I SEE YOU LIKE THIS - En Masse Style
I SEE YOU LIKE THIS is a process which can be used with the booth and one on one sessions (ISYLT APPOINTMENT STYLE) OR as a festival or foyer event where kids use their parent's face as a canvas in a quick process using their parents own smartphones to capture the image (ISYLT EN MASSE). It is so empowering and fun for kids to have their parent surrender to their creative mind - and hands. Below you see a collection of the 1000’s of images produced through ISYLT EN MASSE.
With our insatiable appetite to document our lives through photos and selfies, children are so often the reluctant subjects of their parent’s cameras. Asked to smile, look cute, look that way, and come in closer, often an interruption to their own concentrated play, I See you Like This turns the camera back and allows children to see a parent or significant adult as the subject through the lens of their own imaginations.
The project offers a rare opportunity for parents to be ‘seen’, and for children to express their perspective on what kind of person their adult is, through their eyes.
The iconic project sees local children attend a short interview about how they see their significant adults before creating a bizarre artwork directly onto their face. Snapped by a professional photographer, the ISYLT portraits are consistently surprising. Usually turned quickly around to form major exhibitions, they demonstrate the originality of children’s creative voices as well as the surrender of their unwitting and willing parents.
Working with children everywhere, I have made more than 2000 portraits, helping children to be heard, affecting parent/child relationships and sometimes even making parents cry!
I SEE YOU LIKE THIS was commissioned by Artplay’s New Ideas Lab and has had seasons at ;
The Arts Centre Melbourne
Krokusfestival, BELGIUM
West Wind Festival in Cologne, GERMANY
Darwin Festival,
Darebin Arts Centre
The Bowery Theatre, City of Brimbank
Taste of Tasmania
City of Stonnington’s Roola Boola
Kingston City Council
Wydham Council’s Children’s Week Picnic
Whitehorse City Council
Jacob’s Creek Winery for Barossa Contemporary, South Australia
Melbourne Knowledge Week
Midsummer Festival, Monash University
Portland Performing Arts Centre
Gold Coast’s, HOTA, Home of the Arts
Gippsland Performing Arts
Baboro International Children’s Festival, Galway, IRELAND
Riverbank Arts Centre, IRELAND
Glor, Ennis, IRELAND
Hawke’s Well Theatre, Sligo, IRELAND
I SEE YOU LIKE THIS was created by JESSICA WILSON with MATILDA WOODROOFE.
Photography by CARLA GOTTGENS, IENE MESOTTEN, RACHEAL MAIN and KENZI ST GEORGE.