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Mischief Makers’ Protest Camp: August 7th and 8th, 2010.
Castlefield Arena.
The Mischief Makers return to The Big Chill with the acclaimed Protest Camp. We will be situated next to the Words In Motion Tent, Saturday and Sunday, 12 – 5 p.m.
We invite passers by to come and spend time with us to visualise their innermost desires and demands! At our camp, slogans can materialise into cloth banners, placards and sculptural forms. Our peg doll demonstrators will be taking to the hills in our spectacular new installation piece ‘Doll Mountain’, to which participants will be invited to make and add their own peg self. Over the weekend this colourful spectacle will unfold in rebellious creativity!
Rumours of a Revolutionary Tea Dance on Saturday night are now confirmed. There will be tea drinking, plotting, strumming and bespoke waltzing amidst the banners and peg dolls. 9 – 11p.m.
Sunday at 1 – 1.45 pm will see the young people of Ledburys’ John Masefield School rise up and demand to be heard as they march and rally at the Words In Motion tent. We are also proud to present the JMS based band Fozwan and the Superior Siblings,folk-pop at its finest.
The Mischief Makers are artist educators, Nicola Godlieb and Sarah Conway Dyer. We run idea-driven, conceptual arts projects, which utilise and respond to the environment and users of a given space. This is the second year of our Protest Camp, which is also appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
On one of the hottest days of the summer the Mischief Makers headed to Islington and set up Protest Camp in The Pleasance Theatre Art Space.
Letters laid out on the table and we were ready to make some Mischief.
One of the first banners of the day.
Angus and Finlay were stars helping us set up, here are some of the banners they made.
‘I want a magic wand’.
‘Save the Elephants’ with some beautiful adornment.
The first revellers assemble before our march.
Richard and Frida whipped up into a protest frenzy.
And Goodnight Vienna.
We arrived at the school on a sunny morning with our bags of mischief, excited to be working with the students on their cloth banners for our Protest Camp event at the Big Chill.
After a brainstorm session where we identified issues important to the class, such as respect for primates and trees, and a preference for cupcakes over muffins, the students began their mixed media collages to explore ideas, colours and textures. This session was full of unbridled creativity and we realised that these young people really had things to say and wanted to make their slogans as bold and as colourful as possible.
A collaged banner exemplar in mixed media.
Mixed media banner exemplar
After our stencilling demonstration, the students got to work on their letters for the cloth banners. Very soon the room was a riot of festive colour, as we pegged up the drying letters – bunting style in a zig-zag across the classroom.
The sunny day meant we all worked outside for the final stage of sticking on slogans and embellishing the banners with wool and beads. The playground soon resembled a Bedouin market as the banners took shape and filled up the outdoor space.
Students stencilling their slogans
Peg out your Protest!
The workshop was a pleasure from beginning to end. These were intelligent, creative students who had thoughtful, funny and serious things to say.
Cloth Banner drying in the Sun
Finished Cloth Banner
We look forward very much to spending time with them at our Protest Camp over the Big Chill weekend and also the rally at the Words in Motion tent on Sunday 8th August. We will also be introducing the JM School based band ‘Fozwan and the Superior Siblings’ who will playing some of their own songs and some foot tapping protest numbers.
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