U6^th Art and History of Art pupils headed to Oxford to take in the sights along the historic streets and visit some cutting-edge galleries and museums...

Our first stop was the contemporary gallery, Modern Art Oxford (MAO). Pupils had the opportunity to delve into the world of the performance-based artist, Marina Abramović with a 30 minute curator’s introduction and Q&A session with Jess Robertson, Assistant Curator. Jess gave a truly fascinating insight into Abramović's back catalogue and long running connection with the MAO. Abramović's long standing history with the gallery began in the 1990’s, involving four snakes in a performance called Dragon Heads (1990) marking the beginning of many collaborations to come.

Abramović has recently taken on a new direction of travel in her work due to her meteoric rise to fame. She has done this by shifting herself from taking the centre stage, typically using her body as the medium, with a new focus placed on the audience. The recent Oxford residency was inspired by Tibetan culture and aptly titled, Gates and Portals. The symbolic nature of gates is a significant part of Tibetan culture, as gates are something you associate with walking through, whilst portals are something that can be potentially transformative. On, that note we were given a brief lesson on the Abramović way and teachings, as we prepared ourselves to participate in Abramović latest work. This includes training the body for long durational performances with teaching, we are told, that consist of counting and separating grains of rice/lentils for 3 hours, long periods of mutual gazing and slow walking across space.

As we entered the gallery space, we put our trust into the highly trained gallery assistants as we were slowly led, eyes closed, from room to room, hand in hand with our guide. Standing still for an unknown period of time, losing all concept of space and time was a memorable experience. This highly crafted exhibition gives the audience permission to take a moment of stillness and present a fresh perspective on what is art? We look forward to sharing more of our responses to this unique experience and what it felt like to take part in this collaborative work.

Afterwards, we ventured to the Ashmolean Museum, Britain’s first public museum inspiring minds, since 1683. With collections ranging from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time. Once pupils had a chance to refuel and reflect, we began our exploration into the collections with an aim to discover works that make links to their latest project themes. The exam titles include light & shade, attached, blue, yellow, three and The 1920’s, to name few of the starting points that have generated the most interest to date.

This was an memorable and successful day, as Oxford provided a wide range of inspiration that we needed to kick start the opening week of the exam project.

 George Cole - Art Teacher

Flickr album: U6th Form Art Trip to Oxford Galleries - 2nd February 2023 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin