Since the bid to host the Olympic extravaganza in London was announced in 2005, it was met with a great deal of anticipation, and a large amount of cynicism over the cost of it. Twenty Twelve is the result of a two day workshop I led at Alderman Cogan Primary school. Working with a class of eleven year old’s in the last few weeks of their primary education in the northern city of Hull, asking what they think about the Olympics—living outside of the capital city—and what their own excitements, fears and ideals are about their futures, against the back drop of a harsh financial climate, and a budget which has effected this area particular badly. The two days was spent creating a large amount of drawings, paintings, storyboards and photography. The final audio conversations you can hear was the idea of the children. My initial intentions were to interview all the children at the end of the workshops, but they made the decision to interview each other, creating a friendly, comfortable and playful atmosphere, the resulting images which accompany the audio are those taken while the children where acting out there imagined stories.
The work was displayed in the Final exhibition in the 5-exhibition series 'Sound Proof', curated by Monica Biagioli and Brian Reed.
Sound Proof is a series of yearly exhibitions that has been in development since 2008, taking the Stratford site of the London 2012 Olympics as a point of departure for commissioned artworks with a focus on sound.
