Toy theatres, trick boxes and a magic ink or two
I've seen a few good shows and will now share them with you
Books and sculptures and hair
Arches, circles and stairs
Lots of inspiration for your pleasure here to view...
...Above is my ALADDIN toy theatre proscenium coloured with non-toxic inks (made as part of the Bologna residency as mentioned last month)...
...and here it's done with poison inks on my return to London. Which do you like better?
My answer is neither: these were fun to do and experiment with, but I'll return to a non-restricted palette for the actual official coloured version for later release. (I was limited here to the inks we made in Bologna.) The original toy theatres were indeed made with a very restricted palette - only 4 colours, and mixes thereof. I find these a bit too 'vintage' looking and mine will be more contemporary. However, please do experiment with yours - that's exactly what the black and white version is for...
…a magic trick box, eventually made with mirrors. We looked at an original Kay Nielsen 1001 Nights painting of boxes and made one in 3D inspired by it...
...and very freeing to be only inspired and loosely based on the world of the Nights with all the swirls, and not strictly 'illumination' only...
...here is Patrik Prazmari's magic trick box: a pen case that, when opened, reveals pens (or in my case, brushes from The Perfect Brush) that appear to rise by themselves, as if by magic. Smoke and mirrors... I can't reveal how as that would be telling! It's Patrik's secret. Made with my favourite turquoise leather and I didn't get time to finish it - for my official black version I will paint gold designs on it...
...Above is the collection of inks I made in Bologna that came home with me. Below that is Jo Volley's pigment collection at the Slade, just one of her many many works with pigments - she's also done a fantastic Pigment Timeline, worked with sound and gold, makes gilded alicorns, runs the Slade Colour and Poetry symposiums and Material Research Projects and much much more. (She also gave me a great tip I'll never forget on my undergraduate at the Slade - she observed me scrabbling around on the floor contorting myself trying to paint the bottom of a painting and she calmly suggested: 'Why don't you just move the painting up?' Lightbulb! And then she noticed that I was walking to a table every time I needed to change a colour and she said: 'Why don't you just bring the table closer to you?' Never occurred to me...)
Below is cochineal in its insect form. I wanted to include it as it is from the animal kingdom directly and all the other colours we made were from plants or minerals. When it's made up it's a deep maroon colour, but add a bit of white and it's a glorious purple. Our mad chemist Marianna Marchini decided on a whim to see what would happen if you added an acid and an alkali (base) to cochineal. It changes colour to an almost fluorescent red! So it's a pH indicator. And because I described it as fluorescent, she decided to test if it was a light emitter. It is! Strange substance and this is the reason artists and scientists should work together. I had loads of fun in the lab (even with unrelated experiments involving mercury 'eating' gold and just watching this liquid metal blob around). By the way, Schwepps is also a light emitter and turns blue under UV light. Next is turmeric ink which changes colour when a base is added to become a bright red. In the plastic plates we tested other disappearing inks which I talked about at the Slade Colour and Poetry symposium. Essentially it is the standard iron gall ink separated into its constituent parts, but you only write with one ingredient (gall water) and the recipient of your secret message washes it with the other (green vitriol). I was really taken with this process from the medieval Islamic underworld, the world of the 1001 Nights, so it was an amazing collaboration...
…Patrik and I also gave an Islamic bookbinding workshop at the University of Bologna and I gave a separate challenge to make a miniature book. Here you see 2 lovely participants nailing it: because they worked together! That's the secret of making a miniature book - you need 4 hands. They did a beautiful job. Our kids were welcomed everywhere - which is how it should be and felt very natural as we were also responsible for them - they were involved in all the steps. Sometimes it was hard as they were so excited yet everyone understood the spirit of the experience and played or worked with them. The 6 year old made his own book. We'll teach Islamic bookbinding in person in London at the School of Traditional Arts in June. And later online sometime as well. The 3 year old had a lot of naps, across chairs and on library shelves and also helped out with the toy theatre performances...
...these scholars of the medieval Islamic underworld decided to put on a spontaneous play about Galen, told in the 101 Nights (one of the earlier forms of the 1001 Nights) which I loved because that's the spirit of the toy theatre - you don't have to stick to the script and you don't have to stick to the play of Aladdin. You've got the characters and the scenes and can make your own play up. My theatre is seen below with the kids' brightly coloured version. I think theirs is better...
...Paint your theatre with brushes and tools: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop and here's the link to my Make a Carpet Page e-course. Once downloaded it's yours to keep forever: https://vaishaliprazmaricarpetpage.thinkific.com/courses/make-a-carpet-page or purchase some easy-watching, relaxing painting films.You can get your own toy theatre here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/product-page/aladdin-paper-toy-theatre...
... Looking ahead to April's book classes we have a circular book of codes, an accordion book of stairs and possibly an arched book of arches... The code book is circular since it's the final book of volvelles, using Ramon Llull - in the curriculum we are moving through the history of moveable books which stays on volvelles for centuries then moves into true pop-up books. The Accordion book is such a pop-up book. I was searching for ages for the right content for an accordion book - since I don't like them as much as other formats - and stairs are perfect as you can see above and behind and through. We will use a long piece of paper such as A2 size and make everything from there, inspired by the stairs on Greek islands, adobe staircases and Indian stepwells, in glorious 3D.
The possible arch book - possible because maybe not everyone wants to make a book of arches but just paint arches... it would be cool to make arched pages, though, and for the book to actually be an arch itself, so an architectural book which, along with the Accordion book of stairs, is also a sculpture in itself (depending on interest). Finally, it's coming to the end of the Court of Gayumars mammoth translation-painting and the last chance to see it painted live with its final finishing touches. Currently at circa 89% and counting! Here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online...
Book classes
See the Conference of the Birds online show
...Above: Rebecca Manson's ceramic moth wings at Josh Lilley and Xiaoze Xie's 'sleeping' book paintings and sculptures inspired by the Dunhuang library caves in China at Pi Artworks. Kids always like sculptures, they are so immediate. I don't know how much they appreciate the intellectual and the historical as well as the sensual; I'll keep dragging them around galleries and museums until they form a sensibility about this I suppose. At the very least they know it's part of my work so they are 'coming to work with me', which beats going to a boring office (though nowadays offices probably have ping pong tables and nap areas and the like...).
The other very important show is the Conference of the Birds! Have a look at the beautiful birds displayed here painted by my lovely students - work shown here by Susan Dobrian, Carey Bagdassarian, Shehrbano Qizilbash and Nadia Khan - and revisit the Carpet Pages gallery inspired by the shape of a carpet page. Stay and while, experience the art in different light settings and get a close-up view of their various birds and scroll further down for downloads and a video walkthrough. This Conference of the Birds show is a hub of birds. We have pelicans, pigeons, partridges and parrots. There are peacock pheasants, finches and falcons. There are hawks, hummingbirds, fantasy Homa birds and hoopoes, the wise leader of the flock. There are birds on books, a black-faced laughingthrush, cosmic birds on a gold tree and even an ingenious and unique bird horoscope. Finally, there has to be a duck, and there is one. [Female ducks' vaginas are mazes, remember that.] Spot the duck and never look the same way at a duck again.
This monthly meeting we can also have a final look at the Conference of the Birds current show, found here and free to download and keep forever. It's best to download it as it is only live-streamed for a month. I'll stream it for as long as I can after but it might randomly cut off depending on the service, so download it now for either Mac or PC.
The monthly meeting link is also over at the Forum, which now is a real hub of information and you just need to scroll around or use the Search tool to find information. It's sorted into broad categories too. The Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link:
Monthly Miniature Meeting 23 April 2024, 6pm - 7pm London time - all welcome
APRIL MEETING
Vaishali Prazmari is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Vaishali Prazmari's Miniature Monthly Meeting
Time: 23 April, 2024 6pm London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89617987454?pwd=UEZCbXFkbmUvWnRWb29EanpQMnBWZz09
Meeting ID: 896 1798 7454
Passcode: 764069...
...The Cult of Beauty at the Wellcome Collection, since I happened to be passing by so thought might as well (it's free). Reconstructions of 'Renaissance Goo' reminded me of our Bologna project replicating recipes from the medieval Islamic underworld. This was women's secret books of beauty passed onto each other. A wonderful sensorial sculpture and it reminded me of the importance of the 'sensorium' in artworks. Rihanna's Fenty Beauty (look at all those shades) is a billion-dollar industry and that's Kate Moss's lipstick kiss. Underneath is Jennifer Ling Datchuk's hair ladder and then ancient bronze mirrors. I love the accoutrements of make-up - not necessarily the stuff itself but its packaging. You have ancient travel make-up sets, perfume kits and miniature grinding slabs in the form of a turtle... beauty as ritual. Keith Critchlow once told me that the other word for make-up is 'cosmetics' - women and not only women who want to be like the cosmos = cosmic! Shirin Fathi's Disobedient Nose (Iran is the no.1 place in the world for nose jobs) and a sculpture inspired by a Persian recipe to turn dark skin silver. Nobody is ever happy with what they're born with. Though temporary silver and gold skin sounds great (but probably dangerous - remember women used to slather lead white on their skin)... The perennially cool Josephine Baker and in my opinion the most classically beautiful woman in the world: Nefertiti. Epic Domestic is a political party idea which brings me to...
...the next show, Women in Revolt at the Tate. A very important show that you should go and see before 7 April if you can. It's historically important and also a landmark exhibition. I met the curator who said she had a hard time justifying it to her bosses, that people wanted her to make the show 'less angry' - this is a show about a time when women were fighting for basic rights that we take for granted today. It's because of them that we have things like free childcare (up to a point...) and there is a beautiful and poignant sculpture at the end I didn't get a good photo of. In fact, it's not a very photogenic show - it's a very important show full of documents and posters and it's supposed to be pissed off. We took the kids, which also means hurried photos. I managed to take this one of Snakes and Ladders by Nina Edge, living on the edge... I liked the Indian Rope Trick, which is like a vertical tightrope disappearing into the sky. If anyone knows more about circus research I'd like to hear about it. Circus folk generally didn't write stuff down so there's not much available. I'm mostly interested in the equilibristic acts and acrobatics...
...and I've saved this one for the end, the coolest most in-your-face most kid-friendly show, When Forms Come Alive at the Hayward. The best one is the foam sculpture right at the bottom - it's very slowly spewing out its foam so is constantly slightly changing; this was my favourite piece. Just look at all those images and imagine being confronted with these giant 3D textural forms and then imagine being child-sized. And then imagine the slight dread at knowing you're going to be told multiple times not to touch, and then for that to be turned on its head by a lovely lady who told our kids that 'adults are much worse than kids. So, kids, your job is to make sure your adults don't touch the artworks'. Gleeful! And then another amazing idea: the Hayward staff had pint-sized replicas of sculpture fragments so that children could touch those instead and feel the artwork texture without having to touch the real thing. Wonderful genius - I wish more institutions thought of children's needs like this. And all of us who secretly want to touch stuff!...
...On the flip side of the coin we passed a Science Museum 'Family Day' only to be told on entering that it was for corporate partners' families only, by invitation only. I mentioned that that means it's not for all families, it's for families where one member works for some company that sponsors the Science Museum, ie. they've paid, and it's not for us. The registrar shyly agreed. Bad signage. Should read 'Corporate Family Day' and then at least we know where we stand, and also not to bother. My mother's colleague's daughter heard a remark about the daughter carrying her child this way in England: 'Shhh! Look - that's how poor people carry their babies.' Patrik saw this trick online - sandwich your toddler behind your backpack. And there he is with his new hat. There is a guzheng 古筝, a Chinese zither - the eldest is into music and I like unusual musical instruments too (this isn't ours). There the kids are, forced by me to wear safety goggles because they're smashing whole walnuts with hammers (all our nutcrackers have broken). I encourage them that learning happens everywhere, including on the tube. And that's his very own handmade book he's writing in, making up a story with help from me. I'm watching the slow transition of children's hands from concave soft dimples to convex hard knuckles.
Dimplishly yours,
Vaishali Prazmari
P.S. The 3 year old has 1001 faces. 3 of them are shown below, during his haircut. My phone is not fast enough to capture them all, but seen in succession they are hilarious. It's the facial accompaniment in real time to the words: 'Stay. Very. Still.' Also, Satan has a sense of humour.
