Reclaiming Sculpture

Three dimensional artwork in the majority of schools increasingly seems to be left behind, possibly because of the lack of space and time needed and often the cost of materials. So as part of Art Week  in schools this summer I am promoting the idea of recycling unwanted objects into sculptures. I see this as my next quest - to share the vast assortment of materials donated, collected and found for the Heavy Plant Crossing with young people to make sculptures.

My first workshop reclaiming objects this week was with twelve 15 year old pupils at Penicuik High School. This was their first opportunity to make sculpture and to work collaboratively. Initially bemused by the strange array of materials they quickly picked up objects and began to fathom out how they could join them together. Abandoning  pre-conceived ideas of what they might construct e.g. unicorns etc they gradually let the materials suggest what might be possible. The ideas began to take the most wonderful shapes and within a few hours we had three very different  humorous sculptures with evocative titles -Colin the Tourist - Jealous White Lies - C644 LTN - each with fabulous back stories. 

Definitely the way to go in introducing sculpture in schools, especially as reclaiming materials is  free and inspires such imaginative artworks and associated story lines with a strong sustainable message.