MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK

workshop series and collective film work
jan - dec 2021

commissioned by: arts connect
in association with:
arts council england
wolverhampton art gallery
british arts show 9 schools program.

artists:
sophie huckfield
‘many’ by sandwell college
‘hands’ by thorns collegiate academy
‘make’ by wolverhampton grammar school
‘light’ by  phoenix collegiate academy 
‘work’ by dudley sixth at dudley college 

music compositions by:
luke bendall
seb jarvis

teachers and technicians:
rupinder sandhu
leon woodcock
angela sutton
emma bowater
jason piggott
hannah hannon–worthington
kevin petford
thea brown
jackie mason
diana dziedzic
gillian worley

arts connect:
rebecca thompson
support from:
georgia e adamson  

‘many hands make light work’ was a collaborative project involving five schools across wolverhampton and the black country, UK. each school and college co-created a multidisciplinary moving image work based on each word of the phrase “many hands make light work”, students collectively developed their own unique story, alongside building the props and art works for each film. the film's five stories were inspired by histories of collectivity alongside contemporary issues such as food insecurity, care work and the climate crisis. local musicians studying were also commissioned to create unique music compositions for each moving-image work, utilising sound recordings created by each school.  

each moving image work sought to present how one phrase or story can be interpreted and presented in a multitude of ways and perspectives, with collaboration and collectivity at the core of each work. the project co-created stories rooted in the concept of polyphony, a practice used predominantly in music and literature, which aims to include a diversity of simultaneous points of view in storytelling, to create a cacophony of voices and perspectives.