Tribute to We Miss you Magic Land from The Gallery of Modern Art
Thanks to Brisbane Mum Lisa
I recently took my 3 and a half year old daughter and 1 and a half year old son to the Gallery of Modern Art on Brisbane’s South Bank. There are some truly amazing exhibits there, designed for kids, but the one that really captured my kids imagination was Pip and Pop’s “We miss you magic land”. A huge room filled with a glittery, intricately detailed ‘magical’ land. We spent quite some time exploring it in detail, my daughter taking lots of photos.
When we got home we started talking about how we could make our own magic land. We sat down together and discussed what we could see in the photos we had taken, and how we might go about making our own version.I made 3 big batches of glitter playdough in various pastel colours to use for the landscape. (If anyone is interested, the playdough recipe I use is quick, easy, and makes a long lasting, smooth playdough. I will include it at the end)
HOW TO
With my daughter’s assistance, I collected a tray of things from our craft cupboard to add to the playdough. We used:
*pipe cleaners – cut randomly into smaller lengths
*straws – again, cut randomly into smaller lengths
*coloured match sticks
*various coloured plastic beads
*gemstones
*coloured plastic shot glasses
*table sprinkles (the little foil stars etc for decorating tables for special events)
I used a sheet of plastic board, and rolled large balls of playdough to create the landscape. I then gave my children the tray of items and let them explore. I sat with them and added to the creation. My daughter watched everything I did, questioned me at times, and told me where I could put certain items! My son spent a couple of minutes pushing matchsticks into the playdough. He then tried to pull them all out again, which I didn’t allow. Since he prefers destruction to creation at this stage he quickly lost interest. We threaded beads on the pipe cleaners, and my daughter created a path of little beads “for the animals to walk on.” She pushed a little thunder egg into the side of the playdough as a cave and filled it with beads which were “animals sleeping”.
We talked constantly about what we were doing – I would ask her how she made something, or comment on how she had created a certain effect. She often asked me why I had done something. There was no overall plan as to how it was going to look at the end – I just let the children be guided by the materials.
As a final touch, that night I turned all the lights out and added glow sticks! It certainly looked magical. We also plan to add some plastic animals.
When we were finished (it took some convincing to make my daughter stop – she would happily continue til the playdough was no longer visible!) we took some photos and compared them to the original artwork. Noting what was the same and what was different (while reiterating the fact that our aim was to create our own magic land, not to directly copy the one we saw.) Both kids stop to admire their handiwork every time they walk past where it is displayed and they often point out little things to me, and discuss it with anyone willing to listen. While I did this activity with very little kids, due to the open-ended nature of the project, it would be suitable for much older children as well (I found it lots of fun too!)
Playdough recipe
You will need
*1/4 cup of oil
*2 table spoons of cream of tartar
*1 cup of salt
*4 cups of boiling water
*4 cups of plain flour
*food colouring, glitter (optional)
- Combine oil, salt, cream of tartar and food colouring in a large bowl.
- Stir in boiling water til salt dissolves
- Stir in the flour
- Let sit til it is cool enough to get your hands in
- knead til a smooth consistency
- If you want – add glitter
*If playdough is still sticky, just add more flour (In high humidity I have had to double the flour!)
*If you want more than one colour from the same batch of playdough, simply leave the colouring til right at the end.
9 Comments on "Tribute to Magic Land"
That is just awesome how you turned an art gallery experience into something fun and personal! I’ve heard and read some parents complain that although the exhibit was certainly beautiful and pleasing to kids, no one was allowed to touch it. So what you did made your children a part of the Magicland experience. Well done!
Another inspiring and wonderful activity to do with my Brisbane kids. You’re amazing.
Fantastic. Will be doing with my little one. thanks for sharing.
Hello
What a fabulous magic land your kids made! So beautiful and magical.
I’m glad they enjoyed the show, and were inspired to make their own creations.
x pip & pop
Also u can buy edible glitter from cake stores just in case lol
pip & pop
Your magic land was amazing <3
my daughter's Summer (5), Poppi (5months) and step daughter Kaliahh (6) were in awe of your work. Poppi was so excited she didn't know where to look, we had such a wonderful day at GoMA all thanks to you
And the photos we captured were so precious
Big fan xox
Looks like you had a lot of fun. Looks great you should all be pleased with the outcome. We went and seen it at GOMA, I wouldn’t say it was disappointing not being able to touch anything there as that is expected, but was the constant “Make sure no one touches anything, hands in pockets” etc at every room you enter. Now to ask mine if they would like to do something similar. : )
tribute to magic land ……….wonderful, thanks for sharing such a lovely mummy/daughter day. With all this rain I can’t wait to sit down with my three year old and do this project together.
This is SUCH a great idea!! I’ll definately be trying this with my Miss 3. You can read about our visit to Magic Land here: http://artbyjaz.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/leap-day-feb-29th.html Jaz x