Today we have been to the opening of an exhibition by Katie Forrester, my colleague and friend. We share the same office and taught in the same architecture studio last year. While my PhD looks into children's outdoor learning environment, Katie investigates children's story book illustration through design. Because of our shared research interest (though in different fields), we found the ground to interact and share our experiences related to researching on, with and for children. Afterwards we co-devised an innovative learning week event with children and it was an enlightening experience. So, when I first heard of the exhibition, I was very excited and wanted to be there the moment it would open.
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| Courtesy: Katie Forrester
Katie thrives to create a universal language for children's story book illustration with which children from any part of the world can relate themselves and therefore project them in the characters of those stories. As an architect I am aware that the built environment in different culture and climatic context will adhere to the characteristics of that specific context. However, I also acknowledge the common character of biological human beings particularly children which are independent of the culture and context. Children differ more between different developmental stages that different countries in their preferences and characteristics. Therefore, exploring that space where all children are same independent of their background is fascinating.
I also liked how Katie presented her exploration of that universal language of illustration by four different stories from different parts of the world- the Arabians nights, Grimm brothers, Icarus from Greek mythology and a story she heard from her grandma in her childhood. She also considered different age group of the visitors, keeping children in mind as audience she highlighted some of the illustrations using bright colours in mirrors and different other materials.
Katie is a brilliant illustrator and I hope soon she will illustrate children's books which I would love to read and see. And if at any point of my life I can write a book for children (no harm to dream big, it doesn't cost money, right?) I will love to have Katie as the illustrator (I hope we will have a published to pay for that :-) ).
If you missed the opening, don't be disheartened. The exhibition will continue till 16th September 2016.
Some pictures from the exhibition-
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Thank you for this report Matluba! It is great to read your thoughts about the exhibition and I am happy that you and Rana enjoyed it. Your ideas on the built environment in cultural and climatic context are really interesting to me! I aim to create images that are ambiguous enough to allow readers' individual ideas to be projected on to them. I hope this leaves more room for the imagination to flourish when interacting with the narrative! See you soon!
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