The Enchanted Forest Creative showcase Feb 2019
Posted February 10, 2019 By Sacha Guppy
“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”
– Raveena Tandon
In folklore and fantasy, an enchanted forest is a forest under or containing enchantments. Such forests are described in the old folklore from regions where forests were typical. The forest can feature as a place of wonder or threatening danger, or even one of refuge or chance adventure.
People use to believe in folklore and didn’t seek proof. These were stories created around the campfire or hearth and were told to intrigue and teach. They were a way to entertain before books and television.
The desire to believe in another land has not left us. As we age, it’s harder to see or believe in fairies.
Perhaps it is essential to keep this history alive. Between our reality and fantasy, there is a place absent of time where the woods look slightly different. Within this topic rests so much inspiration for art and creativity. We created an immersive forest environment with old trees, animals, paper birds, butterflies, fairy houses, ModRoc fairies and many drawings. We will investigate artists’ works such as Klimts’ Tree of Life, Mark Hearld’s collages, Gladys Paulus’ Masks, and Durer’s drawing of a rabbit.
The exhibition space started at the bottom of the stairs with tree paintings and animals of the forest lurking about. Bringing the exhibition to life was a sound installation of birds. Hanging down the stairwell were Mark Hearld-style birds. Going up the stairs to the Photography hub, there were displays of photographs taken by pupils based on the topic and a photo booth where visitors could try on the Yr 4 animal masks. A Year 7 pupil, Bel sang her beautiful rendition of Don McLean’s ‘Starry, starry night’. To enter the main art room, one must crawl through an ancient tree into a magical space. The room had floor-to-ceiling charcoal trees in the middle of the room was a sizeable magical tree with Kandinsky colourful circles for leaves. In corners of the room were groups of clay gnome houses forming tiny villages. There was Papier-mâché forest-animals peeping from behind trees and from dark corners…
