Sense of Humour

by Geraldine Heaney, 3 May 2011

We had our Third Steering Group meeting at Fettes College on Wednesday afternoon. It really feels like the group are getting more comfortable both with each other and with the grandeur that surrounds us when we meet. This session the group were introduced to one of the participating artists, Chris Evans who gave a short presentation of a selection of his previous work.

Chris’s work was really interesting and seems to have an element of humour that has been discussed in previous meetings about Joanne and Tom’s work. The sense of humour is something that was discussed in this meeting with reference to the Public Art Symposium and the idea that humour is often a way into something that might otherwise be intimidating or inaccessible.

To give you a bit more of an idea about the project, and the many strands there are to it, I’ll try and break it down.

Collective are working with Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan who have further commissioned Artists Chris Evans and Elizabeth Price to produce work.
Alongside this Debi Bannerjee has taken up the post of Participation leader and will be working with students from Fettes College and Broughton High School. Debi will also be leading some wider participation public art themed workshops during the School Holidays in Inverleith Park and in the week running up to the launch of the work (5th August) there will be a Public Art Summer School.
On 5th August, the launch day of the exhibition there will be a Public Art Symposium held in Fettes College.

There is a lot happening and lots to be done so I think it’s probably a good think that there is a sense of humour surrounding the project.