In 2016, artists Heather and Ivan Morison were commissioned to make a new art work for Bishop Road School. They have established an ambitious collaborative practice over the past decade and they also teach sculpture at the Royal College of Art and have also worked with many schools and young people. Heather and Ivan were the perfect artists for the job!
Heather worked at Bishop Road School from April 2016. She spent time with every class and asked the children to take her on a tour of their school showing her the important and interesting places, people and things that make up their environment. In whole class sessions, she introduced the project, explored the children’s views towards public art and encouraged them to tell stories by asking open questions about the people, places and things in their school. She has also talked of the process an artist goes through when conceiving of a public work; meaning, concept, story, materials, site, audience, context, health and safety, installation, maintenance etc. encouraging the children to see their school from the view of an artist.
Our school’s beautiful, empty bell tower was mentioned by a child on the first day, and this observation drew many stories out of the children and continued throughout all the visits. These stories ranged from the fact that the bell had been melted to make bombs for a war, to the fact that it had only just been removed as it was too loud. In the classroom sessions (so without seeing the tower) many of the children believed that the there was a bell in the tower, that it had rung that morning or they had heard before, and were quite shocked to discover at playtime that this was not the case. In actual fact we believe that there has never actually been a bell in the tower. A myth had begun in the school about the bell and built as Heather continued her visits. The school was not quite finished without it’s bell.
Working with John Taylor and Co of Loughborough, Heather and Ivan proposed to design and cast a new bell with an electric clapper in the note of C. In February 2017, they took the school council to Loughborough to see the bell cast. A professional photographer and filmmaker joined them and later in the year the story of the Will You Won’t You? Bell was shown at the school. Professionally installed in the tower over the summer of 2017, the bell is be programmed to ring by our school from a central control unit in the school reception.
The Will You Won’t You now rings every day to mark to the beginning and the end of the school day.
NOTES:
- More information about the artists can be found at morison.info
- The title Will You Won’t You is a reference to the “The Mock Turtle’s Song”, also known as the “Lobster Quadrille”, and is a song recited by the Mock Turtle in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, accompanied by a dance.
