The Brian Belott room is full of bright and colorful splashes of children’s artwork. The works are recreations of paintings found in books about children’s art that he has collected over the past few years. The paintings are titled after the child’s name and country of origin. Belott chose to paint them as a form of archiving as well as recontextualizing images made by children. What inspires him to use children’s art is the raw, immediate gesture of their work. They have nothing to prove, and they have no history blocking their decisions.
Visitors of the installation can also hear a selection of audio clips that were recorded by children. Brian sourced the collection of children audio clips from a radio show run by a professor on WFMU 91.1FM in New Jersey that focused on found audio. The selection is an archive of sounds of children, playing and interacting with audio devices. The sounds allow the visitors to hear the spontaneous and uninhibited creative energy that children access when given the tools to express themselves.
The room is a creative space for children to come and see the various works from wall pieces to paintings and interpret them. They also get to leave their mark on the room by adding their own audio tracks and artwork to the installation. As an ever-growing installation Brian Belott’s room keeps acquiring new children’s artwork becoming increasingly more colorful and inspirational. Visitors of the Brian Belott room included the children from Heart of Los Angeles as well as the kids from Inner-city Arts.
