Adventures in Moominland: Review kl5w4n
1 day ago
AdvertisementsI have to start by saying this is the best exhibitions i’ve been to in a long time and not what I expected at all! I had just assumed it was going to be a guided tour of some of the artwork from the original books, but turns out it’s a completely immersive experience. I won’t give a blow by blow account as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t been yet.
Our expedition leader, Chloe, took as on a journey to find the moomins. The tour moves through several set pieces, interweaving both the imaginary land of Moomin Valley and real life places, like her studio, to chronologically reveal how the Moomins evolved from a frightening story Tove’s father told her, to the loveable hippo-shaped creatures she ended up writing about.
Each room shows a different part of Tove’s life and our tour guide (expedition leader) told us how Tove’s relationships, and historic events like the war, influenced the Moomin books – whilst creating our own story of travelling through the Finnish forests to find the Moomins. Original artwork is used throughout the tour to highlight key parts of the story, as well as some original animation and video footage.
Our tour was led by the brilliant Chloe, who clearly has a great enthusiasm for the topic and a talented storyteller. Certain parts of the exhibition are also narrated by Sandy Toksvig, who’s just the perfect choice for these stories.
It’s been a long time since I read the books, so you don’t need to be familiar with the stories to enjoy the exhibition, but awareness of the characters will help you enjoy it more.




Visiting information:

• It lasts 50 minutes in total – You must be on time as you can’t get in after it starts, you’ll see why once you’re on the tour
• Some of the sets are quite small, so one to think about if small spaces make you uncomfortable
• There’s no filming or photos allowed (hence why there aren’t any in the blog!)
• Recommend you book tickets in advance as was sold out on the original date we wanted to go
• You can find out more and buy tickets on the Southbank Centre website
• If you’re not familiar with the Southbank Centre, it’s just a five minute walk from Waterloo Station, the exhibition is on level 1

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Categories: London Lifestyle
Tags: finland, london, exhibition, moomins, southbank centre, exhibition review, adventures in moominland, tove jansson, muumi

Great fun was had this half term when we performed The Strawberry Thief.
Running the gauntlet of three 40 min shows a day singlehandedly taking on about 100 very excited people per show as they helped me escape the computer game that had trapped me inside.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/artists-residence-va/the-strawberry-thief-ipad-game

Since September 2016 I have been working with Jewish care – storymaking and improvisation for people living with dementia.
 
Storymaking -  taking a theme and creating a story with  ideas from the group. This hour-long session has afforded us many enjoyable and creative happenings.
We’ve gone sailing around the world on a boat revisiting our favourite places – dancing in California, going to an east end pub and having a knees up, enjoying a day out together at south end on sea, being taken to Hawaii with Elvis Presley!
 
These sessions involve activities, music and most importantly fun and creative interaction.
Please see a small clip from the last song at the end of one of the sessions.
Thank you Jewish care. Great working with you.
 
 
Me - Do you fancy coming to the moon today?
Participant - Yes how shall we get there?
Me - I don’t know do you have any ideas?
Participant - I think we should dance to the moon,
Me - Great idea
Me (to another participant) fancy coming to the moon today with us?
Participant - No thanks I like to keep my feet on the ground.

Celebration of life at Jewish Care
Meeting once a week with residents in the downstairs lounge. An hour-long session based around the concept of the T.V. series ‘This is Your life.’
Each week I would interview one of the residents about their lives.
These sessions created a lot of interaction and conversation. People realising that they lived a couple of roads from each other, went to the same school and the same pickled herring and cucumber store on the lane (Petticoat lane)
 
‘My mother lived in the lane and my mothers brother had a cucumber shop my mother was a piece worker doing cigar making. She would treat roll and produce.
 
On our days off we liked to go out for the day on the riverboat up to Westcliffe. Have lunch and take a ride around. Sometimes we took our own lunch, cheese, egg, allsorts we went with friends, and we were footloose and fancy-free.
I was the oldest of 7 children and we had a funfair at the end of our road.  – Your a bit nosy aren’t you!’

Julia - 106 years young!

This week there was a fun afternoon spent together watching a favourite film.
The residents had VIP tickets to come to the screening which took place in the Shimmer Curtain Lounge.
There was popcorn in the intermission served up by the Secret Usherette and we all had something to share about the film we watched together.

In the group sessions 'Edith' would always say "she couldn't do art". However she was always the first to start and the last to finish with the art activities. I decided to play to her strengths,using her jolly character and friendly nature i knew we could go places.I set up 1:1 sessions with 'Edith' so she could comfortably explore her fascination with art.

A tessellation of a flat surface is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles. By using tesselations I have created and developed an interactive, art based activity that engages older people and people with dementia.