On Saturday, February, 13, the PinchukArtCentre held the first workshop "Line" in the framework of the ArtLAB educational program with Anna Zvyagintseva. The tutors of the art center, who had developed the workshop, met participants at the reception and accompanied them to the educational room where the artist was waiting for them. Anna told about herself and her practice, explained the basic principles of drawing and line.
Then the children drew each other using the technique of fast sketching. Each participant had at their disposition just a marker and paper to do so. They had only one minute for one picture and the time was fixed by stopwatch. The next task was to guess who had been depicted by whom on the sketches. It is interesting that for many children such a technique was unusual and unexpected.
In the second part of the workshop participants along with the artist and tutors proceeded to the exposition. In front of her work "The order of things" Anna asked the children what they thought about her work. The kids, in their turn, had the opportunity to ask questions about the installation and the ideas that Anna followed.
The next part of the workshop was an exciting game called "Hunting for a visitor." Participants had a task to choose a visitor in the space of the art center and quickly sketch them. Some visitors were impressed by the process and took pictures with young authors and their portraits.
Thereafter participants, the artist and the tutors returned to the educational room. Each child chose their most successful sketch. Anna gave a difficult yet interesting task on scaling. The selected drawing was to be put on a large sheet of paper in a larger size while maintaining proportions and details.
The final stage of the workshop was the most interesting! All the participants were divided into three teams and they drew together their heroes. Each team was given their own material - corrugated cardboard, wire and insulating rubber tape. Following the artist’s advice and instructions, the participants recreated their drawings in a large size similar to Anna Zvyagintseva’s project.
Corrugated cardboard was torn into strips forming a male figure. A female figure was created with the help of rubber band then it was pasted on a black board. Wire was used to design a character wearing glasses suspended to the ceiling.
As a summary of the first workshop, we provide a commentary by Anna Gonchar, the art centre tutor:
"It's amazing how Anna, with her calm and quiet demeanor, managed to keep the attention of that large audience! Also what is worth of special attention is the fast drawing technique. Some of the participants did not get into it immediately as the sketching technique is not that simple and age appropriate for children. But they got the gist during the process; and the result exceeded both tutors’ and the artist’s expectations. Especially fun was the game called “Hunting for a Visitor”, where the visitors of the art center willingly posed to children and then took pictures with their images. Despite the workshop’s length - 2.5 hours – no one looked tired. Moreover, the workshop lasted one hour longer than planned, because it was interesting to everyone - participants, tutors, and the artist".
The next workshop of the ArtLAB program will be held in March. Follow the announcements of the PinchukArtCentre!
