Time

The theme/concept we worked with for this shop window exhibition was time. The project ran throughout 2019 and early 2020 with arts workshops funded by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

In preparation for creating these pieces we looked at different ways time runs throughout our lives from the days and months to ageing and different life stages. The work created for this project included a combination of prints, sculpture, and bookmaking inspired by this concept.

As an introduction to our project, we spent our first workshops looking at the seasons. These workshops consisted of ‘season’ themed discussions and then a practical art session based around what had been discussed.

The first workshop culminated in a Gelli Plate printing session using leaves and other time inspired objects. Some of these prints can be seen here.

Whilst most people looked at the seasons as Winter, Spring, Summer & Autumn, others explored different kinds of seasons. The second workshop explored a person’s own ‘seasons’ and this became a bookmaking session in which our groups made a ‘season ticket’ of their lives inspired by actual memories, events and hopes for a future time.  

The third workshop was focused upon using clocks to create ‘clock face portraits’, bringing to life some of their ideas of what time might look like.  These portraits can be seen around this exhibition.

In the fourth workshop our groups discussed what had been important in their own lives. The practical session resulted in the group creating personalised time capsules that they would leave for another era. Some of these pieces had unique names such as ‘A Valentine’s Ball’ and ‘the pen is mightier than the sword time capsule’.

 With thanks to the groups at St George’s Day Centre, Honeysuckle Lodge at The Royal Bolton Hospital and those who attended our own workshops at the NeoArtists gallery space.