There is a wildlife sanctuary just down the road from here and I have been mulling over an idea to have an exhibition down there for a while now.
My friend Dawn Oakford initially suggested the concept. Over the past four months I have gotten the idea out and poked at it, then I have put it away in the bottom drawer of my mind.
Next Sunday it is the annual open day at the sanctuary and I need to have a bit of a proposal drawn up for the committee. Typically I have left it to the last minute to put anything down on paper as I only have a vague idea of what I want to do.
I know that I want to make a series of bowls with questions written on them. I want to make people think about extinction. I want to appeal to the children that are there.I want my work to inspire the people that view it to start asking their own questions as they think about the the questions on the bowls.
So in order to get the ideas flowing I took three sample pieces of my work down to Chauncy Vale and photographed them in situ.
The dead albatross bowl looked really out of place on a nest of sticks. I need to make some dragon eggs for this spot. Some brightly decorated dragon eggs. Dragon eggs that have been inspired by Robin Hobb’s novels that I will enjoy making and that will be a bit of whimsy. I am sure that the children will think that they are dinosaur eggs and I am fine with that. Seeing a nest of giant eggs on the side of a bush track should inspire some questions.
There are plenty of places to stash some ceramic sculptures along the trail. Obvious spots like in a crack in this stone wall.
Or at the base of a tree.
There are also plenty of places to put my work that isn’t as obvious.
I have been making ceramic shells for a while now and I keep on covering these beautiful shells with graffiti. I decorate them with jarring colours and great black runny drops of glaze. As a species we seem to be hell bent on destroying beauty.Graffiti covered shells in a dry creek bed seems pretty apt to me.
The dead albatross bowls will feature prominently along with bowls like requiem for a tree and the useless residue bowls. So that is my idea in its rough draft format. What do you reckon?
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Wow. My instinctive reaction to the photos and the overall concept is just that, wow. I think it’s a pretty exciting idea. I love the fact that you are thinking about how to engage both adults and children. I love the subtle, almost hidden, placement of your shell. I adore robin hobb so I can’t wait to see those dragon eggs!
Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. The ‘treasure hunt’ aspect will also alert everyone to the importance of seeing deeply, and closely, as we walk through our surroundings.
Snap to Ali–I cannot wait to see the dragon eggs!
I’ve always loved this sort of idea. In particular I’ve harbour deep desire to litter the Tasmanian World Hertage Area with bronze statues. Or at least, a few fat statues down in the pits of Lost Worlds on the mountain in Hobart.
Concerned someone will take the ceramics! Otherwise, beautiful idea. 🙂
You want this to combine with nature, and so I suggest that you take thin slabs of clay, press leaves and grass into them to illustrate that nature leaves an imprint on us, and that man leaves an imprint on nature…in this case, maybe wrapping some earth (clay) around a tin can or plastic bottle. Even after the clay has gone back into the environment, the plastic is still there. (Just some illustration to give you the idea). People who are not potters (that’s most people, of course) find clay fascinating…how it takes on shapes. They never see this. Great for illustrating, besides your fired pieces.
Really good idea. Continue to admire your drive.
Children love competitions to take things a step further and get them to think about litter etc. could you suggest that to the committee that if the winner of the competition. For designing a poster or similar that could become a sign ensuring both adults and children respect the nature reserve and could encourage other children/adults not to litter elsewhere. (there is nothing like the way a child simplistic approach to concepts hits home)and the winner could spend a morning with you having a go at working with clay.
Not sure if the Reserve has a shop or not over here in the UK the visitors centre part of this type of place often runs workshops for local schools and has a shop to help fund the running of the reserve. The winner could have their design printed on t-shirts or something as well to sell in the shop. That way you get your point across about saving the planet, show case your wares and its a good way to get little brains really thinking. The Commitee may well like a multi-faceted approach! Just a random thought.
A word of warning my daughter when younger was really really hyper sensitive and would literally have cried buckets with the whole dead albatross scenario and could possibly have missed the point in her angst! This was brought home to me when we subscribed to the RSPCA and subsequently sent sad stories in the post about kittens with a story about them being tortured with beautiful artistic drawing of kittens included. The younger child would possibly need much more basic stuff to get the message across. I know, I know my child was a drama queen but it took ages for us to be able to go to any RSPCA fund raising event without her dissolving into floods of tears. So me being me had to tell my tale! So ensuring there is plenty of bright stuff would be great for youngsters with a simple clear message.
What a fantastic idea. I just loved treasure hunt type activities as a child. I am sure it will be a success.
I love the idea of the questions inside of the bowls, and the whole interactive nature/art approach in general. I think this will really appeal to children and hopefully get them interested in art and also thinking about art in a broader sense. Good luck with the proposal.
In Australia a ‘reserve’ just means that it’s ‘reserved’ for forestry, mining, quarrying, general exploitation later on, unless it is to ‘reserve’ the edge of a waterway. Vast areas are gazetted as ‘reserves’, often just to thwart the squatting of these crown lands. If it is an actually important place then it is already a National Park. Some of these reseves are in fact ungraded into national parks all the time.
Municipal authorities will create ‘reserves’ too, that way they don’t have to allocate as much as they would for an official Park.
So, that a roadside quarry might have a shop is an absurdistly attractive notion in my mind. More please.
Brilliant idea Kim. Nothing to add to the suggestions already made beyond more power to your elbow, you are going to be an extra busy woman over the coming weeks/months if you can get this up and running 😉
This is a great idea. You’re right about the albatross bowl looking out of place, a clutch of eggs would be so much better. I see you’ve pictured that little statue that I love so much.
Aren’t you worried that some tourists might pick up your beautiful pieces and walk off with them?
What a fab idea, good luck with your proposal, they’d be mad to say no to you, Kim! 😉
You’ve got some great ideas going here, and some more in the comments as well. This is going to be a very special project. Can’t wait to read/see more about your work.
Best get writing, someone’s up for review this week.
It’s a genius idea, and on the photo’s you’ve posted will definitely work.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Hello my ENTHUSIASTIC friend from the bush. I have finally worked out how to comment!!
I love the idea of your exhibition being live and approachable to children, and to us adult children! Cant wait to come up and check it out.
I am so enjoying reading your blog! Having never been a “blogger” I now wish I had started one about my Lapband journey….Maybe a life begins at 40 blog?? haha. It has taken me this long to work out how to comment, can you possible imagine how long it would take me to set one up!!!
Keep up the good work, God knows we all can us a giggle at least once a day!
I love it! I know your posts evoke thought inside my own mind and I take away thoughts that I use in my life. I know this will be a success.
Excellent idea. A recent image I can’t get out of my head is from the platypus documentary I watched recently. An infrared camera was poked down through the earth into the platypus’s nest – is no creature safe from us? The nest was mostly twiggy, but woven in with the twigs were strips of green plastic. “Jarring” just about describes it.