Artasia at N2N

For our week 3 project, with the theme of time, we created a web with yarn and tape for the children to stick tissue paper, cellophane, pom poms, fabric, pipe-cleaners, and drawings to. The idea was to show the progression of time as they worked together to stick more and more things onto the web, creating a colourful art installation over time.

There weren’t many kids, so the activity transformed over time with the one child who was doing it for the whole session. He started by sticking things like cellophane and tissue paper on, but then progressed to wanting shapes (hearts with twist ties and pipe cleaners) that I made for him and taught him how to make himself.

Throughout the activity after doing something new he would eventually get bored, and ask to do something else. I kept him engaged by creating new shapes for him, and I also showed him how to draw a duck very quickly with one line; he was able to do it and then added it to the web.

Eventually, when he got bored again, I made him a teddy bear out of pipecleaners. He liked the bear and asked for a T-rex too, and then stuck them both on the tape, he named them Brown and Green. This led to imaginative play with them; he created a scene with them. He used twist ties and pom poms to make lollipops and balloons for them to hold, and a pipe-cleaner to make a roof over their head (their house). He wanted them to have food so he used a pipe-cleaner and tissue paper to make them a mango to eat. He then used blue tissue paper to create a wrap for the dinosaur, he said it was a water wrap so the dinosaur could jump down to it without getting hurt. He wanted them to be friends with the duck, but the tape between them was empty so there was no path. He made a path by sticking paper and fabric pieces onto the tape so that they could reach the duck and go swimming together. Then he made the duck some grapes and strawberry so that it could have food too.

It was so great that he was able to turn the activity that is usually more about decoration and abstract design into a story with characters to play with. It also showed his thinking; he cared about the characters he made and wanted them to have food and shelter. Over time, his characters were able to make friends and progress through the tape world, and over time the web became his own world to play in.

– Narita Sargees