My Museum community project week 2 and 3
May 19, 2009 Community
This object was inspired by a Victorian hat, however the added balloons allow you to fly!
See more photos from the project on Flickr.
9th May 2009
I am Shauna O’Brien and am doing an internship at Museum of London as part of my MA in Museum and Gallery Education in order to learn more about the workings of the Museum. I am helping Lucie Fitton (Inclusion Officer at the Museum) on the Empire project, working with part-time students from Barnet College on a creative installation for the new galleries, and My Museum project. Today was the second visit to Coborn Service for Adolescent Mental Health for My Museum. Lucie and I were on hand to help Emily Candela (the freelance artist leading the project) with today’s creative workshop. Last week the group looked at a range of objects from the Museum’s collection and had to guess what their original use was. They then made collages using images of the objects as well as modern images to create new ideas.
Emily started by showing the group some of her own artwork in the shape of films. The group saw how she had made small papier-mâché structures and added different layers of other footage she had filmed to create a new film. Mixing the old and the new, the found and the re-created allowed a lot of ideas to come up and the group discussed why she might have made the films the way she did. It was great to see all the different ways of creating montages, from last week’s collage to this week’s sculptural workshop.
The handling session from last week’s workshop gave everyone the opportunity to photograph his or her favourite object and these images were used as references for making new objects.
The group members used chicken wire to build the shape of their chosen artefact using the photographs the group took from last week. Some of the group played about with the size of the object, making it much bigger or smaller. We then got messy and used papier-mâché to build up the structure. These will have time to dry in time for the next session when the group can build new objects onto their structures and decorate them.
15th May 2009
In week three Emily Candela, the freelance artist leading the project, began by showing everyone slides of the previous two week’s work. Last week the group had made sculptures from chicken wire and papier-mâché in response to the Museum’s artefacts that they had handled in the first session. The group then could build up on their original models with new objects. Emily had bought along a range of interesting items, from bouncy balls to balloons and holographic tape to fake hair! The idea was to create something that had a use, so to develop the purpose of the original artefact and turn it into something new. Emily also bought some expandable foam in, which was very exciting and we all got messy experimenting with it!
Some of the ideas were fantastic, with a Victorian fish seller’s bobbin hat growing balloons out of it, so that the hot air of your thoughts could lift you up. Another was the Victorian finger pillories becoming a more modern type of punishment in the form of a spiky bed. Everyone got very creative and the group decorated their new objects using paint and more found materials.
At the end of the session, everyone presented their work to the group and some of the group members photographed and filmed their art. Next time the group will have a go at making a montage in another medium- film.