Tate Exchange

The Tate Exchange is a current workshop experience that is being run on the 5th floor at the Tate Modern, London. Working with ArtLab @ Tate Exchange, we ran workshops over two days with primary and secondary school children. By working as a co-researcher in the Artlab team, we were able to explore artists materials ‘from the clay that the dinosaurs walked on to building new experiences with 3D printers and green screen’.
Throughout the day, the students were taken through different ways of making, producing and thinking about artworks. Clay was used to create faces, and then hands using blindfolds and description. Creating a long piece of artwork that spanned the table was the most difficult challenge a many of the students had ideas that they wanted to execute, but found there was not enough time to do this in.
We also had the challenge of wrapping plastic, dyed in pink to raise awareness for breast cancer, around various objecting including balls, people, chairs, pillars and even on the windows. This allowed an extra level of creativity and thought in order to physically manifest the ideas in real life. A group of girls wrapped an exercise ball, and then themselves in a group attached to the ball. This did make it difficult for them to move, however they seemed very comfortable!
The last activity of these days was looking at green screen on iPad’s. Using a green screen app, we were able to make different colours the green screen e.g. yellow, to be able to see the image in the background. These images and videos were captured by the group, and layered using this app. Thirty second videos were created by over six groups and previewed by the group at the end of the session. Throughout this experience, I was able to assist the groups with their ideas, and creating their videos. I even participated in one, being a basketball hoop for a group who looked at ball games and participation.

The Start Project: The Forgotten War [Little Yemen]

The Forgotten War sculptural piece was simple, however the story behind it meant much more to me. I found this story more interesting than the piece, and wanted to show the destructiveness that the war has bought to the country, leaving a complete mess, rather than a serene moment. Through this, I decided to drip and pour paint over the piece, by using the colours that have been used on the Arabic text, and on the stained glass window designs.
The use of dripping and pouring paint over the architectural model shows how the beauty cannot always protect the city, inevitably letting war in. The layering of the images shows that it is not just one influence that has impacted on this country and their war, but rather multiple sources. The audio clip, The Forgotten War [Little Yemen Audio], has been cut down in order to give a better representation on how fast this can all impact an area.

The Start Project: The Forgotten War

The final piece that I have produced has been influenced by architectural models, and Layal Abdullah, of whose artwork I have been asked to reinterpret and respond. The final piece of The Start Project I have created is The Forgotten War. This is a small architectural model of the city Sana’a that has been destroyed during the Yemeni civil war. On each of the buildings is a symbol of beauty such as the classical stained glass windows, flowers that Abdullah has depicted throughout her artwork, and sacred Arabic text. This has been coupled with an audio clip, displayed on headphones, speaking of the beauty, and the destruction, that is currently in Yemen and the people.
I decided to copy the street layout of a part of Sana’a, trying to keep the buildings and road sizes to a certain ratio in order to gain the authenticity of Yemen. [Screenshots from Google Maps].
Google Earth YemenYemen FullYemen Zoomed

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My own copy of the above city plan from Google Maps, Sana’a, Yemen.

The three aspects from Abdullah’s work that I wanted to bring into this project was the Arabic text, traditional Yemeni architecture and Yemen stained glass windows. To gain the vision of beautiful chaos, I decided to keep the individual designs large by using the whole piece of A3 paper.
The Arabic text was that of religious text, found on a ‘learn Arabic’ site. These have been placed together consecutively in order to fill the area. The text has been designed with black, blue, green and red, which are traditional for Arabic text.
The three designs of the stained glass windows have been copied from windows in Yemen, including the colour and design.
These pieces were then transformed into buildings and rubble, in the aim to attempt the beautiful chaos that is the Yemen culture and the war that is tearing it apart.

This architectural piece was accompanied by the sounds of Yemen in a three minute audio clip, presented with headphones, to make a more immersive experience for the viewer.. This audio clip was an accumulation of Yemen interviews with Mohammed, Yemen expert Natasha Ezrow and Saleh, news clips by the BBC, and music from Yemen.

The Start Project: Yemen

As of Tuesday 19th December, Yemen had experienced 1,000 days of civil war between forces loyal to the government of President Adbrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement. During this period, more than 1000 people have been killed and 49000 injured, while more than 3 million have been displaced. 20 million people, including 11 million children, are also in need of humanitarian assistance and created the world’s largest food security emergency to date.

“Mr Hadi struggled to deal with a variety of problems, including attacks by al-Qaeda, a separatist movement in the south, the continuing loyalty of many military officers to Mr Saleh, as well as corruption, unemployment and food insecurity.” – BBC

Dynamics of the war changed when Ali Abdullah Saleh was killedOnly in December did cracks begin to appear in Mr Hadi’s forces, potentially sparking a fresh effort at end of war negotiations. At current, there have been no leads to whom will win this war, and where the steps taken after would lead the country.
Architecture has always been a large part of Yemen’s history and culture. Most of Yemen’s architecture boasts a non-repetitive design, which logically should look ugly, but in fact looks beautiful. There are similarities of colour, window patters, shape, alignment, positioning and size, but also a ‘rugged beauty’ that when mixed all together, these buildings hold. Many of the settlements, towns and cities are on hilltops and near a fertile bed, or a river. The buildings themselves are crafted out of mud brick, with some buildings reaching an impressive 100ft. The walls would be built thick, with small windows to keep the heat of the day out. Windows are also set low within the room with decorative niches above them, often where personal possessions are stored. As you gradually went up the building, these walls would become thinner. “These gently canted walls give the building a dignity and monumentality as a result of structural and materials concerns. The wall is not trying to look beautiful” (MisfitsArchitecture.com).

Stained glass windows are predominately found in the ancient city of Sana’a. These stained glass windows are known as ‘Qamariya’, or ‘windows of the moon’ and are virtually always used as a small decorative window above a main window. There are hundred of these throughout the city, but no two are the same. Qamariya windows we common much earlier than the ancient Greek and Byzantine cultures, with the main motifs of the crescent moon and star, which can still be seen in the windows today.

“At night, when they shine out of on the tall buildings and narrow stone alleyways of the old city, the Qamariya windows transform this old mountain fortress and its Afro-Arab people into a lively market town with an artistic and esthetic overlay. It is a calming experience just to walk the streets and take in the multicolor glows.” – Further To Fly

Arabic is the main language in Yemen, with many of its people following Islam. Yemeni Arabic in particular is a mix of different varieties of Arabic, commonly spoken in the geographical area. Each dialect can be found due to their own distinctive set of vocabulary and phonology. Arabic texts often talk about Allah, whom is their God.