Output details

The Imagination of Children / Absurd Impositions

The Imagination of Children was a research project that examined how contemporary arts practitioners could develop approaches to the representations of children’s imaginations for a specific audience of children and parents as well as an audience interested in visual arts and childhood. It included two exhibitions at the V&A’s Museum of Childhood in London and marked the start of an initiative for interplay between visual artists and the Museum, forming a two year collaboration with the Director of the Museum.

A solo exhibition introduced the idea that a small child’s dreams and imaginings may be inaccessible to the viewer. Two bodies of work were included: ‘Dream’, an extensive series of drawn double portraits of children, as well as nine large-scale drawings, the Imperative series.

The second exhibition examined how children’s imaginings might be understood and visualised through contemporary art practice. Significant children’s literature takes as its premise children’s ability to live extensively in their imagination yet visual art that addresses children seriously both speaking of, and appealing to, their imagination is much rarer. Its research method, that of artists' intervention into a Museum collection, is an established strategy, however this was combined with reflection on the importance of accessibility for the Museum's child visitors. Eight artists were commissioned to re-site their work. The exhibition received support from the V&A, Culture Ireland and the Irish Arts Council and featured Sonia Boyce, Sarah Cole, Richard Elliott, Rebecca Fortnum, Martin Newth, Jessica Voorsanger, Angie Duignan and Róisín Loughrey and Ans Nys from Belgium.

The output is presented via portfolio, which should be viewed in order to gain a proper understanding of the research.