Drawing Acts Drawing Act II Alexis Teplin 27 Jan 2020 – 1 Mar 2020 Back A pattern, a performance, a film – this artist-led project invited children from Charlotte Sharman Primary School into the processes behind Alexis Teplin’s practice. Running concurrently with Donna Huddleston’s exhibition, the project explored ideas around costume, performance, collectively and individuality. The children began researching colour, shape and repetition in Drawing Room’s Library and upscaled their findings back at school, using the hall as a studio to make giant collaborative works on canvas. They then cut, taped, stitched and tied their work – dressing each other into an ensemble of wearable drawings. Led by the artist, the group marched around the school building and Elephant & Castle neighbourhood describing themselves as a ‘circus’, ‘a mob’, ‘a protest’ and a ‘parade’. The resulting moving-image piece exists as a series of portraits, revealing the behaviours of the children elevated through these playful processes. Alexis Teplin has exhibited work in London and internationally including: It’s my Pleasure to Participate, Bluecoat, Liverpool; Nocturnal Creatures & Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London 2018; Arch (The Politics of Fragmentation) 20th Sydney Biennale, Sydney 2016; Costume: Written Clothing, Tramway, Glasgow, 2013. Thanks to all involved: Children of Year 5, Charlotte Sharman Primary School Alexis Teplin, Artist Amy Rose Barnes, Learning Assistant Betsy Dadd, Learning Curator, Drawing Room Betsy Dadd, Cinematography and Film Edit Laura Nichols, Year 4 Teacher and Art Lead, Charlotte Sharman Primary School James Hartley, Year 5 Teacher, Charlotte Sharman Primary School Related Content Exhibition Donna Huddleston, The Exhausted Student 28 Nov 2019 – 1 Mar 2020 See more related content Scrapbook It was a once in a lifetime experience having an artist like Alexis coming to our school! Child Today didn’t even feel like school! It’s so important to have time out of curriculum on projects like this to build confidence, collaboration and resilience in the children. James Hartley, Teacher The beauty of this project was that it went from the small to the big in incremental steps, which allowed the children to be at the right level outside their comfort zone each time. They didn’t know what was going to happen next so you could see their confidence grow at each stage. If you had told them at the beginning that they were going to be parading around Elephant & Castle wearing those costumes, they would have been like no way Laura Nichols. Teacher My favourite bit was when we got to go marching around the school into all the other classes! I didn’t feel embarrassed anymore, because we are like all wearing the costumes so no one person should feel embarrassed. Child If you had told them at the beginning that they were going to be parading around Elephant & Castle wearing those costumes, they would have been like, ‘no way!