SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Explorations in Creativity with Andrew Omoding: artist, maker and raconteur Craftspace’s approach to exhibition development is driven by a process of enquiry and action research. In this instance, we collaborated with ActionSpace in London, which supports artists with learning disabilities, to create a residency for Andrew Omoding. The purpose was to enable Andrew to express his creativity and make new work in a larger space than was available to him in the ActionSpace studio. A shared aim was also to create a critical framework for the appreciation of Andrew’s creative process and its outcomes. We were keen to explore what we could learn from Andrew and how this might contribute to thinking and knowledge about craft and making. We commissioned social anthropologist Trevor Marchand to acquire a holistic understanding of and insight into Andrew’s creative practice through study, observation and documentation. The findings are represented in the exhibition in a film and the catalogue essay. We chose Trevor because of his previous field research into various craft practices. For example, he undertook a fellowship to study craft knowledge and vocational training with carpenters and furniture makers in England and he studied apprenticeship learning among minaret builders in Yemen and mud masons in Mali. His interest in “focusing on the complex relation between the human brain, hands and tools, as well as on problem solving with tools” has been highly pertinent to this action research project. Andrew’s residency took place at ACAVA one day a week for nine weeks between September and October 2015. It culminated in a sharing event at ActionSpace to display the scale of work produced and to reflect on his achievements. Andrew’s family, friends and other ActionSpace artists attended.