- Venue
- Dalry Primary School
- Location
As part of the programme of artworks integral with the innovative new Dalry Primary School building, artists’ group Fiveplustwo was commissioned to develop a series of visits and events at the school that encouraged the children and teachers to investigate and explore their environment and new school building. This culminated in a five-day event in November 2007 called Measure by Measure.
Fiveplustwo are all former postgraduate students of Bruce McLean at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. They are Natalia Charogianni, Bryan Parsons, Patrick Loan, Michael Wedgwood, Eddie Farrell and Graham Hayward.
Measure by Measure happened over five days at the school in November 2007. The group had previously documented the height of the school by marking each child and teacher in colour on a roll of paper. This covered the whole of the games hall floor, and then, with the help of the children this was overlaid with a scaled architectural plan of the school.
Over the following days the group mapped out with each class their journey from classroom to games hall, filming and marking out the routes on the floor. They also helped each child on the school to make their own individual ‘costume’ from a cardboard box that was stacked in the shape and colour unique to their class. Primary 1 had a one-sided shape (a circle), Primary 2 a two-sided (semi-circle), on up to Primary 7’s heptagon. All activities were filmed and animated with the children, including accompanying sound recordings and compositions.
On the final day the whole school gathered for the grand finale in the games hall to put on their box costumes and parade in a long line around the inside and outside of the school, to the accompaniment of their sound compositions and films made during the week. Each child was presented with a DVD showing animated films of each visit and part of the preparations.
What was striking about the whole carefully prepared programme of investigative events was the way the artists involved every single member of the school, and yet never compromised their vision of creating a professional and innovative artwork project. The grand finale had all the children contributing to and being entertained by the event in equal measure – they were participating in a collective exploratory and creative process and being audience to it at the same time.
None of the artists working on either the school design or its subsequent exploration and interpretation has even considered that children are not fully capable of accepting and engaging with innovative ideas and contemporary art practice. It is exciting and fulfilling to see rigorous professionalism and innovation having an integral part in children’s lives.
Information about the group’s work at the school, including documentation of preparatory visits, can be found on www.fiveplustwo.co.uk Information about the building of the school in collaboration with artists in on www.primaryspace.net
