Existing comment:
Tim Rollins + KOS
On the Origin of Species (after Darwin)
2008-09
"What we're doing changes people's conception about who can make art, how art is made, who can learn and what's possible, because a lot of these kids had been written off by the school system. This is our revenge." -- Tim Rollins
Tim Rollins, teacher and conceptual artist, began instructing special education teenagers in the South Bronx in the early 1980s. He developed an approach where the students, who named themselves KOS (Kids of Survival), produced works of art based upon classic literature.
Challenging traditional teaching models, Rollins discovered that students would mentally engage concepts differently if their hands were also engaged. In the studio classroom, while discussing themes found in literature, students often drew or painted on pages of their books. The students later brought their drawings and ideas together to form collaborative works. Over the course of nearly three decades, they have created artwork based upon such classics as Frank Kafka's "Amerika," Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," George Orwell's "Animal Farm," Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X."
Tim Rollins + KOS have exhibited extensively worldwide and their work is in prestigious collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, and the Tate Modern in London.
"On the Origin of Species (after Darwin)" by Tim Rollins + KOS was commissioned by Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species" (November 24, 1859) and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth (February 12, 1809). |