In our new workshop Where the Wild Animals Are! we show you how to create – with simple materials laying around at home, like cardboard boxes, egg cartons, paint, and straws – a wild fantasy animal.
Once again, the inspiration for this workshop comes from the exhibition … of bread, wine, cars, security and peace, where many artists use animal figures in their artworks, too: for Oliver Ressler it is a polar bear, HC Playner has two hyenas, and Alice Creischer even has four wild animals at once – a wolf, a hyena, a bear, and a jackal – that set off on a journey together.
In the video by Tuan Andrew Nguyen, on the other hand, you hear a dialogue between the spirits of two legendary animals: the last Javan rhinoceros, who lived in Vietnam, and the turtle Cų Rŭa. The two animals speak about how humans treat animals and lament the rampant destruction of the natural habitat for wild animals. They urge humans to take more care of the ecosystem in the future – an ecosystem is a community of living organisms like animals and plants, and this community is also important for us humans.
Besides the many endangered species, there are also animals that live in hiding and have yet to be discovered. Which unknown animal could be living around us, for instance, in a forest, in a stream, out in a meadow, or any other ecosystem you can imagine? How might this animal look like? We are really curious about the fantasy animals you dream up and what names you give them.
Watch our videos to see how you can build your own fantasy animal.
For our workshop Where the Wild Animals Are! you will need:
• cardboard boxes – they can be small or big boxes, such as cookie, tea, or medicine boxes, shoe boxes or egg cartons, or other kinds of packaging material
• toilet paper or kitchen rolls
• paints, e.g. acrylic or watercolor
• masking tape, glue, or a hot glue gun
• different brushes
• a small screwdriver or chestnut drill
• a butter knife
How to build your fantasy animal:
• Look around in your home for empty cardboard boxes in different sizes and try out which cardboard shapes work best as a body, head, legs, wings, or fins. Arrange the pieces of cardboard in the way your animal could look like once you are finished. But maybe you can just decide while putting it together as well.
• Now take a piece of masking tape, a glue stick, or a hot glue gun and stick the cardboard pieces together how you fancy.
• Next step: take a brush to paint your animal – think about where your animal lives, if it wants to be a rather colorful animal or if it prefers to lurk in hiding and therefore needs a color to camouflage into its surroundings.
• While the paint is drying, think about a name for your animal, where it lives, who its friends are, and if it perhaps has enemies.
We can’t wait to see the wild fantasy animals you discover! Send us a photo or maybe also a short story about your animal to vermittlung@kunsthallewien.at
… or post both on Instagram #spaceforkids #wodiewildentierewohnen #kunsthallewien #ofbread
… or post them on our Facebook group /KunsthalleWienKinderworkshops