Intensive Course, Helsinki, Stockholm and Bergen
The schools in Helsinki, Bergen and Stockholm have run a successive intensive course (IC) in drawing. The aims of the course were: ” To concentrate on drawing as tool for visual thinking. Special focus on graphic designers and photographers and how praxis of drawing changes their working methods and processes as well as their visual thinking. The course was a continuation of an earlier course when in spring 2007, 15 students from Konstfack, from Graphic Design and Illustration program and Fine Art program were in Helsinki 8th – 10th of May. Junior lecturers Anita Malmquist and Chunlee WanGurt from Fine Art and Professor in Illustration Andreas Berg were with them.
The objectives were stipulated as follows:
- Can you have drawing as a method in your artistic process?
- Can you travel in your memory by help of drawing?
- Can you think by drawing or do you have to think !rst before drawing or afterwards when you have !nished your drawing?
The program for the Intensive Course was as follows:
1. Tuesday 14th of April
Draw an important place ( drawing by memory) Try to show the place to
people who haven’t been there. Use different projections, not only central
perspective.
2. Wednesday 15th of April
Draw an important happening in your life.
3. Thursday 16th of April
Draw a dream! A dream you have dreamt or a dream you would like to come
true
4. Friday 17th of April
Continue one of those you started earlier ( Masters students from Stockholm
have another course)
5. Saturday 18th of April
Excursion
And here is a report from the organizer about what happened:
The Second Day Easter we Finns met at the Railway Station in Helsinki at quarter to three in the afternoon. We were seven with two bicycles. We arrived to Turku at 17 where we looked at Marja Nurminen’s solo exhibition at Galleria Nefret. After that we ate our first dinner together in Nepalese Restaurant Sikhar. We took a train to Turku harbour and started our journey to Stockholm.
At 6. 30 we arrived to my former hometown and we waited for the boys with bikes and finally I called them. The first accident has happened to Antti, who fell over. He could take himself to the hospital after we had checked us in the hotel.
After first hour Elisabet Sagefors came and she bought material and showed a very simple ways to draw with graphite and use white paint as eraser. This was a concrete way for the students to get started: draw an important place (drawing from memory) – try to show the place to people who haven’t been there; use different projections, not just central perspective, was the task for the first day. At four o’clock we all went to Museum of Modern Art to see Japanese artist Tabaimo’s exhibition. Her animations are built on drawing and they show places and personal experiences the way our workshop was planned to do, too. We saw also Andreas Gursky’s works from 1980-2008 in a big exhibition. After these exhibitions we also looked at the marvelous permanent collections at Museum of Modern Art.
On Wednesday we started at 9 am with the David Hockney at the Tate video where he showed his exhibition and specially one painting of his friends house and a way to this house, too. This painting was also a map at the same time. After that we started a new task: draw an important event in your life!
On Thursday, I showed slides by Jockum Nordström, Helene Billgren, Carin Ellberg, Julie Roberts, Ann Wåhlander, Johan Zetterqvist, Jens Fänge, Klara Kristallova, Roger Andersson, Lars Arrhenius, Gunilla Klingberg, Niklas Eneblom and some of my own work relevant to the workshop assignments. On Friday at four o’clock, some brave students took on the possibility to go and see Nationalmuseum and the exhibition The Pre-Raphaelites. In that exhibition students were especially interested in photographer Tom Hunter’s work.
On Friday Kate Madsen had a lecture on street art and drawing from the digital point of view. Before lunch, students could continue their work and then we hung all drawings on the walls. We drew lots on who would give constructive feedback to whom. At the lunch we teachers decided that we shouldn´t talk so much and we really didn´t need to do that because students gave very good feedback to each other.
On Saturday we made a walk around galleries in Stockholm. We started at Gallery Magnus Karlsson and saw Roger Anderssons and Lars Arrhenius exhibition, at Olsson Gallery we saw Lars Olof Loelds exhibition. We went also to The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and saw exhibition of Suzanne Nessim, Karin Granqvist and Martin Åhlund. Afterwards, we took underground to Östermalm and went Gallery Niklas Belenius to see Monica Hölls Exhibition called Crazy Drawing Room. We continued to Gallery Roger Björkholmen to see Thomas Elofssons exhibition. At Gallery Lars Bohman we saw Jussi Niva’s paintings. Helene Billgrens drawings we could see at Angelika Knäpper Gallery, at Crystal Palace we could take part of Catti Brandelius feministic silk-screens. At Alp gallery Peter Bergman we saw fantastic pumpkin made by Roland Persson and some paintings by Martin Åhlund. And because this wasn´t enough we took one gallery house and could see more exhibitions. At Gallery Andersson Sandström we saw Allison Gildersleeves painting. At Flach and Thulin we were fascinated by Kristina Bengths watercolours. At Andréhn-Sciptjenko we saw Jacob Dahlgren´s works. At Nordenhake we didn´t like Scott Olson´s exhibition at all. At Brändström we saw Thomas Sandells and Jakob Ojanen`s exhibitions. This was guite a heavy package of Art but the weather was nice and we saw one magnolia in full flower.
October 28, 2009
Posted in: COURSE REPORTS
