#thompsonhall

Thompson Hall details his experience of taking part in Outside In’s Talking About Art Course. Tutor: Tanya Harris.

“It was a huge honour to be selected to take part in the course. I feel I learned a lot about how to present my work to an audience and techniques for how to deal with difficult questions and get feedback on my work.

The first session was on Monday, 28 October. We started by watching videos of various artists talking about their work. Then we each selected one image of our work and we talked about it for 5 minutes. We gave each other feedback on these presentations. To end the session we each choose a postcard and described how it made us feel.

The second session was on Monday, 4 November. We looked at images of our own work and thought about how we could talk about it. For example, what type of language to use during the talk. Tanya told us to remind ourselves to think about the questions the audience might ask, how to engage with the audience, how to present the work and how to put the important messages across. We also thought about why it is important to talk about your work.

The final session was on Wednesday 6 November. In the morning we reviewed everything we had learned. Then in the afternoon we each gave 10 minute presentations, using images of our work.

I did feel that I gave a good account of myself on Wednesday, in the way I explained various aspects of my work and I did welcome some questions from the audience about and afterwards we sat in a circle and gave feedback on how well we did at presenting.

Thompson Hall and Ian Wornast during the Autograph Gallery Workshop

Thompson Hall and Ian Wornast have been really busy researching and developing new work for their Unlimited Emerging Artists Commission.During this first stage of their project, they have been exploring London through exhibitions and sights and looking back on their own life in London and examining what London means to them now. They have visited many exhibitions including David Hockney and Giacometti. The visits that had the biggest impact on both were: a workshop at The Autograph Gallery workshop, Chris Ofili at the National Gallery and Camille Walala at NOW Gallery. The Autograph Gallery workshop was a great experience where both Thompson and Ian recalled childhood memories of London based on the pictures they saw from the archives. Thompson relayed Ghanaian traditions told to him by his grandfather and Ian told his family stories of growing up in South London. Thompson’s initial ideas were strongly influenced by the Chris Ofili’s tapestry with its flowing watery figures, Caribbean storytelling and the woven aspect of the piece. Here he created a series of drawings which led to paintings and woven paintings and a greater interest in African fabrics and their stories too.

Ian Wornast and Thompson Hall visiting Chris Ofili’s tapestry

Following this, Thompson met with Christopher Spring, The African Galleries curator at the British Museum, to understand more about Ghanaian fabrics, their symbols and their colours. Thompson really enjoyed speaking with Chris and it really made him think about how to integrate what he learnt in his new work.

Architectural models of the new Greenwich underground

Ian’s inspirations has come from his visits to architectural models of the new Greenwich underground area, the model of the new Battersea Power station and surrounding area, and Camille Walala’s exhibition. He has used image of buildings, bold patterns and colours to create his latest series of drawings and is now looking at making his drawings into 3D models himself.

Thompson Hall and Ian Wornast are currently researching and developing work for their Unlimited Emerging Artist Commission - My Life in London.  In this blog, Thompson Hall writes about their visit to Camille Walala at Now Gallery.

I found the exhibition, WALALA X PLAY, really inspiring in the sense of the fact there was such a variety of things to see and I was able to take lots of photos. 

I found that I had to take off my shoes to look around the installation to view lots of of shapes and colours on display. I have to say that it made me think about my own work and how it relates to the way I am trying to create a sense of African Textiles using a variety of colours which will be integrated into the final body of work. 

Detail of pattern photographed by Thompson Hall, Walala x Play, Now Gallery