Emily Wardill. 5 December January Written by Tobias Billing and Emily Candela

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1 Emily Wardill 5 December January Written by Tobias Billing and Emily Candela

2 ICA Education Programme Our dynamic, artist-led Education Programme provides opportunities for schools, families and community groups to engage in creative ways with the ICA s exhibitions. The gallery is open for school visits between 10am and 12pm, Monday Friday. This pack is geared towards secondary school students pursuing Key Stages 3 and 4. Teachers may find it useful to visit the exhibitions before bringing a group. If you would like to plan a trip to the ICA, get in touch and find out how we can meet the needs of your group. What We Do Artist Led Projects: Our programme includes artist-led workshops with schools and innovative collaborations between artists and community groups. Teachers Packs: These are available with each exhibition and include exhibition notes, suggested discussion points and activities for your visit, how to prepare before attending the exhibition and proposed activities for the classroom. Insets: The ICA offers professional development sessions for teachers as an opportunity to meet with artists and gallery staff, and discuss how to incorporate contemporary art into young people s education. Contact Emma-Jayne Taylor, Director of Learning: phone: +44 (0) emma-jayne.taylor@ica.org.uk For more information and to view our archive of previous learning activities, please visit Schools Mailing List: Keep up to date with the exciting education projects, events and workshops happening at the ICA by signing up for our mailing list. Educators Openings: These private views are dedicated to education resources and offer ideas for your pupils visit to the ICA. Come as a teacher or as yourself to enjoy a relaxing evening in the gallery. 2 3

3 Emily Wardill The ICA s Upper Gallery features a new short film by the British artist Emily Wardill. She looks at how theatre and symbolic objects can be forms of communication, especially politically. Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck (2007) combines images of English stained glass windows with footage of a narrative staged by the artist. The narrative proceeds through a series of melodramatic vignettes that feature characters and sets that mix medieval iconography, strange rituals and slapstick comedy. Wardill explores the stage as a space where personal fantasy and public communication can coexist. She concentrates particularly on the communication of political messages. For example, Wardill is interested in how the filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder uses the style of melodrama (where formulaic plot and action overshadow characters) to slip political commentary into popular entertainment. By using stained glass as a motif in this film, Wardill is pinpointing a similar kind of implicit communication - in medieval society, stained glass was a means of imparting beliefs, morals and messages to a largely illiterate populace. Emily Wardill was born in 1977, and lives in London. She studied at Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, where she is now a Senior Lecturer. As well as film, Wardill has worked in other areas, notably performance, and she is a member of the Limehouse Boxing Club cultural collective and coorganiser of an annual series of performances and screenings under the title Itchy Park. Emily Wardill s Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck is a Film London Artists Moving Image Network and Picture This co-production, supported by The Elephant Trust out of the George Melhuish Bequest. 4 5

4 Themes: Theme Art And Design Key Stage 3 Links to units in Key Stage 3 Art And Design Key Stage 4 1. Exploring and developing ideas: History Unit 4: How did the medieval Evaluate images: Respond to work Symbols, signs and stained glass Analyse the codes of a different visual church affect people s lives? from another time and culture. tradition, and its ideas, beliefs and Art And Design Unit 8C: Shared view values Art And Design Unit 9B: Change your style 2. Knowledge and understanding: Art And Design Unit 8A: Objects and Evaluate images: Colour Describe the work using the formal viewpoints Discuss elements of the work elements and discuss the artist s imaginatively, exploring context. intentions and ideas. 3. Exploring and developing ideas: Music Unit 11: The overture Observation: Listen for sounds Sound Analyse the conventions of different Music Unit 13: Music and media and analyse how these elements genres. communicate within the piece. 4. Investigating and making: Art And Design Unit 9C: Personal Develop and Explore: How can media Setting Use materials to communicate places, public spaces generate a sense of place? visually. 5. Exploring and developing ideas: Art And Design Unit 8B: Animating Evaluate images: Respond to work in Film As Art Analyse the conventions of different art the context of its genre s history. genres and styles. 6. Investigating and making: Art And Design Unit 8B: Animating Media: Narrative Use materials to communicate a art Explore materials to narrative. present a narrative. 6 7

5 What are you thinking about? 1. Symbols, signs & stained glass The film starts with shots of medieval religious stained glass, a motif that continues throughout the film. Wardill is interested in how an object can communicate a message. During Medieval times, stained glass was an important tool of communication for the church authorities. It was used to tell stories and communicate messages to a largely illiterate populace. Can you think of how this could be political? Can you think of a modern equivalent? Medieval Christian stained glass panels are filled with signs and symbols, the meanings of which are not immediately recognisable today. Examples: Halos, Crowns, Crosses, Spears What do you think these symbols represent? How many signs or symbols can you think of that are used today? The National Gallery of Art s exhibition Art of Light: German Renaissance Stained Glass exhibitions/stainedglass/default.htm The Victoria & Albert Museum stained glass collection glass/stained_glass/sacred_stained_ glass/index.html Christian signs and symbols: microsites/1299_sacred_silver_ stained_glass/?id=3] Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Nature herself produces all her loveliest colours in some kind of solid or liquid glass or crystal. The rainbow is painted on a shower of melted glass These words are by the 19th century philosopher and artist John Ruskin. Wardill is influenced by his writings, and quotes this excerpt in her film. 2. Colour The set design, lighting and costumes in Wardill s film mimic the look of stained glass. Can you name 3 ways colour is used in this film? John Ruskin: ruskin/index.html The Arts and Crafts Movement: 8 9

6 3. Sound In a melodrama (a theatrical style whose name comes from the Greek words for melody and drama), music aids the storytelling. Characters are often mere vehicles for action and ideas. It is the music that tells us what to feel at a given point in the production whether to be scared, relieved or surprised, for example. Certain sounds or music can also be associated with particular characters. Including sounds and music heard in the film s soundtrack, how many types of sound are there in this exhibition space? What do they communicate to you or make you think? Can you think of scenes in other films that use music to communicate? What are you thinking about? I m thinking about the song Melodrama: Melodrama 10 11

7 Well. You made it then 5. Film as Art Artists have been exploring the moving image (a term that includes film and more recently, video art) since the 1920s. Often, their works are referred to as experimental films to differentiate them from mainstream cinema. What does this film have in common with a film you would see in a cinema? How is it different? 4. Setting The setting is very important in this film. In fact, Wardill often makes films about the places where she lives or works, such as Limehouse in East London. Can you think of places that have a special feeling for you that you would use if you were making a film? How would you convey a story in that place? What materials or media would you use, and why? Limehouse Boxing Club: uk/bclub_about Many artists today use digital video to create moving images. Why do you think Emily Wardill chose to use the rather old medium of 16mm film? The Film London Artists Moving Image Network (FLAMIN): Nam June Paik: Pipilotti Rist:

8 6. Narrative Moving image artists frequently work outside of the conventional practices used by many filmmakers. For example, sometimes they manipulate a narrative in original ways or dispense with it all together. Is there a story in this film? Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, Un Chien Andalou Chien_Andalou Maya Deren: Narrative Find images of stained glass online, ( exhibitions/stainedglass/default.htm glass/stained_glass/index.html) or visit the National Gallery of Art s exhibition Art of Light: German Renaissance Stained Glass and chose individual works. Invent a narrative based on a scene depicted in stained glass. Present it using materials that best communicate your story. Your piece might take the form of a film, storyboard, installation or something of your own invention