Research behind the inspiration for the third workshop in Rose Cottage:
When I began looking for inspiration for workshop number three I again went through the Meet me at MOMA matrix lists. My eyes alighted on humour in the topic section. Humour in life and in art is very powerful and many artists have used this trope to discuss difficult political or human issues to great effect.
For this workshop I decided to explore the work of two contemporary artists. Firstly I choose Banksy and his world famous piece ‘Girl with a red ballon’, which has appeared in different guises over the years. Below I have outlined some information on Banksy and the artwork’s history.
Banksy is one of the world’s most renowned artists. Born in Bristol, UK, in 1974, he has become a household name by creating beautiful and truly thought-provoking art – which is seems to appear in public overnight. Banksy began his career as a graffiti artist and began using stencils in the late ‘90s.
Girl With Balloon, is one of Banksy’s most notable works. It depicts a young girl, whose hair and dress are blowing in the wind, reaching for, or releasing, a red, heart-shaped balloon that has slipped from her grasp, flying out of reach. The red balloon is an archetypal symbol many of us connect with, as the only spot of colour in the work, more than a child’s toy, the red balloon evokes fragility of what it stands for: innocence, dreams, hope and love. Whether you see the girl as losing the balloon, or about to catch it, the meaning can be interpreted as a loss of innocence, or the arrival of hope and love. The original street art piece included etched into the wall to the right of the little girl, are the words THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE.
On 5 October 2018, a 2006 framed copy, one of the limited edition of this artwork was auctioned at Sotheby’s selling for £1,042,000 – a record high for the artist. Moments after the closing bid, the artwork began to self-destruct by means of a hidden mechanical paper shredder that Banksy had built into the frame bottom. Only the lower half shredded. Banksy released an image of the shredding on Instagram with the words “Going, going gone..” The partially shredded work has been given a new title, Love Is in the Bin.
The second artist I chose to offer up to the clients for a discussion was Bobby Baker. In fact the discussion around her piece entitled ‘Diary drawing day 771’ and that of Banksy’s was one of the liveliest of all the workshops.
Bobby Baker:
Bobby Baker (born 1950, Kent) is a multi-disciplinary artist and activist working across performance, drawing and multi-media. Baker is the artistic director of the arts organisation Daily Life Ltd. A hallmark of Baker’s work is food being used as an artistic medium. As John Daniel writes, ‘Food – shopping for it, cooking it, serving it, consuming it – is a consistent feature in Baker’s work, which focuses on the seemingly mundane, everyday details of life’ (2007:246) Drawing from her own personal and family experiences, her work explores the relationship between art and lived experience and addresses the splitting of women’s domestic and professional lives.
This drawing is a hilarious fusion of a self portrait and one of the bridges, which span over the River Thames in London. The work also incorporates a lock moat at her chin and a rowing boat, kayak and day cruiser boat in her head and numerous people going about their daily lives.
Baker’s 2009 Welcome Trust Diary Drawing exhibition about her experience of illness and recovery launched her onto a worldwide platform. As an internationally acclaimed female artist with personal experience of mental illness and physical disability, Baker offers an authentic figure of recovery and leadership through the use of humor and creativity.
Workshops kindly funded by the Adelaide Health Foundation, Community Health Initiative Scheme 2019
Supported by The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. Special thanks to Alan Carrick, Mary Mooney, Silva Schwer and all the staff, clients and friends of Rose Cottage.
Art and Dementia projects 