Visual Art Mirka Mora – Objects, Memories and Stories

Last term our focus was on the home and the work of the Kitchen Sink artists. We examined our life at home and were able to look at our home in new ways.
This term we will have fun reflecting on not only our homes, but ourselves, our family, the objects we make and collect, and the stories they all hold. We will examine the wonderful Melbourne artist, Mirka Mora, whose work is also about her family, friends and the home. She also created her own characters in the form of dolls and puppets that she kept close to her. They also gave her warmth and comfort in times of need. They held her memories and her stories.

Many of Mirka’s drawings were of strange and wonderful creatures, the body of a creature and the face of a person, or a fish body and a bird’s head! She explored many combinations of hybrid creatures and made soft sculptures from these.
For Mirka Mora, “Drawing is an exploration, you don’t know where it will take you!”
In week 1 we played a game to help us to introduce the idea of a hybrid creature.
To help with ideas for drawing a hybrid creature we began with a game that is a fun way to explore drawing a creature made up of many parts. This is a game that was invented by the Surrealists. It is called Exquisite Corpse. A piece of paper is folded into sections, and each player takes in turns to draw the next part of a body without being able to see what the others have drawn. The result is a strange surreal creation of different parts.
Here are some amazing examples of student work:
Prep –
Here is Jack’s (prep) work..

Here is Alexander’s (prep) work..

Year 1
Here is Marlo’s (year 1) work

Year 2
Here is Ava’s (year 2) work

Here is Eve’s (year 2) work

Here is Lottie’s and Luke’s (Year 3/4) who also asked his siblings to join Eva and Ben

Here is a collaboration between Ben & Leo and Grace & Hugo (Year 5/6)

It has been wonderful to see such amazing collaborations and inventive responses.
Students have also been asked to keep a visual art home portfolio or folder. We will be using the work we create online later in the term as inspiration for soft sculpture and ceramic work.

Owen in year 1 has created an amazing visual art home portfolio!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *