Beyond the body

Course Description: The life class is a space for the practice of observational drawing from the live human body, much revered yet often a neglected training for the contemporary artists. The production of the life drawing remains the focus, however this workshop will also explore the unique environment of the life class as a construction of power relations and hierarchies of knowledge. Whilst working within the conventions of a practical life class, the role of the model, student, tutor, arrangement of studio equipment and the drawing process itself are considered as potential equivalences to the methodologies used in collaboration, performance and other forms of documentation. Throughout the workshop, the life class is reconfigured to encompass alternative artistic intentions and outcomes. Highlighting the problems of relational aesthetics and socially engaged art practice, by simply considering what a body will and will not do under these unique circumstances.

Course Goals: The student will begin to develop an awareness of the issues relating to performance and participation of bodies, their own and others. The course will provide critical tools to think and challenge conventional modes of art practice by working tactically within them.

Part of the Transart Institute's MFA Programme Summer Residency curriculum. Transart Institute is the International MFA and PhD Creative Practice Programs with Intensives in New York and Berlin, individual advisement and critique groups wherever you live and work. Accredited by Plymouth University, UK.