The Alleynian 704 2016

SEMINAR REPORT: LESSONS FROM HISTORY AND DRAWING THE MASTER

DAN NORTON-SMITH (YEAR 12)

Sue Mulholland

T he theme for this year’s symposium was the intriguing ‘Us and Them’, and as usual this was interpreted in many different and fascinating ways. My first chosen talk was given by Tohid Ismail (Year 13) and entitled ‘Our present, their future: what lessons might we learn from history?’ Asking whether we should trust history at all, Tohid talked eloquently about the subject, and engaged us right from the start. What I found particularly interesting was his explanation of postmodernist history: the belief that we can never truly know what happened, as all sources can be dismissed as unreliable due to the fact that we never fully know what the author felt or meant. By this same belief, my own description of the talk can be discredited, as you, the reader, will never know my thoughts absolutely, or how I truly felt. I disagree with this argument, but I did see its logic and Tohid’s clear and gripping description of the concept enthralled me. My second talk, ‘How do “we”, the artists, present “them” through portraiture and caricature?’ was by the graphic designer and OA Andy Tuohy, who has worked for many years in advertising and media. After telling us a little about graphic design as a career, he showed us a caricature of Dr Spence, the Master, and challenged us to create our own. Luckily, the Master was in attendance, and generously gave us all license to be as bracing as we liked in our sketches of him. It was both enjoyable and intriguing to see how different people had interpreted the brief, with some attempting a comedic take on the Master’s seemingly endless bike rides around the school, some looking at the challenge in a more literal way, drawing beautiful little intricate details be it ears, glasses or even the particularly stripy socks the Master wore that day. Others, including myself, went down a more interpretive route, trying to reflect Dr Spence’s near omnipotence in the College, or his seeming ability to crush all obstacles (such as the old Science Block). All in all, the two lectures that I chose were extremely engaging and interesting. I can only hope that next year’s Symposium provides as much fascination!

Dr Spence (left) being caricatured

SEMINAR REPORT: KUKUMA REFUGEE CAMP

MARCUS KÖTTERING (YEAR 13)

K ukuma (‘Nowhere’ in Swahili), is home to an estimated 700,000 refugees in the North-West Turkana region of Kenya. More of a prison than safe haven, Kukuma highlights this year’s Symposium theme of ‘Us and Them’ by virtue of the variety of identities found in its community. Eritreans, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Ugandans, and many more nationalities settled the camp to escape war, poverty, famine and persecution. The average time spent by refugees in Kukuma is 17 years. Many are born there, and many never leave – there is no resettlement programme in place. For these reasons, many organisations working in the camp, including the UN, have begun establishing educational programmes for settlers. This was a vocation for Dulwich’s Director of Art Mrs Mulholland, and her passion for this cause was made evident by the work she had been carrying out over the past four years. This included supporting teacher training, and helping to run programmes designed to encourage development in arts and crafts. A key element of the last strand of her charitable enterprise in Kukuma was to exhibit the products of her programmes and raise awareness back in the UK about the role we can play in bridging the gap between ‘us and them’.

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