ROCK PAPER SCISSORS Rhys Coren 1 September 2023 – 30 August 2024 Back Rhys Coren Images For his first Family Studio Rhys Coren invited children and families to create vibrant collages of local landmarks which were transformed into GIF animations! People were invited to draw into photocopies of the neighbourhood and bring them to life through this playful stop-motion process and project onto the Community studio walls! Over the Spring Term, Rhys worked with two Year 5 classes from Phoenix Primary School considering the locality through playful animation process. Children were given free reign to work into printed photocopies of the local area adding colour, marks, motifs and narrative into otherwise black and white images. An animation was created from each frame being printed, drawn into, scanned and sequenced into a continuous 360 degree view. The film was projected in Gallery One as part of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A Snapshot – a trail of exhibits around Drawing Room – surrounded by a large collection of the original drawings. We recently hosted a forum for the ROCK PAPER SCISSORS artists to come together and reflect on their projects whilst unpacking ideas through making and discussion. Rhys led a GIF making exercise for other artists to experiment and see their work move! For the final Family Studio of this series Rhys invited families to created GIF’s of football shirts and local landmarks. Rhys Coren is an artist who creates bright, colourful, fun, abstract works from the local vicinity. Rhys graduated with a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools, London. Selected exhibitions include We’re Outta Here, The Pit, LA, California, USA John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK 2023 and Everyone I’ve Ever Known, public artwork launch, Medici Courtyard, W1, London, UK 2022. Thanks to all involved: Abeba, Albert, Aliyah, Amir, Celine, Chahinez, Chidimma, Dalanda, Eleanor, Eliezer, Freddie, Guilena, Harley, Ismail, Josh, Kate, Larkin, Lia, Marvellous, Mathew O, Matthew R, Messo, Nadra, Nathania, Nicolas, Obehi, Skye-Omar, Tyla-Mae, Umut, Victory, Abigail C, Abigail T, Aleena, Ameerah, Amelia, Blubelle, David, Dawud, Eclesiast, Elizabeth, Hamidah, Isaac, Jack, Jamal, Jiamei, Kaiya, Kaycee, Khadija, Khamiyah, Kiara, Leah, Maya, Mia H, Mia M Mohammed Moussa, Nathan, Samuel, Sara, Theo, Year 5 , Phoenix Primary School Asha Fontenelle, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Betsy Dadd, Learning Curator, Drawing Room Genevieve Miller, Learning Coordinator, Drawing Room Hakim Mugga, Teacher, Phoenix Primary School Jesse Ajilore, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Leanne Cox, Teacher, Phoenix Primary School Rhys Coren, Artist Sandra Calder, Specialist Teacher for Art & DT, Phoenix Primary School Solomon Williams, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Will Nicholls, Workshop Assistant, Drawing Room Scrapbook Each week the children would come back to school so full of confidence and ideas about what they had been involved in. I know from conversations with the Year 5 children that this event has been significant for them and may well be a highlight of their school experience. Sandra, Teacher. We loved the freestyle play based around a theme. There’s friendly and creative staff full of positivity for all our designs! Stephen, parent. This workshop has made me feel more confident in my art. Before I’d look at other people and think is mine right and mine isn’t as good as theirs and I made a mistake but now this workshop has made me think about individuality of everyone’s drawings. Everyone has their own ideas and no ones is better or worse. It’s really boosted my confidence in drawing. Child, Year 5 Instead of buildings I have big blocks of reds and blues... instead of windows I have coloured squares, rectangles and semi-circles. Instead of trees I have big scribbles! Rhys Coren, Artist Doesn’t matter if you make a mistake because you always learn from your mistakes and maybe your mistake may be a really good drawing. Child, Year 5 I got to express how I feel in the context of art. I loved it so much if I could come here every single day I would but I can’t but I probably will when I’m older and come here every single day to express how I’m feeling in the context of art. Child, Year 5. Children are natural artists. My project just tapped back into what they already intrinsically know Rhys Coren, Artist The film gave me goosebumps and you could see all the children have different ways of expressing how art makes us feel. Hakim Mugga, Teacher It made me feel like anything is possible because we could draw anything, and it would still animate amazing. It could be chaotic or things that look like they actually are, It made the world as you want it. Child, Year 5.