Guy Tarrant
Guy Tarrant is a contemporary artist from London, England. He works with found art and has exhibited articles related to schoolchildren's vandalism.
Life and work
Guy Tarrant began making artworks in 1987. After graduating from Sheffield Hallam University in 1991 and later training to become a teacher and gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and a Community Arts M.A from Goldsmiths College Tarrant began to draw on his experiences within the education system after working in 150 different state schools in London as a general supply teacher. In his touring exhibition, God Save The Pupils Tarrant and artist Mercedes Phillips exhibited various found art objects confiscated from school children. These included unusual homemade weaponry, fashion items, defaced textbooks, toys and drugs. Other items in the show included a whisky bottle filled with urine which was given as a class leaving present, as well as various graffitied and vandalised school desks and doors. The show involved liaisons with over 300 different London schools and is collectively known as 'The Resistances Project' because of its emphasis on unsettled pupil behavior and issues of well being. It was initially exhibited at The Stephen Lawerence Gallery in Greenwich. Other exhibitions involve the Dean Clough Galleries, 20-21 Arts Centre , Leeds Metropolitan University, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Oxford Visual Arts Development Agency, Centre for Life Newcastle and The V&A Museum of Childhood. Other themed shows include ‘School-Scapes’, ‘At Play’, ‘Pumped up Kids’, ‘A state of un-play’, ‘Culture, Alienation, Boredom & Despair’ and ‘Confiscation Cabinets’.
Tarrant is also involved with community art within the mental health sector and he has received several national arts awards as an arts leader, including an N.I.M.H.E Award National Institute for Mental Health in England. Tarrant specializes in working with adolescents with E.S.M.H Emotional and behavioral disorders and currently works part-time as a SENCO
Notes and references
The Observer Confiscated toys in pictures
Museum Of Childhood Confiscation Cabinets
Time Out Confiscation Cabinets