Contemporary art Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Art. Play. Children. Learning.

Children's creative spaces 30th November 2018

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……

Keep Reading

Amazing artists and educators 29th March 2018

Children’s creative learning through the sculptures of Rachel Whiteread

This post looks at the art of Rachel Whiteread, a contemporary British sculptor who creates objects and spaces using different materials such as resin, plaster, concrete, rubber and plastic. Her works range from small-scale moulds of everyday objects such as hot water bottles to gigantic life-sized houses. Tate Britain in London recently exhibited a retrospective of her sculptures. As part of the show, her installation ‘Untitled (one hundred spaces)’ (1995) was displayed in the main entrance hall of the gallery. In this post, I use this artwork as a thinking tool for considering how its materials, tools and processes could be used to produce a children’s creative learning environment. This post is part of a series that aims to share innovative ways that artists are working with materials and how this may be used as a starting point for children’s creative learning. The first post in this series explored the…

Keep Reading

Amazing artists and educators 22nd March 2018

Children’s creative learning through the art of Daiga Grantina

This post looks at Daiga Grantina’s installation ‘Toll,’ to consider how the sculpture could be used to design a children’s material-play environment. I am still recovering from the awesomeness of all the modern and contemporary art I encountered on my recent trip to Paris. A highlight was seeing Daiga Grantina’s gigantic, multi-media sculpture, ‘Toll’ at the Palais de Tokyo. In this post, I take a closer look at Daigna’s experimentation with materials in the installation. I then consider how this could be used as a starting point for children’s creative learning. This post is part of a four-part series looking at artist’s innovative ways of working with materials and how this can be used to support children’s creativity. The first two posts looked at the art of French sculptor, César Baldaccini and American textile artist, Sheila Hicks. Check them out if you have not already! Daiga Grantina is a Latvian-born…

Keep Reading

Amazing artists and educators 8th March 2018

Children’s creative learning through the art of César Baldaccini

This post looks at the art of French sculptor, César Baldaccini. I discuss two of his experimental artistic processes: compression and expansion to consider how these could be used as a starting point for children’s creative learning through material play. This month I will be exploring the work of four artists who have experimented with materials in innovative ways. I will also use each blog post to consider how these processes can be used as a rich starting point for children’s creative learning through play with material. First up is César Baldaccini. Last weekend I saw César’s retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Admittedly I had never heard of him before going to the art museum. I loved learning about his prolific artistic career and unusual ways of working with materials. I hope you find his radical artistic processes as inspiring as I did. César Baldaccini “My sculptures developed in line with…

Keep Reading

Children's creative spaces 2nd February 2018

The Children’s Sensory Art Lab at C3 Gallery, Melbourne

This post looks at the Slow Art Collective’s ‘Children’s Sensory Lab’ (January 8-21, 2017) at C3 Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. Last week I visited the Children’s Sensory Art Lab at C3 Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. The lab was created Dylan Martorell and Chaco Kato from the Slow Art Collective – an interdisciplinary artistic group dedicated to exploring creative practices and the ethics of environmental sustainability, materiality, DIY culture and participation. The collective describe ‘slow art’ as: “… the slow exchanges of value rather than the fast, monetary exchange of value. It is about the slow absorption of culture through community links by creating something together and blurring the boundary between the artists and viewer. It is a sustainable arts practice, not an extreme solution; a reasonable alternative to deal with real problems in contemporary art practice.” (Slow Art Collective website) The Sensory Art Lab featured six different material environments spread…

Keep Reading

Children's creative spaces 2nd February 2018

The NGV Triennal in Melbourne, Australia

This post looks at the National Gallery of Victoria’s slick new ‘Triennal’ blockbuster exhibition, including the gallery’s dedicated children’s space ‘Hands on: We make carpet for kids.’ I have spent the past few weeks in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia escaping the bleak English winter. During this time I have been fortunate enough to break up my thesis writing with beach swims and time with family and friends. Last week I headed into Southbank to checked out the National Gallery of Victoria’s new contemporary art exhibition, Triennial. The exhibition is the first of what I presume will be a series of exhibitions held every three years that aim to showcase ‘the world of art and design now.’ The day I visited, the gallery was absolutely heaving with visitors young and old. I had actually never seen so many people inside an Australian art museum before. It was great to see the gallery so…

Keep Reading