#gradedunitdevelopment

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Finished Final 2 piece. I was originally going to do a triptych, but I decided against it as it would have been too messy and uncoordinated. I ended up making two canvases, one mostly painting and the other mostly mixed media collage.

I made the clouds of each flow into one another, so that the overall piece looks like a land with a vast sky above it. The land with my childhood self propped up on a rock is meant to represent what I may have imagined my minagination to physically look like as a child, with many inspirations such as nature, flowers and my own childhood drawings. This contrasts with the large painted sky, which represents how I see the physical embodiment of the imagination through my minds eye as an adult - clouds and shimmering glass, translucent and reflective.

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Mini collages.

Here I have continued with the theme of what a child’s imagination looks like, in its relation to Symbolic play and imaginary games.

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Larger collages.

Here I have been making paper and mixed media collages surrounding the idea of a child’s imagination, which is the core concept for Symbolic Play.

I have tried to use colours and imagery that I remember liking from my own childhood, as well as some of my own childhood drawings and writing. I want to embrace the idea of what the inside of a child ‘s imagination looks like, and I will be relating this to my own experience and how my imagination has stuck with me all the way through to adulthood.

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Here is my final install for Final 1.

I have used the setting of a child’s ‘secret den’ inside a shed in order to highlight the childish nature of play, and how it can be used to transform something ordinary - a garden shed - into something extraordinary like a secret hiding place.

I used bright colours that are typically reminiscent of childhood, and a teddy bear to highlight the fact that the ‘secret den’ is in some ways a child’s plaything.

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I also liked the idea of this layout, a child’s secret den in a shed. This highlights the imaginative nature of children’s play, and the ability to turn anything - a corner, behind a bush, a shed - into a place where they are free to play imaginative games.

I also felt that the use of colour tied in well to my concept. Colour is one of the first things we learn about as infants, and bright colours are used to represent childhood and childlike things such as toys.

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Placing my final piece in different locations in my garden. The use of a garden relates to my overall concept of play because they are commonly associated with children playing outdoors.

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I had the idea to have my face come come through behind the box, and this way I am able to show the physical self (my face), the childhood self (the cutout at the back) and my older self (the cutout at the front).

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Development 1 Final Piece.

Focusing on the idea of how ‘Play’ during our childhood impacts who we become as adults, and how our personalities are formed. With Development 1, I have been looking at the type of play known as ‘Fantasy/Dramatic Play’.

This kind of play is explored through dressing up, role playing, and using the imagination to concoct imaginary games. I took the most literal form of this type of play (dressing up) to show how it remains a part of my adult self.

I took examples of Fantasy Play from old photographs of my childhood, where I was dressed up as a ballerina and as a pirate. I decided to emulate these photographs in the way that I am now (a young adult), in order to show that it was a part of me then and is still a part of me now.

You can see the younger selves through the older ones in the cutouts on the box, and it represents how I can look back on those childhood memories of play that have stayed with me as an adult, but as a child I could not see into my future self (hence why you cannot clearly see the outline of the older cutout through the younger one).