Re-Cover
Rebecca Soudant
July 23 - August 19, 2005
Reception: July 28th, 7-9p


Rebecca Soudant, Re-Cover (installation view), 2005

From the first day of school most students enter a classroom where all the desks, chairs and books are the same. Like all public facilities, there are economical and practical reasons for this. Although educators make great efforts to accommodate the skill levels of different students, the visual experience of classrooms creates an impression of uniformity. While a suitably neutral and non-distracting learning environment is thereby created, there is also danger of a stifling effect. This makes it necessary for me to comment on the homogenizing effect of classroom settings and materials. This project questions uniformity and points to the various ways students grapple, academically, with their surroundings. This exhibit is about allowing humanity to reclaim its place in the classroom and questioning what we mean by 'academics' since it seems partly defined by an ethic of sameness and assimilation. This is an exhibit built for the intent of an art exhibition - free of the red-tape and bureaucratic procedures of a school setting in order to call for a departure from the notion of there is one correct approach.

Novel desks, some practical, some fanciful, have been created by using new and recycled materials. These desks show that students need built-in accommodations instead of after-the-fact compromises. The desks are meant to be as individualized as the students who might occupy them. There are not only different tabletops but also additional supports and accessories such as easily reachable easels and drawing surfaces, shutters that allow for more solitude and tall desks to allow for the option of standing. Deserving special mention are three of the desktops made inoperable for writing so as to question whether writing is always essential for communication of ideas. A unique desk for each student also acknowledges the natural differences in physical shapes and body types and promotes an acceptance of this truth of human difference as a norm, just as desirable as celebrating differences in spirit. With an individual desk for every student, accommodations would no longer appear as an addition to classroom design but rather as a planned-for-and-accepted norm. Instead of alterations being made as an after thought, built-in compromises are interpreted as established recognition.

There is a set of Oliver Twist books that I have altered using 'Photoshop'. These books simulate what might be seen by those with various learning exceptionalities. The books offer realism, context, and hope for understanding those pupils who struggle with the fundamental skill of reading and thereby demonstrate vividly what they sacrifice. Viewers of this exhibit are in a position to see what students might actually be confronted with when they have these exceptionalities: dyslexia, attention deficit, scotopic sensitivity syndrome, retinitis pigmentosa, racial slur sensitivity and for contrast, reading for enjoyment. Each book names an exceptionality, and has a poem at the beginning to explain the losses as well as possible gains that an individual may face. Upon examination of these texts, viewers can see the importance of flexibility and accommodations in regards to the needs of individual students and success. The books encourage the acceptance of each individual's personhood. These books and desks show that all students need to feel accepted at face value upon entry. While I want to stress the importance of individuality, this is not an exhibit that promotes anything-goes-kind-of-behaviour from students. While the consequences fro misbehaviour should not be compromised, the outcome for student frustration due to uniformity could be reviewed.

Rebecca Soudant, Re-Cover (installation view), 2005

The two aspects, desks and books, compliment and reinforce each other. Both show individuality, one making use of old technology; i.e. desks made of wood by hand; the other making use of modern technology; ie. Computers - Photoshop. This exhibit is a celebration of individuality as well as re-thinking, wonderful but, at times, over-institutionalized modern world. I hope this exhibit suggests the possibilities of a more intuitive approach not just in classrooms but in all institutions.