Saturday, October 24, 2009

Childsplay


This was the original proposition for my next project, 'Childsplay'

"When did it all get so serious?

Adult life is filled with the constant demand of that thing called responsibility. Work, bills, work, cooking, cleaning, more work, long days, traffic jams…

It’s in the drab monotony of  an office job or the constant necessity to be polite and courteous. It’s the expectation to look a certain way, and be ‘presentable’, its the assumption of ability to involve oneself in intelligent conversation when in reality one has no idea what is going on. It’s a firm handshake, an appropriately lengthed skirt. It’s the ability to juggle work, kids, husbands, wives, parents, friends, housework, … life… all the while maintaining a calm and polished exterior.

It’s Pressure.

And maybe you don’t want to.

Maybe you want to take a day off because you have a tummy ache.

Maybe you don’t feel like going to the supermarket or wearing a suit… Maybe you want to tell your boss he is a big fatty, or maybe you want tell your mother in law that her cooking is yucky. Maybe you want to wear a tutu and jump in puddles. Maybe you want to wear your party hat to the supermarket.

Maybe you should.

When did we lose the freedom and bluntness that kids are blessed with? When were we taught to stop speaking our minds?

Through my recent encounters working with kids, I have been inspired to loosen the hell up! I find it fascinating how unpredictable kids can be, and how their weird little minds work. I have been confronted by their innocent honesty and delightful openness. Being an‘adult’ with some very real responsibilities and demands, it is far too easy to forget to see things and take pleasure in everyday. I look around at the business people in their varying shades of grey suits and I try to see what is missing. I think its joy.

When did the lady at the checkout stop making daisy chains? When did the word poop stop being the funniest thing in the world. When did the fairies move out of the tree at the end of the garden? When did you stop looking out of the window?

Through this project I want to explore the things that really sum up being a kid, and I want to try and trigger a response from the kid in all of us. I hope to make a series of pieces which take the wearer out of the everyday  hassles of being a grown up and remind them of the little things that used to mean so much! Essentially I want to make something fun and playful, while still maintaining a level of aesthectic sophistication.

From here I plan to research by talking to adults and try to understand their memories of childhood, which objects have stuck in their mind as a reminder.. I plan to look at toys and objects that kids love and try to identify what makes them appealing, to then relay that into adults."

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