„Sharonka”. Praktyka i dzieło w projektach artystycznych Sharon Lockhart z udziałem dzieci i młodzieży
The main goal of the article is to describe and analyse the artistic practice of the American artist Sharon Lockhart as well as her works created with the participation of children and young adults. The materials studied herein are the documentation of her activities, interviews, and texts accompanying exhibitions. A particular attention is paid to the projects made in Poland, especially those created with Milena, a teenage girl from a poor area of Łódź, and her friends from the Youth Sociotherapy Centre in Rudzienko. In the article, the artist’s statements are confronted with a formal analysis of her projects. With the use of such secondary sources as cultural, anthropological, art, and childhood studies literature, Lockhart’s artworks are described and interpreted in the context of creating the child’s image, of the young girls’ participation in art projects, and of the author’s method of work itself, which she calls ‘etnographic.’ The precise and interdisciplinary research shows superficiality of this pedagogical and emancipatory method, including using the girls to evoke a specific mood in the audience. From the perspective of art studies, Lockhart’s works, however, may be interpreted as an aesthetic story about a meeting with and an attempt to get to know the Other.
More...