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| Felistas in front a mural that the children of Familia Moja painted in Feb 2012, the mural now hangs in our dining room. |
’31 Pillows’ is a fundraiser exhibition of art made by children from the Familia Moja Children’s home that will be held in Sydney in June 2012. There will also be work made by Lottie Consalvo and James Drinkwater who went to teach art at the home earlier this year. In addition to showcasing the talent of the children, the exhibition will raise money to complete building the children their own home. All money from sales and the preview dinner go directly to the project.
The exhibition will be held at the Damien
Minton Gallery – Annex Space, 583 Elizabeth Street in Redfern, Sydney.
We will be hosting a Preview Dinner on Wednesday 13th June
(at the exhibition address. Tickets must be pre-booked). If you would like to
reserve a seat at the preview dinner please email lottieconsalvo@gmail.com
The cost is $100 per person and
includes a full Kenyan meal and drinks. The dinner will be held in the gallery
on Wednesday 13th June. There are a limited number of seats available.
‘31 Pillows’ will open on Thursday 14th June 6pm – 9pm. The exhibition will run from the 14th to 16th June at
the Damien Minton Gallery – Annex Space, 583 Elizabeth Street in Redfern,
Sydney is open 11am-6pm
Artist Talks will be
held Saturday 16th June at 2pm.
ARTIST STATEMENT, James Drinkwater
and Lottie Consalvo
We have been living between
Australia and Europe for three years. We wanted to immerse ourselves in another
culture, learn, engage and see new land. We wanted to cut through, direct to
the heart. We approached Jess White, co founder of Familia Moja Children’s home
in Mang’u, Kenya about the possibility of sculpting an artist in residence
program which would include teaching and making art.
We found out that art did no exist
in their schools, this made us realise how valuable our contribution could be.
We decided to go for six weeks; we would teach and produce work based on our
experience.
We had elaborate plans of how we
would teach but quickly learnt that only a loose and simple structure was
needed, ultimately it was the children and their energy that drove the lessons.
Word traveled fast around the
village and surrounding schools that two Mzungu’s (White people) were teaching
with colour. Soon we were racing the clock to keep up with classes at Mang’u
primary, Kairi primary, Mangu primary special needs class and Familia Moja. We
darted around town on the back of motorbikes with Shiru our friend and
translator, it was magic.
Tight and careful to begin with we
confiscated rulers, compasses and erasers. Fascinated by new materials,
empowered and consumed by creativity the work became expressive, confident and
sophisticated. We had no idea how strong the work would be or how close we
would become with the children. Moved by the experience we both produced a
suite of works on paper. We had no expectations or pre conceived ideas of what
would happen or what the outcome would be. The idea of doing a show in Sydney
manifested.
On our last day while the children
were at school we hung an open air exhibition of their work in the court yard
of their home. The yard where they cook, wash, grow and play. The exhibition
included a large mural that they painted in their last lesson with us. The
mural now hangs in their dining room where they meet, share meals and do homework.
When they returned home from school they beamed with pride eager to point out
which work belonged to them, this was the official opening and they were the
stars.
We announced that the exhibition
would be traveling to Sydney and that it would help to finish building their
new home.
We slept there that night, weary we
climbed into the rickety bunks in the dorms of their home. Independent and
strong the children put themselves into bed; there were 31 pillows for 31
heads.
James
Drinkwater 2012
To view all images of the artwork for sale please visit http://31pillows.wordpress.com/
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