Clay making workshop inspired by virus structures

On Thursday 12 December, the Art Room was taken over by a PhD researcher who visited the school to run a clay workshop.

Dr. Henry Blest is a Virologist doing a research PHD at the University of Oxford. Having trained in the arts, he specialises in ceramic sculptures inspired by the viruses he studies. Students attending the workshop were given some insight into the ground breaking research in contemporary virology and learned about various artists who used viruses in their practice. Following this, the pupils had some hands-on experience of clay making techniques to produce their own virus inspired sculpture. Examples of these are in the photo below. 

Felix W in Year 9 commented: “Viruses come in many shapes which makes them very interesting. I made a coral that was based somewhat on the herpes virus.”