the idea
the Life Room is a unique combination of art studio and gym consisting of a series of apparatus for fitness and drawing – running machines and easels, rowing machines and drawing boards, plaster casts and plasma screens. the Life Room is a new site for the body and the mind, a place for improving physical and intellectual well being, and a place for social interaction.
Where do people go at the beginning of the 21st century for self improvement and social exchange – bars, museums, restaurants, libraries, theatres, cinemas or concerts, evening classes, the internet café, the gym?
The human body is one the central themes in Art, and drawing is one of the primary ways in which we communicate, record, and understand. In contemporary culture the human body is still central and is most commonly expressed through sport, dance, pornography, art and fashion; in glossy magazines, television, on the internet, and in the gym.
The rise of the fitness gym in the late 20th and early 21st century represents a new realisation of the Olympian ideal and classical beauty; a place to see and be seen, where people work on and observe the human form and where individuals can recreate themselves by sculpting/modelling their bodies through exercise. The gym also presents an ideal site for artists to observe and contemplate the human form and create images.
The life drawing studio was once the heart and lungs of every art school, it was the meeting place where students learned not just about drawing, but also the history, theories and theology of art. Today the human body is no less important in the daily thinking of artists and designers than it was two hundred years ago, However, few schools have retained a life room facility and 'drawing' in the 21st Century may mean many different things.
the Life Room is cross disciplinary and aims to link art, design, science and medicine. It is an enquiry into what might constitute life drawing in the digital age and is a search for a new cultural and social space for the future.
the Studio
The combination drawing studio/gym is a place dedicated to observation, reflection, action, learning, endurance and shaping. It takes its themes from historic and modern Olympian ideals and contemporary approaches to physical and intellectual wellbeing, culture, and learning.
the Life Room is intended to be open to the widest possible audience and uniquely encourages participation in art and fitness in one space, inspiring new ways of thinking and creating. Like any other gym it will be a place to see and be seen and to contemplate the intricacies of the human form. It is not a performance space, it is a rehearsal space designed to build physical and psychological strength, endurance, confidence and understanding.
The first live Life Room project opens in Winter 2009 at CHELSEA space, London. It is a pioneering cultural experiment but is strategically timed with the ambition that the Life Room could appear in museums, galleries, educational institutions and fitness centres across the country as part of the Cultural Olympiad and the 2012 Olympics. This concept has the potential to have a lasting effect on the planning of educational, fitness, and cultural public spaces.
the Website
the Life Room website will be a place for ideas, new projects, writings, and artworks picking up on themes inspired by Life Room and will be a holding space for documentation of Life Room events and exhibitions.
Contributions to the projects/artworks/writings section of the website are by invite only.