Year 11s get creative at Grayson Perry exhibition

On Tuesday 30 January, the Art GCSE Year 11 group were given the unique opportunity to view the Grayson Perry: The Life of Julie Cope exhibition, showing at the art gallery Firstsite in Colchester.

The students were given a guided tour around the exhibition to take in the distinctive presentation of tapestries, woodcuts, ceramics and tiles designed by the Turner Prize-winning artist for ‘A House for Essex’ (2015), the building designed by the artist in collaboration with FAT Architecture.

‘A House for Essex’ serves as a secular chapel to the memory of a fictional Essex woman, Julie Cope, created by Perry. Situated overlooking the scenic Stour estuary in the village of Wrabness in north-east Essex, the house is both an artwork in itself and the setting for a number of artworks by Perry that explore the special character and unique qualities of the county.

The girls viewed the exhibition which includes all four large-scale tapestries made for the house as well as sketchbooks, drawings and photographs that chart its development.

A creative art session followed, with a selection of materials for the girls to use for portrait-style applique techniques.  This tied in well with their current Art GCSE topic ‘Fragments’ in which they are exploring the idea of experimenting and rearranging images and materials to create different patterns. They are looking forward to transferring the skills learnt in to their GCSE work in the classroom.