SHIFT is our monthly series of videos sharing varied practices, approaches and philosophies within art education.
Exodus Crooks is a British-Jamaican artist currently working between Birmingham and Kingston. They have been an educator for the last six years and an artist for as long as they can remember, formally studying art throughout high school and college before pursuing graphics at university.
Exodus’ tools for both teaching and creating art are queer and gentle. The way in which they make, share, connect and reflect is always gentle and this has changed their artistic practice significantly over the past few years. Their practice now centres the relationship with self. Looking at the intimacy between personal and collective histories, their work comments on family, folklore as generational wealth, and cultural patterns and performance.
During their time as a Black Hole Club artist, they have used a residency at The New Art Gallery Walsall and commissions for GRAIN Projects, the Film and Video Umbrella and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts as opportunities to experiment with photography, filmmaking, performance & writing.
The complete series of SHIFT videos are available to view on the Freelands Foundation website: https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/education/shift
Existing as both a student and a teacher at all times is a crucial part of my pedagogy it’s important for me to speak about education only if I can empathize with all those who occupy a classroom and this in between us is a theme throughout my personal and professional life throughout my life
I’ve become familiar with existing in between states of gender culture location even religion but what really affected my teaching methods was existing between the role of student and teacher in this film I’m going to talk about My Philosophy for art education existing in between student and teacher
Some of the things I found during my ma research entitled I hope you right back kiss kiss kiss and finally I will share my thoughts on the role of care in the formal and informal classroom and its radical impact act in current times My Philosophy for education is
Also My Philosophy for living it’s to do two things to firstly unlearn anything that was intended to keep you small after all Max man says that we are children of the universe no less than the trees and stars and secondly to love one another with honesty and
Grace my thinking is influenced by the likes of B hooks James Baldwin and Audrey Lord so love and rage are commonly referenced throughout my research and resources there is a bit of a political reputation linked to my teaching practice and I wasn’t always comfortable with this perhaps because I was uncomfortable
With making others feel uncomfortable and this is why activism and politics are demonized in the media but where you have people you will always have politics and therefore everything is political and everything is unavoidable and so rather than than avoid some of these things that divide us my Approach is to address them
Inviting them safely into spaces of collaboration and education existing as both a student and a teacher at all times is a crucial part of my pedagogy it’s important for me to speak about education only if I can empathize with all those who occupy a classroom and this in between us is a
Theme throughout my personal and professional life throughout my life I’ve become famili amiliar with existing in between states of gender culture location even religion but what really affected my teaching methods was existing between the role of student and teacher both roles represent Points of Authority and vulnerability and this is
Something I began to understand more as I reflected on the space between oppression and privilege being disabled black and queer in a workingclass part of England meant I experienced many different different versions of neglect and hardship but I’m also a passport holder a second generation Jamaican whose first
Language is English and someone who has a number of degrees and qualifications existing between spaces of Oppression and privilege means I’ve had opportunities to use my voice and I’ve had moments where my voice was quieted this in between us made me see the political culture of British
Education system it showed me the ways in which students are given a false sense of democracy they are expected to vote for the next leader of their country but still have to ask their teachers permission to use the toilet so what is the purpose of the Contemporary classroom I’d ask myself
Regularly and every time I tried to answer this question I always found myself discussing ego respectability politics and the archaic values of England I would spend hours observing classroom culture that left young people with the message that they must always respect ECT someone who is older or in a
Position of power and discourage them from using the word no and so students leave further education without the Assurance of self they need to navigate Society challenging this dysfunctional culture requires care before I speak a bit more about care which is the foundation of my art education philosophy and pedagogy I want
To share a little bit more about an investigative journey I went on in 2021 as part of my ma in art and education practices I produced a body of work entitled I hope you WR back kiss kiss kiss it documented my relationship with institutions as a freelance artist
Educator with the aim of discovering ingredients needed to transform the current British art education system and if I’m being honest I started the project with a naive and somewhat self-centered mindset I don’t resent being naive because naivity is evidence of that a younger version of me still
Exists but it was this mindset that led me to believe that I and I alone could save education what I actually learned on this investigative Journey was as follows number one these spaces that I worked with already had transformative things in place my job as a freelance
Educator was to build upon and work with them rather than replace or invent number two I too am the learner even though I entered into a relationship with these spaces as an educator or facilitator I was also a learner whenever I stopped thinking like a learner that’s when I struggled to communicate with
Participants and care not just for them but about their concerns I needed to remember I am learning too in order for me to connect better number three I must be willing to be vulnerable and honest both with those in the room and with myself transparency opens doors for real
Reflection and work and it was periods of honesty that made me ask myself questions like why am I here who is this for do I have something valuable to contribute or do I just want to hear my own Voice number four these relationships must not be transactional
But the start of something organic of course these were jobs that I needed to pay my bills but I wanted more than money I wanted to be in a healthy relationship with these organizations I wanted something that developed organically and came from a place of mutual interest and excitement
For the work that was being done I noticed that usually once I finished working with an organization and had received payment I would never really think about them again let alone interact with them and this left me with a sort of empty feeling these were just a few of my find
Ings but the most prominent Revelation from my higher education research was about care about the transformative difference care in education can make most of us are aware of all the ways in which art and education can be used to impact our world but what lies at the center of this impact is
Care our education without care falls short of what it can really do depending on how you were raised caring may have been an instinctive part of your childhood and hopefully it was something you were encouraged to do whether you at school or at home but it it has been a
Strategic act by Western societies to discourage and remove care from humanity meaning we have to intentionally relearn how to care in relearning how to care and applying that care to the formal and informal classroom we must first deal with the world in dealing with the world we begin
To understand one another not not only as individuals but we can try understand other perspectives livelihoods experiences and issues in understanding them as our own empathy then develops empathy allows space for care and between empathy and Care Community is formed when we speak about these stages and elements of care and learning to
Care in education people say to me but there’s no time for these things there’s a curriculum to follow grades to met but as we’re observing young people are leaving education with having followed the curriculum raised through the scheme of work achieved whatever grade they were able to achieve and still fail to
Understand the value of the knowledge shared how to use it and why it’s even relevant to their lives so surely we must look at a more fruitful approach to teaching and learning presently this race to prove intelligence is exhausting the teachers and making containers of the students policy makers push a purely bureaucratic
Agenda that doesn’t consider the well-being of the teachers and if there is a lack of care towards the teachers then eventually the teachers run out of care for students and the cycle repeats if we believe that there is no time for care in education then that’s exactly
What happens there is no care in education this lack of care appears in so many areas of classroom culture but you see it particularly in the lesson content and delivery in pedagogy of the oppressed Paul o friia writes about the banking concept where students become retainers of information information
Deposited by the teacher and said students are then tasked to remember and regurgitate rather than actually understand or think for themselves real lifelong learning begins with learning ourselves and when we are able to understand ourselves we are able to truly understand everything else this idea to explore care before or
Alongside any explicit School content is something I have proposed in a few different institutions over the last 3 years I used opportunities with Inova lra college and icon gallery to try and Implement care this came in the form of real structures of democracy what I called a loosened schedule and most
Significantly the complete removal of a lesson when required by the group I say real structures of democracy because I noticed that students rarely had Choice when it came to their learning experience the impression was given that they had choice but when I assessed this closely I realized that other than their
Subject choices which were still limited they had no say in their education after looking at the alternative Curriculum by they are here a collaborative practice led by Helen Walker and Haron Morrison I was inspired to create a ballot system this ballot gave students further options about the content and the way in
Which they were taught that content it ensured that students were able to vote specifically on the techniques and subjects they were interested in as well as other topics outside of the curriculum such as drag race and whether or not to get a credit card allowing students to choose what
They wanted to learn and how they wanted to learn was a huge Challenge on behalves of both the institution and and the students the institution had their own targets that took priority over the students interests and the students were not used to this much freedom but over time the students expressed that they
Felt their decisions were respected they felt they were cared about and that their opinions needs and interests mattered this beg got a deeper relationship between me and my groups that contined to Center Care in the classroom in addition to this voting system I attempted to loosen schedules
And in some cases even cancel the formal lesson or session Al together I had to experiment with this one because participants were so used to walking into a formal classroom space and following a particular structure they had attached so much meaning and expectation to the words lesson and
Workshop it was hard to undo this and go off script but it was crucial to show care through time because time was the thing that has the strongest hold on us all we believe there is no time for somebody to get something wrong or process things at different Paces no
Time to be unwell heal or rest this was even more relevant amongst neurod Divergent participants one of my letters written to a group of 16 to 19 year olds as part of I hope you right back kiss kiss kiss describes a session where we gave up all
Together on the lesson objective set and began as a whole group talking about relationships politics and family so much connection and care to took place in that one hour that we didn’t even notice when the session had ended but as I implemented practices of care in the classroom I still needed to
Go on my own personal journey of understanding what care is so as I record this video from the North Coast of Jamaica I have to say that it has been living and working here that has truly taught me about Care community and education I only understand what community means because of my Jamaican
Heritage I grew up in England watching Jamaican in my area in my home in my church and community and I saw that so many practices and rituals centered care within the community before I began to spend more time here I only learned what care was because I knew what it wasn’t but in
Becoming by Coastal I started to see the implications of care over and over again I watched a group of people who understand that each other is all we have and all that matters culturally many Jamaican persons have have a bond with their land and a sense of spirituality whether that be
Through religion or other avenues there is a connection to Body Soul and Spirit I often sit and wonder whether the holistic way of living here has some influence on the academic talents of the Jamaican people I wonder this because the University of the West Indies continues to be ranked in the top 1.5%
Of universities in the world and I believe this has to be related to the cultural and spiritual practices and characteristics of the western Indian people I want to conclude by sharing two of my favorite quotes by two of my favorite authors to allow you to think more broadly about art Education and
Care James Baldwin said to any citizen who deal with the minds and hearts of young people must be prepared to go For Broke and when I think of this term go For Broke I interpret its extremity its implications of sacrifice and risk Baldwin emphasizes a willing to take
Risks and what is more risky than care caring for something or someone requires you to be vulnerable it asks you to be forgiving of yourself and others in her book art on my mind B hooks writes art constitutes one of the rare locations where acts of transcendence can take
Place and have a wide ranging transformative impact experiencing art can enhance our understanding of what it means to live as free subjects in an unfree world hook speaks very largely on art as it exists in the context of Blackness but also in the context of spirituality she understood that art
Acts as a portal and a tool for understanding and freedom this is what art has done for me it’s been an Avenue for deeper understanding of self and as mentioned previously understanding yourself brings about the ability to understand others and understanding others can lead to practical and radical implementations of care hooks also
Speaks briefly on understanding others too where she writes radical pedagogy must insist that everyone’s presence is acknowledged acknowledging everyone’s presence may seem like an obvious and easily met task for an educator but the acknowledgement of a student and also the teacher’s presence happens a lot less than you might imagine she goes on
To say that her teachers made sure they knew ability to learn was always contextualized acknowledging the presence of everyone in the room requires you to know them really know them and their background who they are and how their learning will be affected by others and other factors is crucial
To radical pedagogy when you come to understand someone’s context and acknowledge their presence you’re able to care and that care can change the entire future of Education as we know it