Imagination of children (1): absurd impositions

Abstract

Solo show. The imagination of Children is a curatorial research project developed by Rebecca Fortnum and Rhian Harris, Director of the V & A's Museum of in Bethnal Green, London. Whilst much literature appeals to children's imaginative lives this project attempts to visually examine this, both my making work about. and for, children. This first exhibition, a solo exhibition of drawings by Rebecca fortnum includes two bodies of work: ‘Dream’, an extensive series of small portraits, shows children with their eyes closed, thereby shutting out the intrusive viewer. However the iconography becomes troubling; reference may be made to Piero della Francesca’s Madonna and Child where the slumbering child foretells Christ’s death. The imagery responds directly to notions of the power relations of the subject’s gaze, introducing on asuggestive level the idea of the child’s dreams and imaginings that are inaccessible to the viewer. The portraits are completed in pairs in a process developed to question the authenticity of the single image. These small, intimate works are accompanied by large-scale drawings that initiate a different dynamic. In these the child’s gaze is unflinching, demanding even. The scale empowers the child and reflects their imposing psychological stature in relation to theadult community that surrounds them