Opening - Jessica Wilson: I See You Like This

Join us at the Waverley Library Galleries for the opening of I See You Like This. Jessica Wilson’s I See You Like This invites children to consider a parent or close adult’s personality in an interview process, before they create a bizarre assemblage using locally sourced objects as their centrepiece. In what is often a moving process with unexpected insights, the adult surrenders control and is able to step back and observe their child’s perspective about them. The project flips the direction of the camera which often faces towards kids. Here the adult is the ‘subject’ and the child is not seen or objectified, rather they are given a serious public platform for their creativity. Jessica has collaborated with 100’s of children in this process and has particularly loved working with families in Bondi to create these extraordinary portraits which each reveal something unique about the relationship between the child artists and their special adult. Jessica Wilson is an internationally recognised leader in the field of participative art for children. She has a background in site-based theatre and loves making art experiences that respond to real people and real places, as a means to change the way we see the ordinary world around us. Her current practice is underpinned by a drive to mainstream child agency, independence and imaginative play, with a particular interest in using art to return children to the public domain. She often invents participative processes that yield material for high profile public outcomes and is frequently invited to re-situate her acclaimed concepts, in collaboration with local artists, for festivals and venues across the world. Age Suitability: All Ages Presented by Waverley Council Image credit: Ayla and Remy Goodman's 'The Trumpet Bird'. Photo by Annabel Osborne.