How many of us have had the experience of speaking and yet not being heard? Despite having the tools and means to communicate – whether that is music, dance, voice or any method of expression – barriers divide what is being said from a listening audience or partner in conversation.
Repurposing confectionary packaging to create a series of miniature concert halls, within lies the means of creative expression (a grand piano a little more than 1cm in diameter) and on the outside, a layer of insulation that resembles acoustic sound-proofing foam. The audience seats are made from lolly-sticks and the layers of a chocolate box provide the basic architectural structure of a tiered theatre space.
Using discarded materials to build with is a key theme running through the Art Extraordinary collection, but so too is a historic undervaluing of artworks made within spaces of confinement (the collector and art therapist Joyce Laing worked tirelessly to address this in her preservation of these artworks). So many artists who have created pioneering works from within hospitals, prisons and so on are omitted from art history books, their creative outputs reaching a (miniature) audience.
One interpretation might be that the foam covering the sculptures is preventing the creative expression from being heard, a struggle that many Outsider artists experience. From another perspective, perhaps the spiky outer shells of these sculptures provide protection and comfort to the artist within. Spaces in which we can express ourselves freely also need to feel safe, and sometimes that arises in spaces of privacy, spaces in which no audience is granted access. A deterrent set up to protect the sensitivity and vulnerability that arises from creative expression.