Moving Rocks, Ruth Proctor & Acland Burghley School

Freelands Foundation supports the work of artists and art educators. As part of our ongoing investigation into teaching approaches in secondary schools we have been working with the artist, Ruth Proctor, and staff and students from Acland Burghley School. 

Ruth Proctor’s work is a response to her immediate experiences across changing environments and situations. It is a result of chance, rather than by intention. Allowing for interruptions along her journey a fleeting moment, an encounter, a conversation can become more important than the original destination. In this way, what is created exists beyond the context of what is expected and already known.

Over the past six months Ruth has worked collaboratively with staff and students at Acland Burghley school, exploring new ways to generate ideas. The group began with activities that stretched the conventions of art lessons in secondary school, encouraging students to work together and experiment without a clear objective.

Staff and students were given disposable cameras to record their summer holidays. Their photographs were made into paper planes, which were then launched into the air, leading students to disperse locations and create new journeys. The exhibition space will contain monitors showing this process and the floor will also be covered with the aeroplanes thrown.