22 Jun Coleridge Art Exhibition – Archaeology and Frida Khalo
IMAGINE
Imagine what and who has occupied your neighbourhood before you came to live there.
Imagine all the animals, all the humans and all the plants that have occupied your neighbourhood over the course of time.
The pupils were asked to imagine what objects might lie below the ground and how each of these objects would tell their own story.
Dinosaurs and drains, mosaics and mosses, apple cores and tin cans, Greek pottery and barbed wire.
The nice and the nasty, the natural and the man-made, the sadly lost and the carelessly discarded.
Coleridge pupils have created an archaeological artwork to imagine the history beneath our feet.
Materials: Papier-mâché, soil, wood shavings, velvet fabric, tissue paper and newspaper, paint, glue, string
Archaeology Studies
Children from across the school have interpreted the theme ‘Imagine’ in a variety of different ways. The children have been imagining what might have been in our environment if we peel back layers of history, to reveal what could have been there in previous times.
So we have drawings and paintings depicting artefacts that may have been found in an archaeological dig: an artist’s record of plants from different times, skulls of humans and animals – some prehistoric, underwater creatures from times when the land was covered by water.
Hidden amongst the work you can find pieces showing tools that have been used in the dig, and there is one piece that depicts technology from the future – can you find it? We have thought about the indigenous people that walked the earth thousands of years ago, can you find their portraits?
Frida Kahlo
Over the course of this year many of our children have been learning about the art and life of the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. We have read stories, looked at biographies and studied video footage in order to gain a deeper insight into her life and work. The whole experience so enthralled the children that we decided to make a sculpture, which grew in stature and developed a life of its own as we worked.
We have tried to imagine what life must have been like for Frida, who was beset with so many troubles and challenges. In spite of her difficulties, she was always able to use her imagination to create amazing and provocative artworks. We have been inspired by her dedication to her work and her insistence on living life to the full.
Art so often imitates life, and this sculpture has an intricate structure within to support it, as it has problems with hips and legs! Frida went to her first solo exhibition in Mexico in her bed on the back of a truck; our sculpture has arrived in this exhibition on a porter’s trolley as it was too delicate to fit in a car.