- Assignment Title: Create a mascot for a place that you visit often
- Assignment Description:
Design and create a mascot for a place that you visit often (it could be a restaurant, a library, a supermarket etc). The mascot can be made in any medium. When you have finished the mascot, drop it off at the location anonymously (through a letterbox, stapled to the door at night, get a friend to leave it there). Document both the mascot and how you have delivered it.
- Created by: Natasha Brown
- Responded by: Yulin Huang, Natasha Brown, Francesco Felletti
Natasha Brown and Francesco Felletti - Fart in the lift!
Marine One - The NT
YH: The Archive Lounge at Christchurch Art Gallery is a space I’ve been visiting and thinking about a lot this month. I’ve just finished writing my first exhibition review on their newest reveal of archival materials behind some of NZ’s most well-known artists. ‘Bread and Butter’. That’s the name of the display. It consists of their illustration work from the NZ School Journal in the 1940s-50s that they Had To Do To Survive Whilst Growing Their Practice. It made me feel a strange kinship with the great artists who were trying their best to sustain themselves before me, to also live their dream. It was a pivotal time in NZ history where more Māori subjects were replacing the British material that dominated those journals (like biographies of the royal family) that were read by all the children in the country. The curator included some delicious diagrams, whimsical prints, and technical drawings of NZ fauna. I was particularly pulled to the illustration of the NZ weta by Des Helmore. The details were agonisingly intricate. It lingered tirelessly in my mind and I thought it made a grand mascot for this curious space. The Lounge only opened last November and connects to the staff rooms and bathrooms outside. You will see the grey couch-chairs neatly line the back corner. It feels like a hole or crevice in a big forest tree where wetas typically reside. They are also nocturnal so they would take good care of the space at night when nobody is around. Anyway, I attempted to mold some leftover polymer clay into something resembling it, only looking at Des’ diagram of the weta. I wrote a little label printed on school paper, holding anticipation for it to have a second life. I anticipate the very first person other than myself to encounter them and imagine their life ahead. I attempted to be anonymous by stating I am anonymous, though I did have a lengthy conversation about reviewing and going to the space that day, with a gallery staff member, who is also my next door neighbour.
FF and NB: We thought the best mascot for a lift would be a fart
MO: Nivash Traders is a small convenience store near my flat where I usually go to pick up parcels from Vinted to save like 60p. Even though I’ve been going there often for over three years, I’ve always just walked straight to the cashier and never really taken the time to explore the rest of the shop. It’s funny how a place can become such a regular part of your routine without really knowing the main part of the store. Also recently, I found out there's actually a shortcut from my flat that gets me there in just three minutes instead of ten—a discovery made not by me, but by my partner only three days after she moved in. From this project I learned that "Nivash" means “home” or “a place to live” in Tamil, and is often used as a boy’s name. Even though it's just a local shop, it’s quietly become a small, steady part of my life.