“I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned” Yayoi Kusama It is the final week to visit Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Cosmic Nature’ exhibition at the New York Botanical Gardens. I visited this show in August, literally while a cyclone was brewing, and had an awesome time! I highly recommend it to families, especially if you can bring a picnic and make a day of it. Yayoi Kusama (b 1929), is one of the most renowned living Japanese artists. You may recognize her blood orange hair and pumpkins – they have been displayed in art museums all over the world (read more about her pumpkin obsession here). Nature has been a huge inspiration for Kusama throughout her entire life so it was a lovely fit to see her sculptures and installations exhibited at a botanical garden! The show, ‘KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature’ explores her…
Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam’s giant crochet sculpture
Last month I was fortunate enough to visit the Hakone Open Air Museum, an outdoor sculpture park located a couple of hours outside of Tokyo. A highlight of the visit was seeing the wonderful crochet play ‘sculptures’ of the artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam. The artwork, titled ‘Knitted Wonder Space 2,’ is a gigantic textile structure that has the appearance of a net suspended in mid-air. The sculpture has a strong architectural quality to it, creating an immersive and sensory-driven play space for children. Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam’s crochet play sculpture ‘Knitted Wonder Space 2’ at Hakone Open Air Museum On the afternoon that I visited, there was a tribe of toddlers and elementary-aged kids climbing, jumping, rolling, somersaulting, dangling and swinging their way through it. As the children played in the net, it moved and swayed with them, igniting squeals of delight and even more physical play. Creating the crochet sculpture…
teamLab’s digital art from the future
This post features a review of the teamLab Borderless exhibition at the MORI Building’s DIGITAL ART MUSEUM, Tokyo. You might not have heard of teamLab but you will probably recognise their work from your hipster friend’s Instagram account. The Tokyo-based digital art collective has been making immersive art installations since 2001. During this time they have exhibited their work around the globe including at London’s Pace Gallery, the National Museum of Singapore and at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria’s 2018 Triennial. Inspired to use digital technologies to expand the connection between art and people, teamLab’s work sits at the intersection of science, art and technology. Image credit: teamLab, Exhibition view, MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: teamLab Borderless, 2018, Odaiba, Tokyo © teamLab In March of this year, I visited the MORI Building’s DIGITAL ART MUSEUM in Tokyo where teamlab’s ‘Borderless’ exhibition is on permanent display. The exhibition consists of 60 digital artworks spread across 10,000m² of gallery…
The ‘Atelier van Licht’ at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht
This post features a reflection on my visit to the Atelier van Licht at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The Atelier was being presented as part of the museum’s Nice’n’Light exhibition that ran from 17 October 2015 – 24 January 2016. Above: Atelier van Licht at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Image credit: Atelier van Licht A creative space for children’s play and experimentation with materials Back in February 2016, I travelled to the Netherlands to meet with Annemieke Huisingh, the founder of the wonderful Atelier van Licht. I was interested in learning more about the Atelier’s approach to designing children’s material-based creative learning environments. At the time, the Atelier (which is another word used to describe an artist’s studio) was on display at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as part of a contemporary art show that was exploring artist’s experimentation with light. The Atelier had been designed for children of all ages…
Reggio Emilia’s art studio ‘ateliers’ for children
Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to visit the Loris Malaguzzi centre in Reggio Emilia. I was interested in learning more about the early childhood philosophy’s approach to children’s creativity, art and learning with materials. This post shares key ideas around the role of the ‘atelier’ in the Reggio Emilia approach. I also discuss my reflections on the Ray of Light atelier space at the centre. “Tools and materials make it possible for children to have experiences in which their thinking takes on different forms” (Dahlberg & Moss, 2010) The Atelier – a space for children’s creative experimentation Educators from Reggio Emilia often talk about the unpredictable nature of learning in which knowledge is formed through unexpected relationships and new connections. This understanding challenges the idea that education is a linear process of development. In Reggio Emilia preschools, the atelier is a creative studio for young children’s imagination, expression and experimentation that…
Eamon O’Kane’s Fröbel-inspired installations
Frederich Fröbel’s founded the first kindergarten in 1700s Germany. Since this time, his work on education has influenced many people including a myriad of teachers, artists and architects. In this blog post, Eamon O’Kane – an Irish-born, Norway-based visual artist and Professor at Bergen University – talks about how different early childhood educators, including Fröbel, have inspired his art practice. Eamon O’Kane’s installation ‘Frobel’s Studio.’ Image credit: Eamon O’Kane “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw “In every real man, a child is hidden that wants to play.” Friedrich Nietzsche Can you talk a little bit about your background as an artist, an educator and now academic? I have been working as an artist for over 20 years. For the past 19 years, I have also worked full-time in universities in Ireland, England and more recently in Bergen, Norway.…
Peabody Essex Museum’s Play Time exhibition
This post features an interview with Trevor Smith, curator of the Present Tense at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Trevor is also curator of the museum’s current PlayTime exhibition. In our conversation, Trevor discusses the dynamic role of play in contemporary art and culture – a core theme driving the show. Play and artistic practice have a long and enduring history from Surrealist games that aimed to unlock subconscious creativity to more recent participatory live art practices. Play can be understood as a significant catalyst for artistic, social, cultural and technological change. The Peabody Essex Museum takes this rich conceptualization as a starting point for their PlayTime exhibition. The show features nearly forty works from renowned contemporary artists such as Lara Favaretto, Martin Creed, Teppei Kaneuji and Nick Cave. The museum has also put together a FANTASTIC PlayTime digital publication that is free to access online at playtime.pem.org. The publication includes contributions from distinguished artists, poets, writers…
The Ipswich Art Gallery, Australia
This post features the children’s exhibition program at the Ipswich Art Gallery, Australia. From 2011-2015 I worked as a children’s curator at the Ipswich Art Gallery in Queensland, Australia. The Ipswich Art Gallery is a special place for children’s creative learning with a well established program for young children and their families. The city of Ipswich is home to a very diverse and predominantly low socio-economic community. The art gallery is currently one of the most visited in regional Australia. In my travels around the world, I have never come across anything quite like it. Over the past 15 years, the Ipswich Art Gallery has developed and presented over 40 in-house children’s exhibitions. The children’s program is informed by a set of guiding principles that include: Children’s exhibitions are curated for children not adults and Learning begins with creative play. The Children’s Gallery is open daily from 10am-5pm with almost all activities being…
Play Rebellion at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
This post shares BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art’s latest play exhibition, ‘Play Rebellion.’ The show is an interactive installation collaboratively developed with artist Pippa Hale. Image: Play Rebellion at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Picture by Pippa Hale Opportunities for people to engage in play have declined in recent years as a result of a shift in school curriculum priorities and a rise in risk-averse attitudes. In response to the decline in creative play, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art have teamed up with artist Pippa Hale to present Play Rebellion. The show is an interactive exhibition for people of all ages where visitors can transform the gallery space using large foam shapes. These shapes can be arranged in a myriad of ways, encouraging visitors to use their creativity and experience the gallery in an embodied way. By doing so, visitors can take back ownership of their playtime and play spaces……