Finished pieces – Open Studios 2012

I am very happy with the finished pieces this semester, especially Untitled 1 (corridor). This piece was received very well by visitors at the Open Studios – creating a buzz of interaction and achieving a fantasy-like, ‘out of this world’ experience.

Feedback included: “fun”, “like being in another world”, “immersive”, “makes you feel happy”, “mysterious”.

There were other comments showing the piece had an opposite effect: “disorientating”, “makes me feel dizzy” which has helped me to reflect upon the piece. I didn’t expect these reactions but they have given me an interesting insight into how spaces can affect people differently. I still feel that these reactions were successful as it proves that participants felt immersed in the space and experienced a dislocation from the real world.

Coming together

Work in progress

My practice this semester continues with an interest in playful, participatory art and its means to evoke the sense of childhood within the participant. Integral to my work is the use of strong colour - particularly the primary colours, as I believe that these have a quality which alludes to and appeals to the inner child. Ernesto Neto remains a strong influence; his immersive and participatory environments are both ambitious and playful. Working to a large scale is central within my practice as I aim to immerse a viewer by creating environments which are as big as or bigger than the human body. I am interested in how experience can oscillate between the real and the imaginary. I am also attracted to the idea of making childlike environments in adult sizes. Helio Otticica’s work interests me and his colourful maze like installations are similar to the work I wish to create. Otticica induces many of the senses in his work, using materials such as sand and water in his pieces and often asking participants to take off their shoes before entering a sculpture. I am in the process of making a corridor like sculpture, which will have barriers of hanging fabric inside. This aims to immerse the viewer and create a sensory experience in which the fabric lightly brushes against the skin. The use of tassel curtains was inspired by Jacob Dahlgren’s The Wonderful World of Abstraction 2006 and I was keen to use the tassel fabric myself for its sensuous aesthetic quality and silky feel. I plan to incorporate the use of balloons into my work as I am attracted to their simple, innocent nature, their connection to childhood and the tension that they create when trapped within spaces. I will use wood in my work as I like the relationship that it has to traditional children’s toys.

Playing with the idea of balloons in spaces:

Sanding down the found pallet to make the wood lighter – getting rid of the dirts and its’ past’, revealing a sense of innocence. Also attracted to this shade of wood as it resembles wooden toys

Contrast between rough wood and pristine perspex

Experimenting with types of fabric that could be ‘passed through’.

Imagining how the layers would look within an enclosed structure. 

Finished work - at school and in meeting rooms!!

Check out the pictures of my finished work in Galaxy House at http://artsforhealth.wordpress.com/

Tropical Rainforest Mural

Beginnings of Tropical Rainforest Mural inspired by a handling session that young people from the hospital took part in with the Manchester Museum’s reptiles. The scene depicts a chameleon hiding amongst tropical leaves. The paper used to collage the leaves and the reptile was marbled by residents of Galaxy House in two 1 hour workshops, and then enlarged for use on the wall. The chameleon will eventually have collaged scales to emphasise the reality of its texture (which the YP will have seen first hand).

Internship!

See http://artsforhealth.wordpress.com/ for this week's entry! 


Pictures of marbling session:

DARK MATTER'S MODULE SKETCH BOOKS

Internship Pt 3

Last week, I arranged for the children from the residential hospital ward to come and see the exhibition. The visit was preliminary to their study of Shadow Play in school (focus being on narrative and time) while it also provided an outing for them during their half term holiday. I made worksheets which aimed to help them focus on the idea of past, present, future and how certain work’s in the Dark Matter’s exhibition represent different aspects of time. Most of the children seemed to grasp this idea well including an obvious 3 who were highly engaged.  However, there were a few who were either easily distracted or unwell which were quite difficult to work with. Obviously, this is natural even when working with kids who are mentally well but I found it difficult to know how to divide my attention: I didn’t want to ignore the children who weren’t interacting but I also wanted to make sure that the children who were engaged could get good feedback with the task.  I think I managed this OK though and everyone, minus one, managed to complete the task ready for their first school lesson.

Following this, another visit was arranged – for them to come to the shadow lab and work interactively with the resources at the gallery. With other groups, it probably would’ve been possible to do both visits in one but, with this group time is limited due to concentration and individual appointments. I however, thought this worked quite well, as they were able to see the gallery in two different contexts and also with two different groups of staff: during half term, the nursing staff and during school time, the teachers. The second visit yesterday, I felt went well as the teachers were able to help keep each child more effectively engaged. Perhaps it was also the type of task and also the fact that many children just find going round gallery’s boring. Surprisingly, the two girls who found it most hard to engage the first time round, interacted the most with the facilities in the lab (another positive for going on two different occasions). Going back to class with them, I introduced a lesson of experimentation with different collaging materials to create an image/shadow reflection (based on a book by Suzy Lee which was provided in the shadow lab). This went really well – surprisingly more so with the younger kids (which is something I will have to think about for next time).

Shadow by Suzy Lee

I thought this book would be a good starting point for the kids to experiement with scenes and each object’s shadow. It is also a good example of a book which tells a simple story without words: the little girl starts off playing in a room of objects and gradually her imagination grows and the shadows start to develop a life of their own.