Artwork created by pupils at Small Heath Leadership Academy will be on display in a Birmingham art gallery this summer, as part of an exhibition marking the city’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games 2022.
The secondary school has worked on a project that forms part of renowned artist Hew Locke’s ‘Foreign Exchange’ programme at the acclaimed Ikon gallery. The exhibition is part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival which coincides with the Games.
The pupils’ artwork has been inspired by Locke himself. The British-Guyanese artist has become renowned for reimagining photographs of the busts of historical figures by embellishing them with contemporary regalia. Locke was commissioned by Ikon to temporarily transform the marble figure of Queen Victoria in Birmingham city centre. Pupils were invited to the unveiling of Locke’s Queen Victoria reimagining in June, where they were able to meet the man who inspired their work.
The centrepiece of the school’s display, which will sit in the Ikon gallery, is a mixed-media bust made using a mod-roc cast of a mannequin, adorned with upcycled jewellery and handmade ceramic skulls to symbolise royal regalia, which is a feature of Locke’s work.
Behind the sculpture sits a wall display that consists of a series of monoprints of self-portraits of the pupils wearing crowns, which were combined with colourful mixed media backgrounds of ink, spray paint and watercolour and produced using a photocopier.
The pupils’ work will be open to the public to view from 20 July in the gallery’s education room. The exhibition will be open for two weeks to coincide with the Commonwealth Games.
Small Heath Leadership Academy’s celebration of the Games through the arts also extends to drama. The school’s partnership with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, which had to be put on hold during the pandemic, has been reignited for the project.
Year 7 pupils have been exploring Shakespeare’s The Tempest in conjunction with the theatre company. They will tread the boards on the theatre’s famous stage as part of its ‘Uncommon Riches Festival’ later this summer, which is also a celebration of the Commonwealth Games coming to Birmingham.