Public Engagement
When Forms Come Alive, Hayward Gallery
This was our Make Sense – Kentish Town group's second visit to the Hayward Gallery as part of their relaxed hours programme. This time we saw the exhibition ‘When Forms Come Alive’ exploring contemporary sculpture, particularly from the point of view of movement, flux and organic growth.
Something we have been really impressed by, is the Hayward Gallery’s inventiveness to make the relaxed viewings as accessible as possible. At the start of our visit participants were able to co-plan the day using a toolbox of potential activities. These activities were represented both pictorially and textually, helping to bridge any language barriers. The ability to arrange the activities in an order that suited the group gave a sense of co-ownership over our plan, as opposed to being dictated by us.
The content of this particular exhibition was very intuitive in the responses it required from the participants, but in addition to the sculpture, other creative activities made the experience even more participatory. Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome’s workshop took place right underneath Studio Drift’s ‘SHYLIGHT’ a kinetic installation of light and movement. Her practice explores how collaborative performance, can use collective power to create ecologies of care. It was great how Fernanda considered the gallery space’s tendency to be echoey, which for participants with audio sensitivities can make it hard to be involved. To counter this, participants were given headphones making it easier for them to focus on prompts they could make movements to.
Georgia Akbar, who also featured in the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibition, organised an activity reminiscent of the processes we get involved in at the Kentish Health Centre. Held in the glass pavilion next to the cafe, participants built precarious and towering forms, and were asked to think about shadows and light, something we had also been exploring during our mobile making workshops in the weeks prior. It was great to see the group feel confident to engage with this outside their normal work space.
This project has been made possible by the National Lottery Community Fund.
