'What makes me, me?' | NTU Outreach

Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) Saturday Art Club is part of the National Saturday Club, established by the Sorrell Foundation and delivered by 50 organisations around the UK.

Coordinated by NTU Outreach, our Saturday Art Club is dedicated to providing hands-on workshops with 13-16 year olds from Nottingham city and county schools. Throughout the year the group work with a variety of artists and specialist creative practitioners, culminating in a national exhibition at Somerset House, London.

The work on display is part of their year-long project entitled What makes me, me? The group were asked to consider what makes them who they are, from their genetic make-up and personal experiences, to their likes and dislikes.

Nottingham-based artist and NTU BA (Hons) Decorative Arts alumna, Anna Collette Hunt, worked with the students to create the ceramic masks. They were each asked to create a self-portrait, detailing their physical appearance, and to consider their genetic make-up, including elements like blood cells and DNA. Once they had sculpted the masks in clay, they then added colour using glazes.

Artist and School of Art & Design Technician, Claire Davies, supported the students to create animations and 3D scans, incorporating objects and imagery that they cherished or felt inspired by. The group worked in pairs to take photographic frames of an action, which were then imported into Photoshop and manipulated to create their individual animations. The 3D scans were created by taking photographs around an object that they felt was special, a body part, or even their whole body. The photographs were then imported into software which enabled the 3D images to be created.