Year 7 Students had the amazing opportunity to see the art work of Grayson Perry with its TV inspiration, Kayleigh. Aalia Saadiq from Year 7 contacted Kayleigh after hearing about the Hijab that Grayson Perry had created about her life. Kayleigh is from Ashford and has recently converted to the Muslim religion. She had taken part in a TV documentary series called ‘Who am I?’ in which Grayson Perry created portraits which revealed a person’s identity through a variety of different media.
During the recent intergenerational project, students had looked at Grayson Perry’s ‘Who am I?’ art work to inspire their own pieces of work about the visiting older people. Aalia recognised the mosque Kayleigh attends in Ashford, which features in the art work (Hijab). It is the same mosque that Aalia attends and so she contacted her, asking if she would like to visit Wye School.
Year 7 students made Mrs Riordan extremely proud as they asked intelligent questions about the art work and showed a clear understanding of the Muslim religion that Miss Burden had been teaching them about earlier in the year. Students learned so much about the art work of Grayson Perry (whom Mrs Riordan considers to be the most influential and exciting UK artist of this time). Both the students and Mrs Riordan felt extremely privileged to have been able to see this art and speak to person who inspired it.