NORTHFLEET TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL
International Artist: Daniel Buren
Creative Practitioner: Andy Evans
15 mixed year group pupils from Northfleet Technology School undertook a playful investigation into the characteristics of the stripe, an image prevalent in Daniel Buren's work.
In response to the research question, When does a line become a stripe? the group explored the nature of a stripe in relation to it's 'beginning and end', as surface, as pattern, and as 2D and 3D form. Thinking about Daniel Buren's placement of pattern on object, surface and site, each pupil transformed an everyday object such as a jug, vase or bowl. First they created a net working directly from their object, which was decorated with the strip motif, then they reconstructed their item and placed the finished work back into its everyday location.
In response to the 50 meter dimension of the proposed Ebbsfleet Sculpture, students also looked at scale in relation to the school environment, both vertically and horizontally. As well as encouraging the students to gain an in-depth understanding of the project, these activities encouraged them to get to grips with the concept of site-specificity.
Working with strips (or stripes) measuring 1cm by 50 meters, students drew coloured lines through the school. They were encouraged to allow the architecture of the spaces around them to inform and guide the path of each stripe. The length of 50m was also explored on the school field with students calculating how many times they would need to stand side by side, at full span, finger-tip to finger-tip, in order to span 50m. A length of red ribbon was then run down the human line to which a helium balloon was attached, in an attempt to take the red stripe up to create a vertical 50m line.
The project culminated in the creation of a series of large, unique balloons, made in response to Buren's work. Attached to a base-line and raised to the height of 50 meters, the work served as a conceptual beacon or signifier for the project. This event resonated with similar activities taking place in several of the other Landmark Link schools; a series of curious objects raised into the sky above Ebbsfleet, haling the imminent arrival of the new commission.
