fabrication

The Building Exploratory have been appointed by Southwark Council to work with the local community to consider how the building at Mint Street Adventure Playground could be redeveloped. They asked me to work with the children and young people who use the space to seek their voice and ideas for this redevelopment.

The children/young people play outside in a marvelous adventure playground and I wanted to bring this sense of play indoors. By introducing lengths of colourful fabric into the interior space the participants were given free rein to temporarily alter space, change proportions, build dens, hide away, layer spaces, move and act differently. We interviewed the creators about their spaces, what they liked about them and what they could be used for. Written and drawn responses to the intervention were created and displayed as we worked. I'll be at Mint Street tomorrow between 1pm-4pm for another afternoon of invention and play.

 Games were invented, movement initiated 

Pegs and joins

  Carefully pegging the fabric

 A den

 Looking out from inside the den

 Working as a team

 Boys den

 A space created by a mum and her 5 year old daughter. Mum 
felt comfortable and breast fed her baby daughter here.

trick of the light

Last week I delivered a workshop for the Children's Art School in Wimbledon. The Victorians were a clever lot, before the invention of film they created magical ways to trick the eye into seeing moving images. During the morning we explored these tricks and deceived our own eyes by creating moving drawings. During the afternoon these marvelous techniques were developed further, exploring optical illusion using shadow puppets and light.

What I most enjoyed about the day was the gasps of delight as the children looked in wonder at what they had created. With card, tape, paper and their skill and imaginations they peeked into the past and experienced their power in transforming basic materials.

 Mixing weather - thaumatrope in action

 Adding to a pile of thaumatrope's

 Zoetrope with frames being drawn

Spinning zoetrope, tricking the brain into seeing a moving image with the persistence of vision 

warp

Last month I traveled to Matlock in Derbyshire for a days walking. Having booked the train tickets a month in advance for affordability I kept everything crossed for a dry day. The day arrived with heavy rain and biting wind across the UK. Still, I went. 

My planned route was a circular walk starting and ending in Matlock, passing Matlock Bath, through the forest to Cromford, up to Black Rocks, then returning past Starkholmes. Rather than heading off into the hills I walked the roads and ended up passing Masson Mills, a mill I'd often seen when in the wooded hill above the A6.

This loom sits in the entrance to the shopping area and immediately intrigued me, reminding me of my studies at Derby University in the early 90's. The complexity, skill and time required to thread this warp, the mathematics, technical knowledge and understanding needed. This and the beauty of it, threads made solid, shimmering, sculptural, constantly changing as I moved around the loom.  

The rain led me to this and I wasn't disappointed that my planned walk was scuppered. 

colour and line

Had a great weekend at The Hepworth inviting families to explore the painting and sculpture in gallery 6. Children were asked to find artworks that interested them and to make a colour and a line response. Gallery 6, Hepworth and St Ives, focuses on the artists that were drawn to this Cornish fishing village which became an internationally significant centre for post war artists. Painting by Terry Frost, Victor Passmore, Ben Nicholson and sculpture by Barbara Hepworth was singled out by the young creatives below. 

wakefield happening

"You've really brightened my day"

"Beautiful"

"Wrapping things in town and creating havoc!"

"Intriguing"

"It's not very good"

"What a waste of wool"

Yarn storm in Wakefield on a beautiful cold blue sky day. Working in the shadow of the Cathedral with crows and pigeons flocking overhead. Wrapping the town centre in acrylic yarn, drawing, outlining street furniture, keeping secrets, not telling the whole story, unraveling, colouring in, enticing passers-by to ask questions, to join us, connections, conversations with strangers and the inert city space, adding an unfamiliar texture. Young people, citizens of their city, inhabiting and leaving their mark over six hours. Wakefield Happening.

Early start in Wakefield

 Sophie untangling

  James and Shabina connecting tree with bollard

 Ben and Ryan beginning a 3D intervention

 Sam and spring colour

 Want to know more?

 Kate, Edward and Melvin working on the banister

 Arato from Budapest and his bench 

 Sophie, Erin and Ryan towards the end of the day

 Arato's bench

 Ben and his work

 Sam and Shabina

Wakefield Happening

bribe spiders

Ben: "Why can't we bribe spiders to do this stuff?"

A mysterious, colourful yarn trail will appear around street furniture in Wakefield city centre on 19.02.13. Young people can join us at any time between 10am-4pm as we make our way from Wakefield Cathedral to Costa Coffee in Trinity Walk. Help create a buzz in the city.

Why? Can’t tell you, its top secret... but by joining us you will get invited to events created by young people for young people in Wakefield.

children's art school

I'm running workshops for the new and inspiring Children's Art School, click below for my artists page on their site... the questions and answers are written for young artists (and older artists alike). Good stuff!

Karen's Q&A