The Musée National d’Art Moderne, housed in Paris’s Centre Pompidou, loaned QAGOMA over 180 works from their Surrealism collection, including pieces by Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp for this exhibition.

In conjunction with the main show, ‘Surrealism for Kids’, enabled children to create their own Surrealist-inspired art and interact with the concepts of the movement. One of the activities was based on Oscar Domínguez and his work, referred to as ‘Decalcomania’, a printing technique using gouache spread onto a surface, such as glass or paper, and transferred to another surface, like canvas. For this activity I created a series of Decalcomania prints that encouraged children to find their own images in the arbitrary shapes and create a scene or image using pencils. Based on feedback from activity trials, I used the children’s artworks to create a wallpaper design that was installed in the space. Creating a surrealist ‘inkblot’ that would inspire young imaginations was no easy task, but through collaboration and feedback the final design was chosen.

Marcel Duchamp inspired another of the activities, ‘Make a sculpture’, which invited visitors to make their own surrealist sculpture using everyday objects, each artwork was photographed and displayed on screens around the activity. I designed a wallpaper based on this activity in the space as well as the user interface to photograph and share the sculptures. Not being a fan of Marcel Duchamp, this project allowed me to see his art in a different light, by making his ‘ready-made’ sculpture into a wacky activity for children (would he approve?).

The third element of this Children’s Art Centre exhibition was the creation of the title wall for the space. Herbert Bayer’s Glass Eyes (1928) was turned into a repeating pattern and reproduced as a wallpaper to welcome and watch those coming into the space, as a precursor to what awaited them inside.

Responsibilities

• Concept development
• Content creation for Decalcomania templates
• Template development and design
• Design iteration as the result of user testing
• Wallpaper development and design
• Illustration of supporting graphics for wallpaper and user interface
• User interface design
• Liaising with the web team to implement user interface design
• Exhibition signage development and production
• Liaising with printers
• Pre-press
• Production management
• Managing install

‘Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams, Surrealism for Kids’, Children’s Art Centre, GOMA, installation view.

‘Make a Sculpture’ activity bays.

Visitors enjoying ‘Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams, Surrealism for Kids’, Children’s Art Centre, GOMA.

Young visitors participating in the ‘Make a Sculpture’ activity.