Office for Speculative Landscapes: Department for Expanded Portraiture

Illustration Programme at Camberwell College of Arts present The Office for Speculative Landscapes, a dynamic illustration festival at Camberwell Space, blending workshops, performances, talks, and discussions. Reimagined as a hybrid critical-illustration studio and arts-education think-tank, the space will foster experimentation, community, and creative play.

Join Illustrators Peony and Jhinuk to make images with a difference, to capture more than just the visible.

In this workshop we will experiment with what brings out and illustrates a person in a portrait image. Through tests and prompts to help us think through what makes a sense of being, we will begin to get to know each other by creating each other's portraits.

Participants will take turns to be portrait-makers and portrait-sitters. Whilst this workshop is inherently about connection and representation, no tasks or activities will ever ask you to ‘reveal’ anything about yourself that you do not wish to.

Please bring to the workshop an object, short story, poem, sound or smell, a photograph or type of food or anything you would like to share, ensuring it is connected to you.

Basic drawing materials and paper will be provided, but please feel free to bring your own.

All drawing abilities are welcome here, this is a workshop about experimenting and trying something new.

Come willing to stay for the whole session, listen to each other and make image-rich portraits.

Biographies

Peony Gent is a lecturer, poet, multidisciplinary illustrator, and co-founder of ‘Portrait Club’, a London based monthly meet-up for artists and illustrators. Her work often focuses on concepts surrounding collective memory and the power of poetry as an act of resistance. Peony was the Illustrator In Residence for the House of Illustration in 2020, and has worked for V&A, Frieze, SkyArts and Derwent amongst many more.

Jhinuk Sarkar is a senior lecturer, creative access consultant and illustrator. She experiments in co-creation with communities and unpicking sensory experiences for use as storytelling tools in image-making. Jhinuk is a Board Director of the Association of Illustrators, and Co-producer of Square Hole, a podcast that explores the relationship between Creativity and being Neurodivergent.

Host or Publisher Camberwell College of Arts, UAL