Today I’m going to write about the inaugural John Hughes Arts Festival and the part that my Jesus College Rooster MOC played in it! Relevant gallery here: sta.sh/21klybxbguxs
Jesus College Cambridge played host to the festival from the 23rd to the 25th of January 2015, held in memory of the late Chaplain, John Hughes, who tragically died in a car crash in summer 2014. He’d always wanted to promote the artistic side of the college, and so the student body thought it would be fitting to hold a weekend-long display of art, music, and performance in his honour.
The most significant part for me is that my rooster was chosen to be the festival’s icon! Bear in mind that I didn’t build the rooster with that purpose: in November last year, I received an email saying that there was an arts festival coming up, and I replied saying that I had a Jesus-related art piece that they could feature in the art gallery if they wanted. It was quite a pleasant surprise when I was told what role they intended it to play – the rooster, now nicknamed Johannes (a name which never quite grew on me, really), was to act as a symbol of student-made art within the college and be a mascot for the entire festival.
I found myself as part of the Publicity duo on the JHAF committee. My job was to take photographs of the rooster in and around college so that my partner could then turn them into advertisements and Facebook plugs for the various events that would be going on. A picture of the rooster against a white background was used as both the cover photos for all the Facebook events and for the hundred A3 posters that were put up all around Cambridge, and you’ll be glad to know that I kept one copy for my own safekeeping! Perhaps one slight regret is that I didn’t insist that my deviantArt profile be mentioned on the posters amongst the fine print; I sometimes (selfishly) wonder if my pageview count would’ve increased at all as a result. Ah well. Anyway, by early January the festival had had an article written about it in the local paper, using direct quotes from both of us on Publicity, and that was the first sign that the news was spreading!
The first event occurred a week before the official start date: an art session held in Jesus College Chapel, where the idea was to turn up with whatever art tools you saw fit and spend the afternoon drawing or writing, using the chapel as inspiration. It was a really chilled two hours spent in near silence, broken only by whispered comments about each other’s sketches and the piercing clicks of my camera’s shutter. I roamed around a little looking for objects that took my fancy, but in the end I decided to do a biro drawing of the rooster, which was the first large-scale Bionicle drawing I’d done in almost two years.
Oh, and I might mention that Stephen Fry gave us a shoutout on his Twitter feed. Just saying.
Fast-forward to the evening of Friday 23rd, where the festival was given an official opening speech by ex-Jesuan and playwright David Hare. This was followed by a Masquerade Formal Hall, which was definitely the one of the more memorable formal dinners I’ve been to: at regular intervals during the meal a group of student actors would burst into the room, re-enacting a Tudor play called Mankind that I didn’t quite follow (which wasn’t helped by the fact that my glasses didn’t quite stay on over my mask), jumping between tables and making mischief with the diners. Of course, the rooster and my camera stayed by my side for the whole thing – as they did for the entire weekend, in fact – and I’d even fashioned a little mask for the rooster made out of a post-it note!
The final event on Friday (and also the most relevant to this blog entry) was the Art Gallery, also held within college grounds. People had contributed paintings, sculptures, poems, and all sorts of other artworks to decorate the expanse, and for much of the evening there was life drawing taking place so that anyone could come in and start sketching. I was pleasantly surprised at how packed the place was. It was really interesting talking to the other artists; one in particular, another engineer no less, specialised in intricate ink drawings of landscapes and buildings. We conversed about what it meant for something to be called art, as it seemed that artwork had to carry some sort of hidden message to merit the title... and yet, neither of our art had any intrinsic meaning! It took skill to develop, of course, but there were no underlying themes or subliminal messages. The art appeals to us visually, and that’s what matters most.
The rooster stood guard at the entrance, next to the visitor’s book and a framed picture of John Hughes, while four other MOCs of mine resided on a small table next to a sofa. I intentionally brought four of the sturdiest ones to encourage people to pick them up and move them around, so it’s quite fortunate that nothing went missing.
Unsurprisingly, what I found most enjoyable about the art gallery (and the whole weekend as well, in fact, but at the art gallery in particular) was the fact that people would ask so many questions about the rooster and more general questions about Lego MOCing as a hobby, and I could really open up and talk about it at length. Here are some of the most common questions that I received over the course of the weekend, plus a couple of lines that were particularly memorable:
“Did you have to buy special pieces for it?” – at this point I would point out the Skrall weaponry dotted around the body, and for the eager ones I’d talk about Bricklink and how it was just the best thing, like, ever.
“How long did it take?” – “Bit-by-bit over the course of several weeks. I don’t build during term-time, with the exception of a wedding ring I built in the Michaelmas of first year...”
“Did you visualise the whole thing beforehand, or did you just make it up as you went along?” – “You see that red comb piece on top of the head? That was originally a weapon piece, like, a claw or something. Once I’d found a white beak, I used that to set the overall dimensions, so I just worked down from there.”
“How did you... build it?” – [long pause] “I’m afraid you’re going to have to be more specific. Usually I start by collecting together the black, red, and white pieces, then I make a plastic nest in my room and sit cross-legged in it for several hours on end.”
“Where did you get instructions for this?” – “I think you’re missing the point here...”
“I didn’t realise it actually existed! I thought the rooster on the poster was computer generated!” – I think the person who said this was John Hughes’ mother, bless her. I let her hold the rooster and showed her the wing articulation, and she was rather impressed.
“Do you make plans for these? You could sell them and make loads!” – “I’d rather keep it as a hobby, really. Everything I build is purely for my own pleasure, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“How does it stand up like that? Is there, like, glue or blu-tack?” - This was probably my favourite question because then I had an excuse to show off the adjustable toes which make the sculpture so stable. Often I’d tell people about the toes anyway because I like them so much.
“So is this just a one-off thing, or are there more?” – “Oh, I brought five of them with me to Cambridge. The other 65 or so are at home.” On second thought, maybe this was my favourite question. I always accompanied my answer with a kind of cheeky grin.
Of course, the point of the festival was to showcase creativity within the college, and there was no shortage of that! We had a jazz group made up of students performing at brunch on Saturday, which was followed by a tour of the various sculptures in and around the college. The rest of the weekend was filled with musical recitals, film showings, cabaret, and a grand finale in the form of student stand-up comedy held in the Jesus Chapel. I met a lot of new people through the festival, and it’s always nice to have Lego in the public eye for a little while! Truly a fitting send-off. Thanks for reading!
Journal Skin by Celvas
