Life drawing review: An expensive guinea-pig project
- Julie Moon Fjell
- Feb 15, 2017
- 3 min read
"This is not a drawing lesson. This is an art installation.” Esther Bunting is clear in her vision, as she welcomes the group to Spirited Bodies Life Drawing Workshop, in the majestic Shepherd’s Hall at St. Thomas Hospital in London. With the aim of inducing body confidence through art, this is the first in a series of workshops across the UK. A fusion of well-prepared professional artists with massive easels and expensive canvases, are sat alongside a smaller group of tense amateur sketchers, anxiously awaiting the entrance of “the art”.
In walk the six. The room goes quiet; the art has arrived. Tall, skinny, curvy, fair-skinned, tanned, tattooed. C-section scars, cellulites, stretch marks. The six are baring it all, in a marvellous moment. Esther explains the first of the many poses; this one entitled ‘A sense of freedom’. For each pose, an interview with a life model or an artist will be played in the background. The professional artists delve in, quickly handling their canvases, and studying the naked women.
One of the younger models is standing pole-like with her arms triumphantly resting over her head. Sat next to these professional artists, its hard not to be intimated. I find myself trying to keep my humble drawing out of their eyesight. But, once charcoal met paper, even the daunting professionals wither away. We, the amateurs are left to fend for ourselves in the battle to create art with confident, naked bodies. Many seem surprised and pleased by their abilities to convey the correct proportions of body parts.
By each stroke of charcoal, the aspect of nudity disappears and the bodies morph into an object. Thighs and breasts are curves, rather than body parts – and for brief, monumental moments the artists collaborate in creating art with the models. Second pose, third pose, fourth pose – each with a new interview and a fresh take on the female body. “I like drawing voluptuous bodies,’ one artist says. ‘I felt like my body was de-sexualised, and I loved it,” one model expresses.
"Having spent £25 to take part in the event, it is disappointingly poorly organised"
During the pose entitled ‘Feeling of anxiety’, her interpretation of seeing the female body distanced from sexuality is sharply mirrored in what is taking place in Shepherd’s Hall. One of the models is sitting on the floor, holding her arms around her legs, hugging herself. We witness many beautiful, proud and solemn moments like these – but they are gravely cut short as Esther repeatedly interrupts us. The temperature in the room stoops; the heaters aren’t working; the models are cold. The order of the interviews is wrong; we are lacking for time. Having spent £25 to take part in the event, it is disappointingly poorly organised: it’s hard to shake the feeling that the installation in Shepherd’s Hall is being used as a guinea pig, and an expensive one at that.
In the mess of logistical and practical issues, the objects we are interpreting rapidly melt back into the female form. The nudity becomes blatantly apparent. The models seem unsettled by the thirty sets of eyes that are resting upon them – no longer the eyes of accepting artists, but rather mere mortals.In a bid to create a space where body-confidence could flourish, it seems Esther is her own worst enemy, hindering the opportunity for this to happen organically. Then, the Hail Mary of all saviours emerges.
The models get ready to sit through eight gruelling minutes of their last and final pose. An interview with a disabled woman fills the room. She is lying in the centre of room, flanked by the five other models, all of them devoting their attention to her. “If I were healthy again,” she says, “I would run all the time. Even just to catch the bus. I would use and appreciate the body I had,” she says. The artists are clearly moved by her words. Pencils, charcoal sticks and paintbrushes rest. A lack of movement, reflecting the still and tense bodies we’ve been studying. It seems Esther has been forgiven for intimidating amateur artists by mixing them with professional; and for the lack of organisational skill. With a bit of patience, an open mind and an interest in female empowerment the Spirited Bodies workshop is spot-on. Esther succeeds in enticing body confidence and shifting the ideas of a perfectly sculpted form.
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