ROCK PAPER SCISSORS Sadegh Aleahmad 1 Sep 2021 – 31 Jul 2023 Back 9 5 4 ROCK PAPER SCISSORS in-school project bought together Sadegh Aleahmad and Year 2 Mars Class at Grange Primary School, over the Spring Term 2022. The classroom was like a laboratory for experimentation. Activities had children drawing with mirrors, torches, long long-exposure photography and tracing dancing shadows! ‘Artist’s never give up!’ became a motto for the project as children embraced challenging new ideas and material processes. The project culminated in a sculpture made collaboratively with the children. Their mirror drawings suspended within a tangled form of copper tubing, has been planted into the garden, reflecting the school environment in the web of lines and surfaces. Sadegh set up a Family Studio in December 2022 working with families to explore portraits through drawing directly onto mirror, translating them into line sculptures and then shadow play. Following on from his in-school project, families could experiment with light and tracing moving shadows in a studio-like environment. Sadegh also worked with Year 2 and a SEN group at Tower Bridge Primary School, over the summer term 2023. Both groups experimented with light, shadow and colour through playful and performative drawing. The groups explored what art is and what art can be. One child discovered that ‘Art is everything! Art is all the things around you! It could be anything in this room, it could be your own body’. The children’s project culminated into a parade of their intricate mirror sculptures that were suspended with helium balloons. Sadegh Aleahmad is a London based Iranian-born artist who examines the construction of his diasporic identity through performance, sculpture, drawing and photography. His work de-territorialises various Islamic disciplines, detaching them from their personal, religious and socio-political connotations, and fuses them with the aesthetics and ethics of Western contemporary artmaking. Sadegh has a background in science and a PhD in Fine Art from Kingston School of Art. His current practice spans solo work and community collaborations. Thank you to all involved: Children of Year 2, SEN group, Tower Bridge Primary School Children of Year 2, Mars Class, Grange Primary School Akhera Williams, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Betsy Dadd, Learning Curator, Drawing Room Caitriona Mitchell, Year 2 Teacher, Tower Bridge Primary School Cora Sehgal Cuthbert, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Genevieve Miller, Learning Coordinator, Drawing Room Misty Ingham, Projects Curator, Drawing Room Olivia Abrahams, Teacher, Grange Primary School Rebecca Benjamins, Headteacher, Grange Primary School Sadegh Aleahmad, Artist Solomon Williams, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Yasha Bravo Teixeira, Teaching Assistant, Tower Bridge Primary School Scrapbook There were no squiggly lines at the beginning of the project. Children are taught they shouldn’t draw like that. This project encouraged them to completely let go and draw as if they were dancing! Sadegh Aleahmad, Artist The pupils developed a deeper understanding and love for art. They gained a better understanding of what art can be, what it is in their opinion and how it can be developed. Olivia Abrahams, Teacher I didn’t draw a thing. I drew an experience. Julien, child I told them to draw what it feels like to be dancing. Cora Sehgal Cuthbert, Workshop Assistant Sadegh Aleahmad also distributed a printed poem which encapsulated the message he wanted to convey through his project – that ‘everyone can be an artist and art can be found anywhere depending on who is trying to find it!’ Being an artist is having fun! Eric, child Art can be weird because art is art! Anna, child If I was sad and I was drawing aimlessly it would probably be a sad drawing. Anna, child