Agy: What’s Cooking?

If you passed the studio over the passed few days, chances are you would have seen Agy at work on the large table in front of the window!

Pots and pans, chopsticks dipping coiled cloth and stretching them on frames – the experiments seems to be going on well. In fact if you want to understand Agy, what she is doing and why she is doing it, I highly recommend heading over to her blog where she talks about her first week at the Observatoire.

As I walked in on Wednesday, bringing in a sewing machine, I was greeted by lovely scents and colours in the studio, brimming with activity!

And for the last picture, here is one of the flowers that Agy uses for her blue dye, Clitoria ternatea – traditionally used in Malay cooking for making Kelantan nasi kerabu and for Peranakan kueh salat. You’ll find these flowers dotted along Turf Club Road as you walk towards the school and studio. Feel free to pick a few for your own dying experiments!

Artist of the Month: Agy, textile artist

We are happy to welcome Agy for the month of October!

Agatha “Agy” is a textile artist who is passionate about building environmentally aware communities.  Her goal is to get people to reconnect with their clothes through techniques such as repair and transforming them into creative wearables (aka upcycling).  Currently she is exploring embroidery and natural dyeing techniques as a way of reconnecting with not only our clothes but with nature too.  She holds regular talks and Restyle Your Wardrobe is one of her signature workshops where she shares her knowledge of rethinking the way we view our garments.    Agatha can be found at Agy Textile Artist, and is a founding member of Connected Threads Asia and Fashion Revolution Singapore.

Agy is planning an experimentation of colours from nature (including our foodwaste!). The outcome might be something stitched up with all the samples of the experiments. And possibly even  a garment or upcycled garment from the experiments. If you want to learn from her, do sign up for her Dying workshop at the Artground on the 28th of October!

If you want to help her experiment, drop by the studio and bring her some material. Here is her wish list :

• Yellow onion skins
• Red onion skins
• Avocado seeds and skins (clean of avocado flesh)
• Red cabbage
• Pomegranate rind
• Coffee grounds
• Pandan leaves

We will update you on her experiments soon!

 

Mish and Tam: a study in slime

 

If you spend any time at all on “make your own” sites on the internet and/or have school-age children around you, you’ve heard about slime. This gooey paste-like blobby material that you can apparently make yourself – and has absolutely no purpose other than keep your hands busy while making your mind go “ewwww!”, “ooooh!”, “aaaah!” as you manipulate it, and then “yikes!” when it unexpectedly lands on your clothes or in your friends’ hair.

This is the material Tam had decided to explore during her residency – joined happily by Mish, who also spent time doodling, letter printing, recreating images, sounds and texts seen during their recent trip to Bali.

This slime exploration soon became the main focus of the time spent by the 2 artists in the space. The exploration took many forms – from experimenting with various recipes, to exploring new artistic uses for the medium. Much time was spent on the process, understanding the physics of the medium, rather than aiming for a specific aesthetic outcome.

One of the early, and exciting outcomes resulting from discovering the slime’s properties was a kind of “forest” created by letting slime drip on a prepared landscape.

One of the early examples, recorded by Tam:

View this post on Instagram

There's some crazy stuff going on at the studio right now! Artists @theorangesawme and @ljnmx are wild experimentors. Here you can see a slime forest in the making. Do check out @theorangesawme 's feed for more exciting videos.

A post shared by l'Observatoire (@observartoire) on Jul 3, 2017 at 7:08am PDT

 

The teachers were invited early on to observe the material, the process and get an understanding of the potential of the material, as well as understand how the children could be interacting in their environment.

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Teachers gonna touch #slime #colour #teachers #experiment

A post shared by l'Observatoire (@observartoire) on Aug 5, 2017 at 10:18pm PDT

 

Eventually, throughout the month of July, the experiments became focused, as the artists tried different glues, different additions, and tried making art pieces from the resulting material. What Tam says: “When it dries, it becomes hard. The pattern is set. But we might still cut up the design to make something new from it”.

It seems that the potential of slime is unlimited.

New season starting on the 15th of September!

Charcoal drawing (7-9 year olds)

Observational Drawing classes ; Art and Science ; Art and Craft ; Open Studio – Take your pick! Classes are starting again from Monday 15th of September with a new team of facilitators, mostly artists but all with an experimental edge, ready for exploration of the world around us. So go look at the schedule and sign up now. Or call 9273 4991 to arrange a trail class.

Seeking Collaborators!

Acrylic painting in Open Studio for teenagers

Still Life set up for drawing classes

Admiring a newly-built dinosaur to cast a shadow on the wall

Observational Drawing (Alice, 5 years old)

Self-Portraits by the 6-7 year olds

Blowing bubbles to understand how fish breath.

Feeding the fish

Painting a fish (Art and science for the 4 year olds)

FIsh paintings after weeks of observation (4 year olds – Art and science)

Collage (6 year old Lauraine) Observational Drawing class

Charcoal drawing (7-9 year olds)

Learning to reproduce accurately (Adult Drawing class, Wednesday morning)

“Our Garden”, presentation by the 5 year olds’ group to their peers

Creating shadows for drawing (Open Studio for teenagers, Saturday morning)

Creating shadows: “Can I fit in the box?”

Proudly displaying his photograph (happy camper from pin hole camp)

Explaining the “rules” (Artist in Residence Richard Kearns)

Looking out , “Outdoor Cinema”

More teamwork – Tinkering Sunday “Woodworking”

Checking the tree…

… with a little help from Ila.

Looking down the microscope

Interacting with plants takes all sorts of forms

L’Observatoire is seeking collaborators! Do you enjoy drawing and teaching the basics of drawing? Do you enjoy experimenting? Are you a scientist? An artist? a bit of both? Are you looking for a place to experiment, a platform to test your ideas, and a studio with like-minded people?

Located in lush Turf Club Road, collaborating with pre-schools, schools, museums, l’Observatoire is a community space where art&science gets made every day.

We are now looking for:
– Partners. Those will have full use of the studio, equipment and support, and can teach either drawing, art and science, or art and craft for a few hours a week, to children mainly (Limited to 2)
–  Interns. You will be witnessing new ways of teaching in art and science. You’ll be tasked with helping document the process, interact with the kids, prepare the classes, maybe with a bit of admin.
– Support team. If you have what it takes, we’d call you when something exciting comes up that requires more hands – do you have a specialty you want to share? Underwater music, silk-screen printing using recycled material, styrofoam sculpting…?
– Resident artists – invited on a monthly basis, you will be given a studio space, and access to tools, equipment, support to develop your idea. In return, we’ll work with you to develop a Tinkering Sunday workshop.

Interested? Fill in the contact form below and we’ll get back to you.

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Registration Open for Summer Camps!

Finally! The camps you have been eyeing for weeks are finally open for registration! We can only take up to 8 student each week, so make sure you sign up fast!

Proudly displaying his photograph (happy camper from pin hole camp)

This summer, you have a choice between Pin hole cameras (new this year) and printmaking (a staple workshop at l’Observatoire). Go take a look and choose. And if you decide to take the pinhole camera workshop again, no worries, we have ideas to keep you shooting during the camp.

Teamwork for a raft

Some kids played while the dads were hard at work.

The raft

Capturing weeds

Checking the ground

Isabelle the Observer

More motor experimenting

Looking down the microscope

Plants watching a film about plants.

Crafting Sunday: Create a Meaningful Christmas

This Chirstmas season, MAKE your Christmas present!

Drop in on Sundays (Starting this Sunday 24th of Nov) between 10am and 4pm at l’Observatoire, craft something nice, have a cup of tea, chat with other crafters, and go home with one more present to put under the tree.

Come with your own design and/or idea and/or material, or dig into out stock of plywood, cardboard, bottlecaps and wool!

or

Come and follow one of our artists as they show you how to make something special

Suggested minimum donation: $10 (for a simple Christmas card) to $30 depending on the activity.

Sunday 24th Nov. 2013

• 10am – 12pm: fabulous knitted jewllery with Kiruthika Curic
• 12pm – 2pm: Beads! Make necklaces and bracelets with Sandra Sanoner.
• 2pm – 4pm:  gorgeous, one-of a kind Christmas cards with Alpana Vij or Christmas Centre piece with Susanne Paulli

Design for a greeting card, by Alpana

Design for a greeting card, by Alpana

Girls knitting with a nancy

Coaster and Jewellery by Kiruthica

Sunday 1st Dec. 2013

• 10am – 12pm: Recycled Paper Jewelery and Tree Decorations
  
• 12pm –  2pm: to be announced
• 2pm – 4pm: Christmas Centre piece with Susanne Paulli (please reserve that one so we get the material) and Christmas Cupcake decoration with Madhu.

Christmas Cupcakes

Recycled Paper Jewellery

Christmas Centre Piece

Sunday 8th Nov. 2013

• 10am – 12pm: Doll House
  
• 12pm –  2pm: Rubber band-powered car
• 2pm – 4pm: Musical Instrument from Rubber seed shells.

And all along, make paper beads, jewellery and recycled cardboard tree decorations.

Doolhouse from plywood boards

Seed car prototype, powered by rubber band.

Cardboard, beads and mirror star

Original instrument and rubber nut casings to turn into musical instrument

Either way, let our volunteer guide you!

Suggested donation: $30 / hour (includes $10 for basic material). More material will be available for sale at cost, or you can bring your own. Bring recycled material to share too! And if you’d like to volunteer in the following weeks, leave a message in the comments below or contact us.

Spread the word, spread the joy.