Yorkshire Sculpture Park LEARNING AT YSP Teaching Resource

Yorkshire Sculpture Park
LEARNING AT YSP
Teaching Resource
FIONA BANNER: WP WP WP
20.09.14–04.01.15
EXHIBITION LOCATIONS
The exhibition takes place in Longside Gallery and the open air. Use this resource
together with the What’s On Today & Map leaflet.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Fiona Banner was born in Liverpool in 1966, studied Fine Art at Kingston Polytechnic, Surrey and completed an MA
at Goldsmiths College, London in 1993. Her work is an exploration through film, sculpture and words, of the
assumptions and short-comings of written language. She recalls that as a teenager she dreamed of being a poet
or a novelist. At art college she wrote the first of her wordscapes, or still films. These are hand-written descriptions
of feature films which take the form of a single solid block of text, often in the shape and size of a cinema screen.
Works include Top Gun (1993, pencil on paper), Hunt for the Red October (1993, pencil on paper), The Desert
(1994, pencil on paper) and Apocalypse Now (1996, pencil on paper).
Banner had her first solo exhibition at City Racing, London in 1994, and had work included in General Release:
Young British Artists at the 1995 XLVI Venice Biennale. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2002, and
exhibited Harrier and Jaguar in the Duveen Galleries, Tate Britain in 2010. This consisted of a highly polished RAF
Jaguar aircraft laying upside down on the floor, and a Sea Harrier, with delicate feather pattern markings,
suspended vertically from the ceiling.
Wp Wp Wp, 2014. Paint on wall. 252 x 1365cm © Fiona Banner. Photo Jonty Wilde
Banner’s written art works are published by The Vanity Press, which she founded in 1997, and she herself is
registered as an ISBN number: “It is a sort of portrait,” she explained.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Wp Wp Wp, the onomatopoeic name of the exhibition, is described by the artist as the culmination of a body of
work started nearly two decades ago and features ambitious new project, Chinook, along with related work,
including wall drawing and film.
In the large space, two sets of Chinook helicopter rotor blades suspended from the ceiling rotate in opposition to
each other. The speed of the rotation is carefully choreographed to give the impression that they might collide.
Chinook, 2014, has been developed with the support of Dr Osvaldo Querin, Associate Professor at The University
of Leeds School of Mechanical Engineering, who with colleagues and a group of masters students, worked with
Banner to carry out aeronautical research critical to the project.
Other works in the exhibition include Ha-ha, 2014, which incorporates the long gallery windows, Tête à Tête, 2014, a
film in which two mechanically operated windsocks respond to each other’s movement, and the vast Wp Wp Wp,
2014, written directly on to the gallery walls.
A YSP publication, designed by the artist with text by Chrissie Iles, Curator at the Whitney Museum of Art, New
York, accompanies the exhibition.
Chinook (6 revolutions per minute), 2014. Helicopter blades, rotor hubs, motor, gearboxes, steel. 247 x 2033 x 1300. Photo Jonty Wilde
Banner has been exploring her interest in the possibilities and limits of language throughout her career. From her
hand-written wordscapes of blockbuster films, Top Gun (1993), Apocalypse Now (1996), to her 1,000 page text
flick book, The Nam (1997), a fascination with aircraft also emerges. She recalls as a child seeing low flying military
aircraft while walking in the North Wales countryside with her father.
“It was completely sublime and pastoral and beautiful, and then something like a Tornado would come out of
nowhere, and the sound would be absolutely phenomenal. We’d be completely astounded, but somehow the beauty
of the moment would surpass even the loveliness of where we were and what we were doing.”
The Guardian, 21 June 2010.
This experience, and her recollection of it, reveals, perhaps, something of the displacement shown in the way
aircraft are placed in gallery spaces in her work. The names of military aircraft are also an area of interest; names
from nature and of creatures given to machines of conflict. Chinook, 2014, is a case in point. The Boeing CH-47
Chinook is a helicopter developed primarily for carrying troops and artillery. It is known for its two counter-rotating
rotor. The name Chinook may have derived from the Chinook winds which occur along the eastern slopes of the
Rockies in North America, when warm winds push away colder air, leading to dramatic temperature rises in short
amounts of time.
EXPLORE & CREATE
Before your visit:
•
Research Fiona Banner, her art and her inspiration.
Encourage your class to find books in the library
about the artist alongside using the internet to
further their independent research
•
The artist’s website fionabanner.com
•
For further research on the YSP exhibition visit
ysp.co.uk/fionabanner
•
Starting with the word Chinook, ask your class to research the different meanings and references it has.
Do the meanings link together at all? If so, in what ways?
•
Find out how aircraft are able to fly. Compare the methods of a glider, single prop aircraft, jet plane and
helicopter
•
Find out about other contemporary visual artists, especially the Young British Artists who came to prominence
in the 1990s. What materials do they use in their work? What themes do they explore?
Key Words
Language | flight | film | wordscapes | books | movement | rotor blades | chinook | sound | windsock
onomatopoeia
WHEN VISITING
When in the large space of Longside Gallery, listen to the information and advice given by the gallery invigilators.
•
Now, seeing Fiona Banner’s work in real life, has this changed what your class thought or knew about her
work? If so, discuss in what ways the work has been transformed
•
Collect a list of words from your class which describes, or captures their impressions of her artworks. These
can be used as a starting point for your group to write about her work, or as inspiration for their own sculptures
once back in school
Questions to consider are:
What materials are used to make Chinook?
In what ways is this artwork different from a traditional object based sculpture?
What senses are you using when visiting this exhibition?
How does Chinook affect you?
Ha-ha (detail), 2014. 95 percent UV reduction vinyl on window. Dimensions variable © Fiona Banner
Photo Jonty Wilde
•
Activities
Not everyone may hear the same thing in the same way. Different people will pick up on slightly different sounds or
tones. Ask your class to create their own onomatopoeic wordscape of their experience of listening to the rotors of
Chinook rotating. Fill a sheet of paper with it, then ask them to consider the overall shape of their wordscape.
Experiment by writing it in the shape of the rotating blades, a circle, and spiral or encourage them to create their
own shape. Compare the different resulting words and wordscapes.
As you move through the gallery be aware of the feeling and direction of the down draft created by the rotors of
Chinook. Ask your class to capture through drawing, the movement and counter-rotation of the rotors.
Ask your class to get into groups of two or three, and to ask each other what they think about Chinook: What do
they particularly like about the work, and how would they describe it to others who have not seen it? Once outside
Longside Gallery, each group in turn will then report back to the class and give their opinions and reasons.
Wp Wp Wp (detail), 2014. Indian ink on wall. Dimensions variable © Fiona Banner
Photo Jonty Wilde
Tête à Tête (still), 2014, High definition digital film. 5.53 minutes © Fiona Banner
BACK AT SCHOOL
• Begin with a discussion about your visit to Fiona Banner: Wp Wp Wp. Which art works most impressed the
pupils? Discuss the different materials Banner uses to create her art. How different was it seeing the sculptures
in real life from seeing her work in books or on screen beforehand?
•
Ask your group to consider how Fiona Banner presents the objects in her work; Harrier and Jaguar, 2010,
Chinook, 2014, Nude Wing, 2011 (a polished upright wing of a Tornado aircraft), Parade, 2006 (177 model
planes suspended by nylon wire). How is this different from seeing aircraft in an air museum?
•
Research other artists who use flight or aircraft as their theme. Look at the work of Belgian artist
Panamarenko, and the drawings for ideas of flying machines by Leonardo da Vinci. Select an artists work to
compare with Fiona Banner’s work.
•
Consider the names of aircraft. Why do you think some are named after birds and animals? Think about the
roles aircraft are made to fulfil. Ask your class, in groups, to design an aircraft to do a particular job (to carry
large loads, fly as fast as possible, fly quietly) and then to name it. How did they choose the name? Does
it relate to characteristics of a creature?
•
Working from images of an aircraft, or even a plastic model, cut the various parts of it into interesting shapes.
You might choose the tail plane or a wing. Now consider it as a piece of sculpture. How would you exhibit it?
Would it be standing up, leaning against the wall, suspended from the ceiling? Would it look better made out of
a different material? Give a title to it.