Head on a Plate Projects

About

'Head on a Plate Projects' (“HOPP”) is an on-going collaboration between artists Sarah Kent and Sharon Leahy-Clark which celebrates the vibrant creativity and joyous intelligence of older women and women of all ages. We are keen to combat the invisibility we see and experience in both in art and in society in general. We are putting ourselves in the frame as creative beings demonstrating the power and pleasure of creativity with a live drawing event, which the public is invited to watch and to influence by their sheer presence. Using a variety of materials – from charcoal to inks, pastels, nail varnish and anything else that comes to hand – we work on sheets of paper so large they become spaces for immersive action rather than objects for contemplation. Working spontaneously at the same time as one another, we continually move around the paper, getting in close to concentrate on the marks and gestures we are making.

As we work, we talk; this helps us to focus on the activity rather than the outcome – to see the drawing as process rather than product. Working this way makes it difficult to judge the work aesthetically and since we constantly work into, overdraw and influence one another’s contributions anyway, there’s no opportunity to get precious. The results, the product of a drawing ‘dialogue’ of mark-making between us, are unpolished, raw and immediate and are different to anything either of us would produce on our own. Not only is this extremely exciting, but it democratizes the process of drawing and makes it accessible to others as an enjoyable activity available to all.