Changing Environments

Changing Environments is a collaborative project between ActionSpace Studio Artist Ophir Yaron and Artist Facilitator Jackie Ford. The two met together over weekly Zoom video calls to create artwork and share ideas. Over 10 weeks Ophir and Jackie stayed connected through listening to music, drawing and dancing.

 

“Art is a different way for my voice to be heard. Art (drawing, painting and dancing) makes me feel free. I am using art to express my different experiences as a young woman with a label of Down’s Syndrome and to show people what I can do as both a “pattern-ist’ (an artist who uses patterns) and a dancer.”- Ophir Yaron

 

 Montage photo of Ophir and Jackie dancing over video call. 

 

Before lockdown, Ophir and Jackie were commissioned to create a cross-artform workshop for a group of young people with learning disabilities as part of the British Museum’s Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation: Access and Education Project. In keeping with her interest in the museum, Ophir chose to take a closer look at the upcoming Arctic Culture and Climate exhibition. She was especially drawn to the online photographs of cold, frozen landscapes and the ingenious protective clothing made and worn by the people who live there. Ophir and Jackie also looked at a print Nunavut Qajanartuk (Our Beautiful Land) by artist Kenojuak Ashevak, an artwork celebrating the close connection between the people of the Arctic and their surrounding environment.

Inspired by these images, Ophir created a new artwork about her own environment and the changes that she has experienced during lockdown.

“My art is about the things I am doing now during lockdown and the things I used to do before.”- Ophir Yaron

 

‘Changing Environments’ by Ophir Yaron

 

Continuing to be inspired by images and sounds from the Arctic, as well as the powerful energy of ice melting due to the effects of climate change, Ophir has been working on a contemporary dance to express her personal response to this subject.

“I thought the ice breaking was dramatic!” – Ophir Yaron

Film stills of Ophir’s dance piece

 

Jackie and Ophir have created a Spotify mix of the music they have been listening to, drawing and dancing along to. Listen here.

Ophir and Jackie listening to the music playlist  

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