After 2 unfortunate cancelled walls I got this one. Actually the school had another wall in mind (a wall at the entrance of the school), but at the first visit it was clear right away that this one would work much better.
They asked me to show a sketch first before getting started. I don't really sketch that much, I work from a basic idea/composition and then during painting the image will evolve. Luckily the teachers were enthousiastic from the start and I had all the freedom to do what I like.
So at first I start with making a composition which will serve as a kind of playground, a playground for the human characters who are to be added later. When the 'playground' is finished I can figure out what kind of activities the characters are engaging in.
There were kids around all the time, each of them demanding a lot of attention. I tried to ignore them as much as possible, but sometimes I would try to answer some questions. Basically there was just one major question: What is it, what is it about? A question for which I had no answer. I don't know what it's going to be, and I also don't know what it is about. I just make images which could be something. So I could only return the question: what do you think that it is? Unfortunately this did not compute and after a while some kids would become a bit irritated. 'Why don't you want to tell us what it is!?' For which I could only reply: 'Why don't YOU want to tell me what it is!'
Later on one of the teachers told me that this is the way kids are being tought in India, in absolutes. To let your fantasies run wild is something they're are not used to, or at least they have unlearned it at school. But after a few days of painting different groups would form debating all possibilities of what the image could be, that was a cool thing to see happening!
The ledges were too dangerous to stand on, but it would have been a missed opportunity not to involve them in the painting.
A passer by told me it reminded him of Pangea, the supercontinent of 500 million years ago. A square earth in the middle, and the stones as continents drifting apart. I was quite surprised with this explanation but liked it a lot. So I used this idea for the title of the wall.
this nice picture was shot by Thomas Meyer.
The finished wall.
Eventually the kids had to write an essay about what the image could be :)
Thank you Aseema School, and thank you St+Art India!
