lively combination of informative chat, discussion and writing exercises.
Drawing on Laura and Mike’s experience of different aspects of art writing from the journalistic to experimental, this workshop also took a closer look at the role of interpretation and specifically gallery wall texts.
After introductions and the sharing of publishing industry tips gleaned from their experience with The Double Negative and working freelance, we visited Tate’s ‘Constellations’ exhibition for some live writing exercises.
‘Constellations’ draws on Tate’s collection and explores ‘the links between artists and artworks’ through six groupings of different works. We focused on the Barbara Kruger constellation which includes pieces by 11 artists including Lorna Simpson, John Stezaker and Chris Ofili.
The writers were challenged to write short texts in a variety of styles, responding to a work of their choice. This was followed by a closer look at Tate’s own accompanying interpretation before we returned to the workshop room for more writing and discussion.
The task following this workshop is to write a 600-word profile piece on a ‘Constellations’ artwork, building on the 100-word Tate wall text and including quotes. All the articles will be published on this blog.
