A group of our Mid & East Lothian Recovery Service students were lucky enough to visit the Fruitmarket gallery's Daniel Silver exhibition, Looking – a celebration of his shift to working predominantly with clay – to take part in the new Heads Up! community engagement project.

Taking inspiration from Silver's large sculptural busts (seen above), artist/producers Hannah Ayre and Khadea Kuchenmeister invited the students (and staff!) to explore the human head in clay, prompting each of them to think about how they see themselves from outside and in.

During the session each individual created three self-portrait sculptures in clay, relying on touch rather than sight to create the pieces. Each participant then chose one piece to be fired in the kiln – a process that fuses the particles together and turns them from raw clay, to ceramic.

Once fired, the pieces will go forward and become part of an upcoming exhibition, displaying over 700 heads in total, and including work from community groups, schools, and nurseries.

The Heads Up! exhibition of work will run from 1-9 October, in the Fruitmarket's Warehouse space.

Here's some more images from the exhibition, taken by Access to Industry student and photographer, SDC, who is on Instagram as @thelegographer2: