Reflection written by artist Cat Boot
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| © Chris Wilkins Photography |
Kate: They didn’t even look (to the adults) to see if it was OK.
Cat had asked them: ‘is this what you want to do?’ and they had nodded that they did.
Kate wondered if this was how it was at home [few boundaries].
Amy ‘they did enjoy it’
Kate: and then they tried to stick it back on. They went back to nursery and got Pritt sticks and covered the paper with it and then tried to stick it (sticky side out) and it didn’t stick. One boy worked it out and turned the paper round so it would stick to the wall.
Cat thought that the boy who started peeling a corner of wallpaper was ‘revealing the walls’ rather than being destructive which gave a new perspective to it.
Cat reflected that the time spent clearing out the Lodge and putting the paper up and given her time to think. If they created an ‘Explorers Lodge’ would the adults worry about it getting trashed? Could the space be a place for creative provocations? Would it always descend in to chaos/destruction as consensus is difficult to achieve?
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| © Chris Wilkins Photography |
Liz asked what their first response had been on entering the lodge today?
Let’s go to your house. (to Mo)
Cat wondered if maybe it was just a space and not like ‘my house’ inside? Cat had supplied string, torches, magnifying glasses which all dived in to. They saw shadows on the paper but quickly moved on and didn’t pursue it. There had been a little bit of lying down and hiding under blankets.
Kate and Cat had tried to return the conversation to last week and to Mo’s house but this didn’t seem to work. They had noticed: no cobwebs, no spiders.
Amy had noticed how they explored the space in a very physical way. They had bashed up against the walls (as if it were a soft play space), run around it in circles. They had jumped on the paper when they had torn it down.
B had been in charge of the doors again – the gatekeeper. He had been possessive when the children had visited his garden and house telling the children don’t touch. He seemed to be acting as a gatekeeper, guardian, or protector, defending the space from outsiders.
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| © Chris Wilkins Photography |
Amy and Liz talked about the space giving no sense of defined purpose (like a classroom, a shop) that might have a set of rules of expectation of behaviour and how you are physically in it. Amy thought they might see it as a space with no rules and so they may be making up their own.
Amy shared a conversation with one of the children where she had talked about being a grown-up:
I’m going to be a teacher or police when I grow up. And later
All the grown-ups stay in and all the children go out. The grown-ups have to put the wallpaper back up.
It was as if they had reached a point when it became too difficult to achieve this that she felt the grown-ups could step in.
Whilst the children were drawing on the paper they had taken down one of the children had talked to Amy about: going on holiday with mum and dad; a pool; and staying in a house ‘but not our house’. There was a sense of place that wasn’t home, that was elsewhere and further away.
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| © Chris Wilkins Photography |
The session had been one of 2 halves, the second focusing on the search for Mo’s lost hat and A in particular ‘wanting to go on an adventure’. When they went outside the nursery door and Mo asked the children ‘if they were allowed’ M had invented a story about her mum phoning to say they could go outside.
There was a strong sense of the children wanting to adventure beyond. The lost hat seemed to provide a narrative and vehicle for venturing beyond. When Mo had suggested that her hat wasn’t outside the nursery one girl had said very definitely that it was and that it was far away.
We discussed the possibilities for pursuing the idea of taking them on an adventure and where far away might be? Might they find the hat?
We felt that traveling by foot and by bus (rather than being transported door to door) would give more of a sense of travel and the journey. We all felt that going in to the city seemed like a natural progression and suitable conclusion for Cat’s last session. The destination could be the harbourside and the M-shed.........
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