Glimpse of Asia

The 'Glimpse of Asia' event took place at the Museum of Childhood with lots of music, dancing, food and activities. 

The boat workshop went well with lots of people making the models. It was good fun and great that many wanted to take their boats home, although sad that we didn't manage to capture them all together as one giant fleet!

Building boats - making toys

The exhibition finishes at the V&A Museum of Childhood this weekend and moves on to the Harley Gallery in Nottinghamshire. To mark the end of the London show the MoC has organised an event celebrating Asian culture:  'A glimpse of Asia'.

I have been asked for ideas for a one day collaborative project / installation inspired by the exhibition and MSSP project and suitable for working with all ages of visitors to the museum.
Two thoughts a came to mind, both similar in process: -  participants could personalise a standard design on flat sheet of card using coloured pencils, cut it out,learn to fold and form it to make a 3D object, add their own creation as part of a larger shared collaborative piece. They can also make another to take home.

Looking back through the sketchbooks my first thought was to make a wall panel of folded flowers - paper versions of the metal ones in the show and inspired by the textiles, garlands and offering flowers I had seen in India and Bangladesh, the block printing, the wall paintings and the project with the children at the school. Individuals could colour in their own flowers or add messages to the petals, then pin them together with others to make a vivid panel of colour and texture.

The second; a flotilla of boats to grow and float its winding way across the museum floor. 

Inspired by the boats in Bangladesh, the visit to the Boat museum, the toy 'put-put' boats in the markets in Bangladesh and India, the boat yards at Mandvi and the tin toys in the Museum of Childhood.

The boat idea won the day, so I have been designing and making simple card models of boats from a single A4 sheet, forms that can be personalised, easily cut out, scored, folded and assembled with minimal equipment and resources (so far I have one like the putt putt boats, another based on a bangladesh boat).

The A4 template sheets can be copied onto card.

I hope it will be a fun day and we will be able to make lots of them, it will be great to see them cover part of the floor and weave its way across one of the museum spaces.

Day 3 @ the School

Again, working with different groups of children, the workshops followed a similar format; rickshaw components and block printed paper and fabric.

In the morning the rickshaw components workshop followed the theme of the river and the sea, Tarun showed his beautiful film about the Buriganga - the river which flows through Dhaka, highlighting its historical and spiritual significance as well as the need to protect and maintain the health of this important life-line for the city and its inhabitants. The film was exhibited as part of Britto Arts 'Square Mile' Project in Old Dhaka in December 2009.

Tapan showed how he painted, building up images using several layers of painting.

The children painted their designs on primed metal foil using acrylics, the format of the images was similar to the large panels seen at the back of the cycle rickshaws.

Lokesh showed another group how to block print designs and the children made cards and envelopes using coloured papers.

One of the children added his own creative dimension to the project producing some wonderful printed crowns.

In the afternoon the children looked at images of rickshaws and their floral designs, particularly on the hoods.

Using foil cake cups, the children cut the edges and then painted designs on each one to produce a panel of rickshaw flowers.

Tarun explained how Tapan painted his beautiful flowers for the rickshaws.

Lokesh and the children printed more designs onto fabric with the idea of making a large quilt of each of the squares from the different workshops each day.

Day 2 @ Redlands School

Working with different groups of children the workshops followed a similar format today, rickshaw components and block printed paper and fabric.

In the morning the rickshaw components workshop followed the theme of boats, some children drew images about their memories of visits to Bangladesh, others made up images. The children painted their designs on primed metal foil using acrylics, the format of the images was similar to the large panels seen at the back of the cycle rickshaws.

In the afternoon a second group of children worked on self portraits, sometimes in quite unreal colours.

The levels of focus and concentration was great to see.

Some included decorative boarders and produced some great results.

The groups rotated so that children were able to experience both printing and painting processes.

Lokesh showed examples of his work and explained how they were printed.

The older children had a greater sense of format and composition and once they had worked through the initial excitment of inking up a block and randomly stamping, produced some wonderful patterns especially when they included coloured papers.

Again we showed the children images of the Block printers in Newmarket, Dhaka.