Improv & Vamp

Improv & Vamp was devised as an interactive, all age, performative ‘mark making’ installation for the a children’s art and music festival, Barnivalen, in Kongsberg, Norway. This event is part of the famous Kongsberg Jazz Festival. Conceived as a tribute to the tradition of improv jazz and the music and paintings of Miles Davis. The purpose of the concept was to create a visual improvisation performance work focused on relational reflexivity and participatory action, setting aside normative approaches to art making which sometimes has a greater focuses on the meaning and value of an external finished product rather than in the embodied learning of performative process. This work features in the academic research publication, Å Tegne Sammen, by author and arts educator Bente Fønnbø, on collaborative drawing as a vital part of pedagogical and social practice

Over four days of the event children and their families could freely take part in this activity using a wide range of unique mark-making tools - large brushes, spray bottles, sponges and (needlefree) syringes. Drawing, painting and mark making in an abstract style using these large scale, dynamic force tools. The mark making surfaces provided were large white cotton canvases hung outside between trees, open to the sun, rain and wind. The purpose of these choices was to deliberately include natural elements, movement and dynamic change in the process. In addition the physical landscape, the participants and their audiences were all part of this ‘improv’ performance. The participants shared the mark making surfaces, layering up lines, colours, drips and splashes, person after person enabling the fluid paint matter to also be an active participant in the artwork. Thanks go to all the participants and collaborators, especially fellow creative, Julija Cvijanovic.