Project : Text given to the pupils and staff to inform them about the project

The project title Superheroes is simply about everyone’s identity – how you and I build an identity for the world to look at. We are surrounded by images of how we could and should look – like Thierry Henry or Kate Moss, David Beckham or Kate Hudson for example. We identify with them in accidental or deliberate ways – wearing the same clothes or haircuts perhaps, or adopting their speaking habits or other mannerisms.

Our real identities and adopted identities become mixed up, in the same way that Tony for example, can be outwardly be Moth Man at one moment but be an entirely different, more modest character at the next.

During Superheroes you will be asked to construct characters and give them life through one or more videos. The viewer will see a story, maybe far fetched, in which the actors adopt Superhero identities – exaggerated and over the top. The worlds they inhabit will also possibly be a little too mad. The story is up to you.

Superheroes is part of the Liverpool Biennial, a two yearly visual arts festival that will be held during September and October. There are such festivals in major cities across the world. The Liverpool Biennial is amongst the best known and gives Liverpool an international reputation in the arts. The Biennale holds a significant programme of exhibitions and other events in galleries across Merseyside. Some are grand events, others are small scale – there is a huge range.

The Superhero movies will be seen on the BBC big screen in Liverpool City Centre. It will also be aired in other places, showing a very large number of people the qualities of De La Salle students.

The project is funded by the Field Fund, a trust set up by St Helens Council to pay for residencies and other arts activities for young people. The endowment that made the fund possible was given by Antony Gormley, the sculptor. In 1993 he worked with hundreds of St Helens school pupils and adults in making thousands of small clay figures that made up the Field for The British Isles, a vast carpet of clay people. You may also know Gormley’s work from Another Place, dozens of casts of his body that stand on the beach at Crosby.

Superheroes is aimed at Year Eight and Ten students. A dozen or so from each year are attending workshops throughout September and October. Each submitted a short written request or a piece of artwork saying why they would like to be involved.

Superheroes arts project focuses upon identity at De La Salle School.