Child's Play

One of the things that I have learned from Veronica is the importance of thrift stores. They are a great place to find unexpected and cheap materials. Plus Veronica likes to incorporate things that are aged and have had a past life because it gives her pieces a more eerie effect. Lydia and I have had several adventures digging through ragged piles in order to find materials for Veronica. One week she gave us the task of finding old children’s blankets. She said “the dirtier the better.” Our first stop at Philly Aids Thrift on 5^th and Bainbridge turned out to be a jackpot. We came away with several sheets and all together it was under $10.

 

Veronica used the sheets for an exhibit called And There The Moon-Bird Rests From His Flight.  The installation was set up on the Broad Street window in UARTS’ Anderson Hall. It represented Veronica and fellow CHER artist Jessie Clark’s interpretation of Shel Silverstien’s poems.

In order to make the installation Veronica created a goblin child peaking out from a tent, which was made from the children’s blankets we had collected. Lydia and I became masters at glue gunning as we spent an entire day making goblin hands, drool, and pillows. The pillows featured drawings by Veronica and quotes from some of Silverstien’s poems. Jessie drew her interpretations on fabric, which was hung from the ceiling of the window box.

On the actual installation day we painted the wall to look like it was a child’s bedroom, including doorframe, windows, and picture fames. Veronica taught us that lighting works best when the bulbs face opposite, diagonal directions. We were constantly running in and out of the building to make sure everything looked level and even, and I think some people were more interested in seeing us waving our arms and making expressive faces in order to communicate since the window glass was nearly sound proof. One man watched us the entire time proclaiming that the installation was part of the art piece, although we believed he might have had his eyes on something else.

 

In the end onlookers of Broad St got a great view into the dark world of childhood nightmares mixed with the lightheartedness of Silverstien’s poems.