COME LET US LIVE WITH OUR INNER CHILDREN is a collaborative interactive sculpture created by artists Feyishara Adelekan, Rebecca Bersohn, Erica Garber, Casey Glover, Catharine Maloney, Adena Stevens and Liz Zacharia. The title is an adaptation of an original mistranslation of Froebel's philosophy. The following visual diary is the result of the artists' research of Frederick Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten, and his 20 gifts that combine learning, art and play. As they have, the artists invite the viewers to connect with their own INNER children through play.
Froebel’s Gift 1 consists of 6 soft yarn balls, approximately 2” in diameter. The balls are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. They have a string, approximately 6” long) with a loop on one end so they can be dangled. For me, I wanted to continue using primary colors and instead of yarn balls, I made knots in the yarn, which still closely resemble the idea of a ball, but with my own twist. And for me, as a photographer, I also wanted to find an interesting way of photographing my gift and how I saw it being illustrated.
- Adena
Froebel’s Gift 6 divides the 3-inch cube into 18 oblong blocks: 12 flat square blocks (caps) and 6 narrow columns. With more of an architectural feel to this gift, I found myself a set of blocks similar to the blocks in the gift and created my own architectural structures.
- Adena
The 14th Gift is cutting, weaving, and folding. The occupations furnish materials for practice in certain skills, lead to invention and give the child power. I focused on the weaving aspect of the occupation and used primary and secondary colored paper, as well as black and white paper – cut in ½” strips – to construct patterns with the paper.
- Adena
