Speech by Shannon Coombs delivered at Artworks Conference in Tate Modern, 30th June 2005.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,
My name is Shannon Coombs and I am the current Managing Director of Room 13 Hareclive and I would like to say a few words...
Art is a way for ME to express my INDIVIDUALITY!!!!!
Before Room 13 was set up in our school I used to think art was a 2-D picture of a house with a sun. Now I know art can be anything it just depends on the person and the way they visualise and think about things.
Room 13 has given me the chance and the space to think my own thoughts and to express them in my own way.
I express my thoughts in many different ways. I draw and write my feelings, I say what I think and I express my ideas in my artwork.
So far I have finished one piece of artwork, and I am now working on another two. My first piece was about the saying 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ I began by arranging dried pieces of acrylic paint on a board. From this starting point I changed this work many, many times, experimenting with paint and colour. It took me a while to finish it, as I had to keep changing it to suit my ideas.
At the moment Amy and I are working on a ‘rubbish’ sculpture. It is a chair that was found on the street. We have stuck lonely words and rubbish onto it that we found in the room. We chose this old and lonely theme because the chair had been abandoned.
I am very proud of the work I have done in Room 13.
Being the Managing Director of Room 13 Hareclive has helped me build up my confidence. Before our Room was set up at school I was really shy and in the school plays I was always the shy sheep sat in the background.
Room 13 is like home to me.
Ladies and Gentlemen, can you imagine what school life would have been like for you with a Room 13 at your old schools?
As children we like to be treated with some RESPECT.
Shannon Coombs, Managing Director of Room 13 Hareclive 2004/2005