Change Expectations...

"Beware of artists. They mix with all classes of society and are therefore most dangerous"
- Queen Victoria
​It's true, we are a dangerous type. However, I don't think our danger lies solely in our ability to mix with all sorts, but rather our ability to manipulate many. Artists are trusted far more than we should be. For example, take the work of Erwin Wurm. He set up plinths in galleries with an illustrated instruction suggesting that visitors should hold a pose with completely random objects for 1 minute at a time. Calling these works 1 Minute Sculptures, he note only change the expectation of what a sculpture should be he changed the expectations and role of the viewer. Not only from passive to participant, but from observer to being the artwork itself. Contemplating this idea of changing expectations all Senior School Art Students spent a week creating their own 1 Minute Sculptures for this Arts Festival exhibition. Now, coming back to the Queen Victoria quote and how artists are dangerous, ​while all of the SS Art students listened intently to a curator wax lyrical about Wurm's work, and then spent a lesson responding to and replicating his poses, there was one feature about Wurm's work that I might have failed to mention. And that was his interest in manipulating people. Using the power of his position as an artist and the power of the institution as a museum, he manipulated people to perform utterly ridiculous tasks mainly just to see if he could. So, here I am. Using my position as an Art Teacher and the power of the institution as a school, to manipulate you... the students, to make you perform utterly ridiculous tasks mainly just to see if I could. And without question or concern from a single soul, this happened...