The Mosaic Rooms

From April – July 2020 The Mosaic Rooms worked with two local secondary schools to plan and deliver a four-week art project online. Students from The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School and Kensington Aldridge Academy worked with artists Aya Haidar, Marwan Kaabour and Rosie Thwaites on the project Together Apart: Lockdown Diaries. The artists invited the students to respond to conditions of lockdown, using them as positive creative constraints.

Each week the students were set a challenge. On week one the students were asked to take social distance, the government recommended rule of keeping two metres distance from people outside your household, as a departure point for their art work. Following challenges used the parameters of daily exercise, pandemic hygiene and remote relationships as provocations for play and creativity.

The project offered students the opportunity to be inspired by other artists who have produced work in response to constraints to inspire their thinking including Michael Rakowitz, Francis Alÿs and Lamia Joreige. Each week the artists recorded a Zoom workshop and once students had responded with their creations, the artists also gave feedback via the same method.

Our thanks to the schools and teachers for their participation in Together Apart: Lockdown Diaries. Special thanks to the students for exciting and inspiring us with their creative responses.

The resources for the full project are freely available to schools.

For more information about the project contact info@mosaicrooms.org

Resources

Here is video of the first challenge for the project. The artists explain the first challenge and invite the students to respond.

Each video is accompanied by a PDF which explains the challenge. Here is the PDF from challenge one – social distance.

Here you can see work shared by students over the month long project.

Graphic design for the project is by Marwan Kaabour.