Art Department Review
Art Department Review – 2013
This installation piece has derived out of a review process which an Art department in North London has been under over the course of 18 months, and aims to symbolise the restrictions and challenges Art education is confronted with under the current educational reform.
The installation text is an amalgamation of official documents over the review period, such as reports, observation notes, and moderator reports from exam boards. The language in these reflects the focus on assessment, progress and attainment, in turn the emphasis of the current educational changes.
In this installation I am intending to visualise the structure and consistency across the department that has been achieved by modelling our goals on the rigor and consistency sought by government policy and in turn by the school. This is reflected in the strict arrangement of the text strips across the space. Though it creates a clear structure, it reflects the restrictions imposed and experienced by teachers, as the viewer navigates through the space. The intention is to challenge the movement of the viewer, as they have to step over and duck under the areas of text. Symbolising hurdles being taken, meeting and overcoming challenges. The viewer has to choose themselves, where to take a hurdle or whether their course of path is merely altered by the judgement.
As the visitors negotiated through the space, the arrangement got altered and the paper got torn over the time of the exhibition.
The installation after the exhibition showed traces of interaction whilst visualising the struggles of a continuous review process.
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