Image: Wind farm in the sun.
As an artist and a mother of a young child I am often looking for activities and places to go to keep the little monster happy and occupied. Apart from the usual places I tend to seek art related events for kids as well as not for kids. I’m happy to say that he is as familiar with museums and art centres as he is with the playground. And so on. But what I find when we are with other people who have no connection with the art world is that the way we play is somewhat different, as are the expectations. On our own, we tend to explore, dare, pervert meanings and uses of objects, reinterpret the things we see, make up stuff, get silly, and sometimes completely ignore the rules. But when we are with others I feel that we need to fall into tried and tested models of behaviour in order to fit in. And these models are themselves imposed by parents and social gender patterns. Boys playing football, girls dressing up as princesses and so on. I feel that as an artist I’m lucky to go beyond that, to have a different perception of how things can be experienced, or at least I hope I do. Kids are amazing in how they take on something and make it their own, sometimes in the most surprising ways, but I feel that their vision is often restrained by adult perceptions, prejudices and fears, and that’s the saddest thing.
Boilers with coal fire inside.
Left: Bomb. Right: Uncle Dan.
