The Wolverhampton City Show happens every year at West Park - an opportunity to see Monster Trucks, eat candy floss, win a stuffed animal that doubles as a fire hazard, and avoid the parachuting Royal Artillery. Alongside all of this fun, Wolverhampton Arts and Museums have a stand every year where they engage members of the public in activities which link back in to their current or forthcoming exhibitions.
Alongside the rag rug demonstration run by ladies from Bantock House, we had a table set up with paper, pens, a couple of cameras, some dressing up props and a Pogo Polaroid portable printer. Linking back in to the current exhibition, "Stories", we designed the activity around encouraging people to create their own imaginary characters/possible alter-egos/who they'd be as a superhero.
Passers-by were encouraged to rummage through our props to create a 'look' which we then photographed and printed off on the Pogo. Whilst printing, we showed participants how to create a mini-book from a single sheet of A4 paper, and inside their books we encouraged them to draw or writing about all manner of imaginary people. Once their image was printed, we fixed this to the front of their book which they could take with them or leave with us to help build a library of imaginary Wolverhampton people.
"Stories" is only on until the 4th September 2010 at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and is definitely worth a visit. Inspired by childhood memories and fairytales, the artists involved in the show have created gigantic flowers, wax animals, book sculptures and large scale paintings.