Children's Sculpture On Line Exhibition

The children who have been participating in the workshops with the artist Akane Takayama have produced some outstanding work. "They ask intelligent questions, understand the process and enjoy the skills involved in three dimensional sculpture making. Some of these children are clearly very talented." the artist said.

A small exhibition has been mounted in the Ideas Store in Bow displaying some of the sculptures produced by children from Tower Hamlets schools. The image above shows the display from one school.
This group photograph displays not only the variety of models the children conceived but also demonstrates their skills at building the forms and a talent in the use of colour. One of the important elements of the DOG Sculpture Installation was that the children create their own models. The artist wanted to deliver a social inclusion project which empowered the children to see their own potentials in public art rather than just use their skills to help create the artist's work.
When you consider the skills the children have employed it becomes more obvious how they actually benefit in a wider educational remit from these workshops. Children have to consider planning, construction methods, research of materials and tools needed and then employ skills in the manufacture of their model. The artist believes that all of these skills can lead into other lessons such as maths, English composition and science.

Models have come in all shapes and sizes and the way the three dimensional works have been created so that they "stand" gives a fascinating insight into the creative powers of these children. With the whale and the fish sculptures above fins and flukes have been used to "stand" the sculptures. An enterprising teacher should then be able to use these models as part of an explanation of evolution and how the first animals came out onto the land. The whale of course represents a return to the sea by animals whose flukes were originally legs.

As we can see in the sculptures of cats above, sometimes the effect appears humorous to the adult eye, however, this may not be the intention of the "artist". Yet we would have to be very dull indeed if we did not respond to the undeniable charm of some of these sculptures.



Whilst these three dimensional models are of a small scale and relatively thin in the body all of the skills neded to create these sculptures are scalable. That means that what the children have learnt in this scale can be used and transferred to larger scale models. More importantly they have been taught the process of planning and thought which goes behind the work of an artist and been given the opportunity to see themselves as artists in society.



You will be able to see some of these models on display at the Paradise Gardens installation of DOG on the 19th and 20th June 2010 in Victoria Park, London E3.