Rowde pupils' work on display at New York art exhibition

Just before Christmas, children from Rowde CofE Primary Academy had the opportunity to show off their creativity as part of artist Oliver Beer’s “Resonance Painting - Cat Orchestra” exhibition.

Oliver Beer is a British artist who creates sculptures, installations, videos and immersive live experiences that reveal the hidden properties and musicality of objects, bodies and architectural sites. His current exhibition centres around a ‘Cat Orchestra’ and the surrounding artworks are visualisations of the sounds created by a wide variety of cat vessels that Beer collected from around the world. 

As part of the exhibit, pupils from Rowde were asked to help create a new piece for Beer’s Reanimation series of work. The children were given a frame from an animated classic and asked to trace the original shapes and images. They were then asked to use their own artistic skills to reinterpret the frame and add a fun twist. To completment the Cat Orchastra, the children from Rowde were given frames from the ‘Everybody wants to be a cat’ scene in Disney’s The Aristocats.

Eric, a Year 4 pupil, commented: “I loved that we could use lots of bright colours and oils pastels to make it our own and it is so cool that it is in an art gallery in New York!”

Felicity, a Year 3 pupil, added: “I liked colouring the image in with the oil pastels because it was something a bit different and we've been able to see what they look like in the final animation."

The individual pieces were then collated and scanned by Beer, who put them on celluloid film and reanimated the scene into a ‘amazing psychedelic, twisted version of the original animation’.

Alice Simpson, Headteacher, commented: “The children were so excited to be working with a real artist and to create something collaboratively. Every single child was able to contribute and, whilst we were creating part of the original film, they were empowered to reimagine the colours and design so they weren't worried about it being 'perfect'.

“Showing the children the final animation, and where it's currently been exhibited, helped them to really understand what an amazing thing they were a part of. We were so grateful to the member of our community, Danielle, who was able to facilitate the project with Oliver Beer.”

The animation has been on display at the Almie Rech from 14^th March – 27^th April 2024. A huge well done to all the pupils at Rowde for their incredible work.