The first pilot of Social Scaffolding was situated in an empty shop in Taunton's busy Orchard Shopping Centre. It was part of Somerset Art Works 2022, 24 Sept - 9th Oct.
Social Scaffolding is a new art collective, formed in 2022. There are three artists involved - Juliet Duckworth, Alyson Minkley and myself. We are all recent graduates from Bath Spa University (BSU) and are all past or present residents of Emerge, BSU's graduate residency scheme. This exhibition in Taunton was our first one together.
We wanted it to be socially engaged, interactive and immersive. Alyson's Synapse is a large cocoon-like sculpture made of canvas. Visitors rae invited to stitch into it's surface, or climb into it's womb-like interior. Juliet's Urban Rookery is an installation of scaffolding and rooks' nests with an immersive sound and light backdrop. My works for this exhibition are described in more detail elsewhere on my website: I installed Parts of me, inviting passive viewers to become active participants by wearing my Body cocoons, transforming themselves into Living sculptures; I also installed my new red knitting, Red is the colour of...2, 2022, as an immersive Red room. Alongside these installations and activities, I knitted and invited others to knit and chat with me, creating a Social Knitwork.
It was a busy and fabulous time! Most of our visitors were passers-by, some travelled specially to see us. It was so good to be able to faciliate participatory art again.