Charles and Janine Williams - exploring art

At the end of this term Bairds Mainfreight will be holding it's 2016 Art exhibition. The theme this year is 'New Zealand Artists'.

In Room 8 we have chosen to base our art around the work done by Charles and Janine Williams. They are a husband and wife team who grew up and live in South Auckland. Their artwork can be called 'urban, Pacific, contemporary art' and they are inspired by their environment, their Māori culture and their love of native birds.

You may have spotted these around our community. They were created as part of the Otara Roller Door Project:

 

 Yesterday we started to explore what symbols were and how and why artist use them in their work. 

In small groups we viewed pieces of art and discussed

• What do we like about this piece of art?
• What do we find interesting?
• Has the artist used symbols? If so what do we think they mean?

Here is what some of us said.....

"I like the different colours they used on the bird." Carlito
"The stairway part looks a stairway to heaven." Jena
"We think that the 3 small triangles may represent home." Carlito
"And it means being safe." Hayden
"The big triangle looks like a tent." Jena 

"I like how it looks like the birds might be really holding on to the lines." Gwyneth
"I like the detail on the bird, how they have blended it. They didn't just use normal colours, and they shaded it too." Tarita
"It feels like I could pick the stick up." Tarita
"I like the background, how they blended all the colours into a mess. A good mess." Micheal

"I like the patterns connecting to each other." Augustina
"I think the Māori symbols mean Mum, Dad, son, daughter, baby. Like a family." Ardyn
"I like the way they designed it and I like the birds." David
"That big bird might be the mother." Tarita
"Or the leader." TeAo


We are excited to start learning more about symbolism in art, and creating symbols to use in our own art.