After visiting the exhibition urSinnen at Färgfabriken on Monday I wondered if I could build on the children's playful interaction with art.. with the challenge to the children to play and think about "what is art?"
I also challenged them to rethink their play... not there usual games this time... this time was to explore the light art installations and to interact with them...
During the session I reminded them twice, as they slipped into chasing games, or the role-play game that precedes the chasing game... as this was not the space, as it was set up, for chasing... and they all had ben told that we would go to play outside afterwards to run, chase and play as they freely wanted to... on the second reminder I asked if they were finished with the exploration and ready to go outside to play chase... no, they wanted to continue to explore...
The art exploration lasted about 45 minutes...
Suddenly they discovered one shadow was larger than the other... why... and so they started to experiment...
walking backwards they discovered their shadows got bigger
and walking closer their shadows got smaller... later on two other children made the exact same dicovery together.
As the overhead projection was over a matress it allowed a different kind of physiacality to explore the light and shadow... all the children that explored here jumped and watched their shadows fly.
After about 20 minutes I notised that there were not so many coming to this area... and as it made the room quite bright in conjuction with the other installations I switched it off to give the other areas more effect.
Across the room from the overhead we had hung two sheets of mosquito netting... In my head I had hoped that it would both capture the image as well as letting the image through... I also wanted to create a tunnel sensation so that the children could feel as if they could walk into the art and be a part of it, as well as the sensory feel of the material on their bodies...
I have to say that I was really pleased with the effect... it actually worked as I had visualised it... and the children interacted with it in may ways... as groups, pairs and quite often individually...
All of the children reacted with huge smiles and amazement as the entered this installation
there were also severla chiffon scarves available to add more effects... many were used as wings.
I spent yesterday evening collecting images of the children's artwork over the last year... as well as things that were artlike... to see if the children would reflect upon whether or not these were art... but I think the effect of everything maight not have given them the time to start making these reflections.... yet. I loved how the children
became part of the art... there
is a child in the middle of that artwork...
It was also interesting to se how the art moved as the mosquito netting moved
At the far end of the room there was a light construction area... so the children could explore and construct their own light artworks... these children were talking about dragon powers as they played with the light sources (they all changed colours)
I got all excited when I saw this photo as it looked like the child is shooting out magic powers - really it is just a string of lights... being moved to decorate the light contruction
An emergency blanket made the base of this installation... to make it all reflective... here you can see the string of lights better too... and magnatiles were used to contruct with...
The children built around some fibreoptics... bits of it are sticking out between the cracks... and then the string of light was wrapped around...
Every once in a while, when you are taking photographs in the dark... the photo is not OF something but is just some kind of magical artwork of its own...
The mosquito netting continued to have the biggest pull... children experiemnting in different ways... in it, in front, behind... and in collaboration with others too... the multilayers added new dimensions to the children's shadows... suddenly there were more arms than they expected!!
The chiffon also added a dimensions... catching the light and art... and creating shadows...
The children watched each other explore the light... looking face into the art as if bathing in the light...
and turning round to see their shadows
Lots to explore
The children will get to see the photos prjected onto the wall, as part of their reflection on Friday... with sucj a visiual week... a visual reflection meeting seems right...
and Friday afternoon another session with the three installations seems in order too!
Wonderful to see!
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