Michelle Baharier
Residency period: August 2024
Michelle Baharier was Sprout’s Artist in Residence in 2024. She is a critically acclaimed Fine Artist with a passion for colour and people, and her art features expressive portraits that tell stories. She is dyslexic and her artistic practice is strongly influenced by her lived experience of disability, resulting in participatory art and performative events.
Michelle brings over forty years of expertise in facilitating workshops, and curating exhibitions. She is also a performance artist in spoken word, poetry, photography, phone drawings, and digital/video collages and her work can be found in private collections, the Tate Modern archive and the London Transport Museum, and her poetry is in the British Library, various magazines and blogs. She is currently commissioned to work with Equality Works and London Transport Museum, creating work that explores people with disability in the work place, which she worked on during her residency.
Michelle worked to create a Community Portrait, inviting local families, neighbours and social groups to participate in creating a special collage by sharing their photos, images and ideas. There was also fun interactive activities, portrait opportunities, workshops and talks. supported by portrait artist Sonia Thomas and Anna-Maria Amato who is a fine artist, curator and writer.
Week 1
Michelle Baharier brought the portraitures that she is producing for the London Transport Museum to work on during the residency. She also created a Community Portrait Collage in the window which everyone iwas invited to contribute to throughout the residency - bringing A4 photographs, drawings or paintings of local landmarks, streets and portraits.
Charcoal portrait sketches were done by Michelle or Anna-Maria Amato and use of Peep-Boards: fun interactive photo stand-ins which is a large board with an image printed on it - with holes cut out where people can stick their face through, creating a different identity and/or humorous effect. Peep up as: Sir Henry Tate who founded The Tate Art Gallery or Frida Kahlos who spent her life painting her own portraits.
Week 2:
The Portrait Collage Workshop: with Michelle Baharier. Creating an imaginary portrait using paper collages.Learn about shapes, colour tearing, and just having fun. Michelle can show how she doodles on her phone and combines paint with collage.
Women in the Frame talk by Michelle Baharier: about women artists, looking at self portraits and portraits from history and at the role portraits played in the work of women artists across different art movements. Focusing on artists such as Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Judith Leyster, who presented themselves with confidence, asserted and promoted themselves in eras when society rarely deemed that appropriate for women. This Talk, led on to informal discussions, allowing questions and answers,
‘Book Stories’ Workshop: with Anna-Maria Amato, which explored the connections between our inner narrative and our environment. involved looking at artists’ work, authors’ stories, our own art and stories and considering how we find these in the ordinary-or extraordinary of our lives.
Week 3
Pablo Ruiz Picasso Portraits – a fun workshop looking at the work of Picasso, and creating your own portrait Look at how Picasso turned the world of portraiture upside down and then have a go, using a range of materials, including collage.
From The Imagination - Art Workshop Led by Anna-Maria Amato, who invited participants to contribute to a large interactive art installation.
Cut-Out Poetry Workshop: Using cut out words to describe ourselves, creating fun poetry and then share a reading to each other.
Week 4
Michelle and Anna-Maria worked in the gallery throughout the week. The completed Furzedown Community Collage was on display with the final Photo Stand-in/Peep-Boards. Ending with a Celebratory end of show party event and exhibition, reviewing and enjoying all the work done and trying out the activities, with refreshments as a thank you for everyone who has taken part