Free Saturday Workshop #2 — Distorting Improvement with Conform Cox

In this series of three Saturday workshops, we’ll be drawing and reimagining, drawing inspiration from the theme of the exhibition Draw Withdraw Redraw. Each workshop will centre on a question relating to improving our current lives. In the first workshop, we’ll reimagine the human form; next, we’ll reimagine your own living space; and in the third workshop, we’ll turn our attention to Rotterdam.

What would you like to improve, and can you think beyond the current frameworks of life and society? What is an important issue for you, and how might you redesign the world to address it? How can you visualise your unique ideas? Illustrator Conform Cox will guide you through these questions and also help you with any queries you may have about drawing. In this way, during each workshop, you’ll build a part of your own alternative world, constructed layer by layer. You can also take part in just one workshop.

Workshop 2

The participants will draw a picture of their living room or bedroom from memory, showing the view from the window; the window must be centred in the picture. We’ll do this using waterproof fineliners. This also teaches people not to spend ages erasing, but to be happy with what they’ve drawn initially. We’ll then go over this with opaque markers and coloured paper. Participants are asked: what would you add or remove from your home to improve it? They draw this and stick it over the existing drawing. They can think of very realistic things, such as a comfortable sofa. But they can also think of fantastical things, such as a portal to a Zen garden or something similar.

The window in the drawing is cut out so that you can look through it. The rooms can be laid out side by side to form a large block of flats, allowing everyone to have a peek into each other’s rooms. There can then be a discussion about everyone’s wishes.