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My body sculpture practical schema research

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My body sculpture practical schema research

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Some of the materials used in my body sculpture

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Some of the materials used in my body sculpture

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The use of assemblage as an approach to making art goes back to Pablo Picasso's cubist constructions, the three dimensional works he began to make from 1912. An early example is his Still Life 1914 which is made from scraps of wood and a length of tablecloth fringing, glued together and painted. Picasso continued to use assemblage intermittently throughout his career.

In 1918 dada artist Kurt Schwitters began to use scavenged scrap materials to create collages and assemblages - he called this technique ' merz'. Assemblage also became the basis for many surrealist objects. Inspired by psychologist Sigmund Freud's writings about the unconscious and dreams, surrealist artists often combined unlikely combinations of found objects to create surprising and unsettling sculptures.

Take an object / Do something to it / Do something else to it. [Repeat.]
(Jasper Johns, sketchbook note, 1964)

In the 1950s and 1960s assemblage became widely used. Artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg adopted an apparently anti-aesthetic approach to making art. They used scrappy materials and found objects alongside messily applied paint to create expressionist reliefs and sculptures, earning them the name neo-dada. Artists of the Italian arte povera movement, such as Mario Merz, made artworks using an assemblage of throwaway natural and everyday materials including, soil, rags and twigs. Their aim was to challenge and disrupt the values of the commercialised contemporary gallery system.

As a technique assemblage continues to be extensively used, for example in sculptures of YBA artists such as Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst and Jake and Dinos Chapman. Many contemporary artists, such as Tomoko Takahashi, Christina Mackie and Mike Nelson, create large-scale installations from assembled, scavenged materials and found objects.

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Tate glossary definition for assemblage: Art made by assembling disparate elements often scavenged by the artist, sometimes bought specially

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A suite of small sculptures lie upon offcuts of aging, discoloured foam. Each work is cast in breakable glass, is slightly spongy to touch and contains an array of found objects: sandwich bags, fake nails, lace gloves, earplugs, artificial flowers, plastic beads and a small toy panda bear. The floor-based installation is swan plain, 2015, by Sydney-based Marian Tubbs, one of five Australian artists (along with Tony Garifalakis, Nathan Gray, Helen Johnson and Justene Williams) included in Pleasure & Reality.

The exhibition's title was inspired by a key line of investigation in Tubbs's practice related to the idea that ordinary objects and images can, when repurposed, become unexpected and enticing. Artists in the exhibition combine natural and 'fake' imagery, as well as familiar and found materials, in their work to call into question what is valued by the viewer and why. Tubbs's Under striates (false semblance), 2015, a length of digitally printed silk, brings together images sourced from the internet, computer-generated text, photographs taken on her iPhone and digitally painted compositions into a fluid form that poetically evokes the immateriality of online data flows.

Similarly, Melbourne artist Helen Johnson also draws on the language of the online realm and adopts a non-hierarchical approach to her source material; likening her recent painting Watching a romcom after yoga, 2015, to a Tumblr or Instagram feed where 'the logic of the images is not connected to narrative or sequence'Helen Johnson, interview with Jane Devery, 4 Sep. 2015. Together with its companion paintings Passing through as a bee visiting flowers, 2015, Tripper, 2015, and the comparatively flat and more tightly executed Island (Gale), 2013, these works reflect Johnson's constantly evolving painterly vernacular. By adopting an aesthetic that freely moves between figuration and abstraction Johnson's work challenges assumptions that painting accurately or neutrally represents its subject. She says:

Painting is an interesting vehicle for me because it is loaded, neurotic, problematised, a market force, scattered, essentialised and recomplexified, loathed, able to operate simultaneously within and beyond itself, able to be beautiful and horrible at the same time. Helen Jonhson, artist statement for Pleasure & Reality.

Painting is employed to different effect - to question the authority and power of political, social, religious and artistic institutions - in the works of Melbourne artist Tony Garifalakis. Bloodline, 2014, is a suite of twelve portraits of female members of Europe's royal families lifted from publications found by the artist in opportunity shops. Garifalakis defaces his subjects by spraying and painting layers of dripping black enamel over their faces in a way that recalls graffiti and its use as a tool to convey messages of dissent. The association is strengthened by the works' installation on a mock concrete wall, again recalling the aesthetics of the street and de-contextualising the regal sitters' stature. The seriality of the portraits and erasure of each individual's features denies the subjects of their identity and selfhood, rendering them as an indistinguishable alien mob. Only their eyes and indicators of wealth - tiaras, crowns and glistening jewels - remain.

Interactions between ordinary people and everyday objects are the focus of Nathan Gray's performative video installations. The Melbourne artist typically works with self-imposed rules and limitations, often utilising what is immediately available to create his work. Species of spaces, 2014, is a five-channel video installation featuring a series of actions performed on Cockatoo Island on Sydney Harbour. Nails, chains and pipes drop against concrete and tiles; a series of switches and levers are flicked on and off; a balloon is dragged through industrial machinery until it bursts. Together the improvised actions create a form of industrial music and percussive mapping of the island and its distinctive architectural spaces. A simple choreography is also enacted in Gray's recent work Sharing concurrent time (Four improvisations), 2015, in which he performs a series of simple gestures that unfold across four screens. In this work, objects are removed completely and it becomes, according to the artist, 'a performance with no content'.Nathan Gray, interview with Serena Bentley, 15 Sep. 2015. Instead, Gray generates a series of expanding and contracting movements of varying intensity that pass from screen to screen.

Improvisation is also central to the work of Justene Williams, who employs found materials and quickly fabricated objects in performative video installations. Recalling absurdist theatre and the early twentieth-century avant-garde practices of Dada and Constructivism, Williams's elaborate sets and costumes are activated through performances which are then re-presented as video installations alongside props and remnants from her choreographies. For Pleasure & Reality, Williams builds on a recent body of work that draws on the traditions and aesthetics of Japanese Noh theatre. Accordingly, the gallery space is transformed into a stage set where evidence of previous performances play back on a series of monitors. Classical Noh theatre relies on a reductive set in which props are fabricated quickly, often within an hour, and dismantled after the performance. Williams's installation in Pleasure & Reality incorporates a version of the Dojoji bell, a key Noh prop, created in cane. Lowering the bell over an actor symbolises a moment of transformation, and this state is further emphasised by Williams's title for the installation, No mind, which refers to the condition of Kokoro ('heart', 'mind', or both; nomind) - the desirable mental state in which an actor can achieve absolute transportation.

The potential for material, semantic and spatial transformation is a unifying concept in Pleasure & Reality. We see it in Williams's Dojoji bell, in the anarchic distortions of Garifalakis's portraits of European royal families and in the mutable aesthetic of Johnson's painterly investigations. It underlies the DIY performative, process-based videos by Gray and the ways images and objects are brought together and manipulated in Tubbs's installations. As materials and images take on altered significance in each of these artists' works, we begin to see things differently.
Notes

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A suite of small sculptures lie upon offcuts of aging, discoloured foam. Each work is cast in breakable glass, is slightly spongy to touch and contains an array of found objects: sandwich bags, fake nails, lace gloves, earplugs, artificial flowers, plastic beads and a small toy panda bear.

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Justene Williams - performance, body sculpture and installation

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Justene Williams - performance, body sculpture and installation

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About Justene Williams

Justene Williams and has been a practising artist for over 20 years. She is well-known for her large scale live works, video performances, installations and sculptures. Williams' performance installations celebrate the avant-garde dream of the 'total artwork', while deconstructing it with the female body - domesticating and situating it in the reality and absurdity of now.

Williams has exhibited in local and international galleries and institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Kunstlerhaus, Vienna; St Paul St AUT Gallery, Auckland; Christchurch Art Gallery; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Kampnagel Hamburg; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; La Centrale Powerhouse, Quebec; Shanthi Road Gallery, Bangalore; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; and the Gallery of Modern Art | Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Williams has also participated in the 2002 and 2010 Adelaide Biennials.

Recent career highlights include The Curtain Breathed Deeply, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art; The 20th Sydney Biennale The future is here - it's just unevenly distributed; Dancing Umbrellas, Heide Museum, Melbourne; 2015 Performa 15 Biennale - Australian Pavilions Without Walls, New York; Pleasure and Reality, National Gallery of Victoria; No Mind, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney; The Curtain Breathed Deeply, Monash Museum of Art, Melbourne; Right Here Right Now, Penrith Regional Gallery and Lewers Bequest; Disco Dome, Sydney Festival 2015; and VIDEO FOREVER 19: Video Birds, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris.

Justene Williams is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery Sydney

Marian Abboud

Seth Birchall

Rainbow Chan

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Justene Williams and has been a practising artist for over 20 years. She is well-known for her large scale live works, video performances, installations and sculptures. Williams' performance installations celebrate the avant-garde dream of the 'total artwork', while deconstructing it with the female body - domesticating and situating it in the reality and absurdity of now.

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Louise Paramour - Everyday materials and installation art

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Louise Paramour - Everyday materials and installation art

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A Bunch of Flowers

A Bunch of Flowers showcased three distinct groups of works: the first of many plastic assemblage Jam Session sculptures; three large bill-board scale Classic Shazzy car/girl collages and several large abstract collage works. Catalogue text by Chris McAuliffe:

Sculpture used to be about removing the bits that weren't sculpture. The everyday plastic items that Paramor gathers from Op shops and dumpsters don't have sculptures hidden within them. They become sculptures when colours jar or harmonise, when internal volume and external projection are mated effectively, when humble utility gives way to structure and monument.
Louise Paramor shows that you can put a square peg into a round hole. But it's not simply a matter of brute force. Mashing found objects together at random doesn't make for sculpture. It's more a case of finding objects that don't know that they're sculptures and convincing them to be more ambitious.

Only then do the subtle echoes of earlier aesthetic debates become audible. Are these assemblages art because they render the functional non-functional? As Malevich suggested, a vase becomes art when you stop putting flowers in it. Or are they art because they so cleverly sidestep the scholastic debates about colour and sculpture? Minimalists and formalists alike fretted on the problem of colour applied to sculpture. Paramor simply uses plastics whose colour is embedded within the very material during the manufacturing process.

Intriguing reflections for an art historian, should he find a quiet moment. But in the studio, it's clear that what makes these assemblages art is the element of improvisation and play that propels them. Making involves matching disparate items through a process of trial and error, of playing with the pieces until they speak effectively with each other. Then they achieve a kind of classical disinterestedness; they are purposefully without purpose.

Paramor's large painted paper collages, which enlarge images from calendars, show a different kind of play. The process of translating an image into blocks of colour, then pasting together a simplified, paint-by-numbers version of it, reminds me of school craft projects and TV art programs for kids. The collages aren't exercises in nostalgia, however. While the psychedelic Photoshop flourishes of the originals show how infinitely manipulable an image is, Paramor's hand-made reiterations insist on the fundamental formal structure of the image. Like her three-dimensional constructions, these paper assemblages are a plea for architecture as a primary characteristic of the art work.

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A Bunch of Flowers A Bunch of Flowers showcased three distinct groups of works: the first of many plastic assemblage Jam Session sculptures; three large bill-board scale Classic Shazzy car/girl collages and several large abstract collage works. Catalogue text by Chris McAuliffe: Sculpture used to be about removing the bits that weren't sculpture.

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Official website: http://www.rebecca-horn.de

Since the beginning of the 1970s, Rebecca Horn has been creating an oeuvre which constitutes an ever-growing flow of performances, films, sculptures, spatial installations, drawings and photographs. The essence of their imagery comes out of the tremendous precision of the physical and technical functionality she uses to stage her works each time within a particular space.

In the first performances, the body-extensions, she explores the equilibrium between body and space. In later works she replaces the human body with kinetic sculptures which take on their own life. Her new works define and cut through spaces with reflections of mirrors, light and music.

The unicorn was a medieval symbol for purity, chastity and innocence. This work was designed for a performance by a friend of the artist. Horn wrote: 'the performance took place in early morning - still damp, intensely bright - the sun more challenging than any audience... her consciousness electrically impassioned; nothing could stop her trance-like journey: in competition with every tree and cloud in sight...and the blossoming wheat caressing her hips'. This account emphasises both graceful movement and the element of self-exposure that is often found in Horn's work.

White Body Fan 1972 Mechanical Body Fan, 1973‑4
Horn's machine evokes medical apparatus, though its function remains unclear. Horn says of this piece, 'the performer is tied up on top of a glass container (more an aquarium), tubes surrounding his body. Blood pumps, slowly, circulated through the glass container through the plastic tubes; enclosing his body like a pulsing garment of veins [it] forces the evolution of the motionless person into being an extension of the mechanism itself'.
Overflowing Blood Machine, 1970 Overflowing Blood Machine, 1970 Arm Extensions 1968
Her work is bound together by a consistency in logic; each new work appears to develop stringently from the preceding one. Elements may be readdressed, yet appear in totally different, divergent contexts.
Finger Gloves, 1972
Ideas of touch and sensory awareness are explored in this work. Horn has described how wearing these gloves altered her relationship with her surroundings, so that distant objects came within her reach: 'the finger gloves are light. I can move them without any effort. Feel, touch, grasp anything, but keeping a certain distance from the objects. The lever-action of the lengthened fingers intensifies the various sense-data of the hand; ...I feel me touching, I see me grasping, I control the distance between me and the objects.' Implicit in the work is the idea that touching makes possible an intimacy between our own body and those of others.
Finger Gloves, 1972 Pencil Mask, 1972
Strapped around the face, this mask transforms the wearer's head into an instrument for drawing. Horn has described wearing it: 'All pencils are about two inches long and produce the profile of my face in three dimensions...I move my body rhythmically from left to right in front of a white wall. The pencils make marks on the wall the image of which corresponds to the rhythm of my movements.' The spike-like pencils make this one of Horn's more threatening works. However, it is linked to the feather masks, as feather quills were also once used for writing.
Pencil Mask, 1972
Horn has described how this mask alters her interaction with others: 'With the feathers I caress the face of a person standing close to me. The intimate space between us is filled with tactile tension. My sight is obstructed by the feathers. I can only see the face of the other when I turn my head looking with one eye like a bird.' Through her mimicry of bird movements, Horn suggests the use of plumage as a device for communication and sexual display.
Cockfeather Mask, 1973 Cockatoo Mask 1973
Horn described using this mask in a performance exploring ideas of sexual availability and intimacy: 'My face is covered by two intertwined, closed feather wings. The person standing before me touches the feathers delicately, then separates and opens the wings. The spread wings stretch like long bird wings, and softly enclose around [both] our heads. The feather-enclosure isolates our heads from the surrounding environment, and forces us to remain intimately alone, together.' The use of the mask is deliberately ambiguous and the performance implies a tension between tenderness and aggression.
Keeping Those Legs from Touching Each Other, 1974‑5 The Feathered Prison Fan, 1978
Following the physical experience of her performances with body extensions, masks and feather objects of the 1970s came the first kinetic sculptures featured in her films such as The Feathered Prison Fan in Der Eintänzer (1978), or The Peacock Machine in La Ferdinanda (1981).

The objects used and specially made for her installations such as violins, suitcases, batons, ladders, pianos, feather fans, metronomes, small metal hammers, black water basins, spiral drawing machines and huge funnels together build the elements for kinetic sculptures that are liberated from their defined materiality and continuously transposed into ever-changing metaphors touching on mythical, historical, literary and spiritual imagery.

In the 1980s and 1990s huge installations were created out of and dedicated to places charged with political and historical importance. With her kinetic sculptures, the artist releases and rediverts the weight of the past on these physical spaces: as for example in Concert in Reverse (1997) in Münster, where an old municipal tower turns out to be an execution site for the Third Reich: or in Vienna, with the Tower of the Nameless (1994), where she sets a monument to the refugees from Balkan states in the form of a tower with mechanically playing violins. In Weimar, Europe's city of culture 1999, the Concert for Buchenwald was composed on the premises of a former tram depot. The artist has layered 40 metre long walls of ashes behind glass, as archives of petrifaction. In Mirror of the Night (1998), at a derelict synagogue in Cologne, she uses the energy of writing, textured to counter historical amnesia.
Concert for Anarchy, 1990
A grand piano is suspended upside down from the ceiling by heavy wires attached to its legs. It hangs solidly yet precariously in mid-air, out of reach of a performer, high above the gallery floor.

A mechanism within the piano is timed to go off every two to three minutes, thrusting the keys out of the keyboard in a cacophonous shudder. The keys, ordinarily the point of tactile contact with the instrument, fan disarmingly out into space. At the same time, the piano's lid falls open to reveal the instrument's harp-like interior, the strings reverberating at random. This unexpected, violent act is followed between one and two minutes later by a retraction as the lid closes and the keys slide back into place, tunelessly creaking as they go. Over time, the piano repeats the cycle. A mounting tension to the moment of release is followed by a slow retreat to stasis as the piano closes itself up like a snail withdrawing into its shell.

Concert for Anarchy is one of a series of mechanised sculptures Horn began making in the late 1970s. Dancing tables, a suitcase trying in vain to climb a pole, startled hammers pecking against their reflections: machines that mimic the mechanisms of desire, they betray the longings beneath the surface of everyday things. Often erotically charged, these works express anthropomorphic anxiety and sensuality.

To work with energy in this way can also mean to set the turbulence of passion as a magnetic flow into the space as we see in High Moon (1991) in New York or in El Rio de la Luna (1992) in Barcelona.
Lenny Silver's Dream, 1990 Dreaming Stones, 2006

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Rebecca Horn: Body Art, Performance & Installations

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Official website: http://www.rebecca-horn.de Since the beginning of the 1970s, Rebecca Horn has been creating an oeuvre which constitutes an ever-growing flow of performances, films, sculptures, spatial installations, drawings and photographs. The essence of their imagery comes out of the tremendous precision of the physical and technical functionality she uses to stage her works each time within a particular space.

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Australians Who Leave House Only To Take Out Trash Have Started Dressing In Costumes To Do it

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If you are following the rules of the COVID-19 quarantine responsibly, you probably only leave your house when you really have to. Quickly, people began to realize that the only time they can enjoy a little bit of fresh air guilt-free is when they are taking out the trash.

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In pictures: children around the world display their lockdown art

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Confined to their homes by the COVID-19 pandemic, children are drawing and painting the things that they miss - as well as the things that scare them.

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There might not be any sport or cinemas at the moment but nature has your entertainment sorted.

The Lyrid meteor shower is on its way and the Bureau of Meteorology said meteors will be visible this week.

The peak of the meteor shower is expected to be April 22 to 23.

During its peak, you can expect to see more than 20 meteors per hour, with each streak visible for several seconds.

The good news is that you should be able to view it without any special equipment, just cast your eyes directly to the north, but low on the horizon, towards the constellation Lyra.

If the sky is clear then find a dark spot outside, turn your outside lights off and get comfortable. The best viewing times for Australia are after midnight.

Predictions are that most days this week will be cloudy, but if we're lucky they might clear up enough to let us witness the phenomenon.

Party Pack + Wrap owners Donna and Andrew Jefferies showed their support for essential workers by putting a huge 'thank you' balloon display in their front window in Hardinge St, Deniliquin.

The balloons are blue as a part of the 'Let's Colour Deni Blue' initiative launched by the the Deni Mental Health Awareness Group, Deniliquin Local Health Advisory Committee and Deniliquin Health Action Group.

The initiative encourages locals to decorate their front fence, post box, place of business or anywhere else with something blue to let essential workers know the community supports them, values them and that they are grateful for the work they are doing.

Alternatively, people have been colouring their social media pages blue by using a blue ribbon profile pictures or 'Colour Deni Blue' profile picture frame to show their support.

Deniliquin and district residents have been spotted participating in a Coronavirus pandemic campaign, called the Bin Isolation Outing.

The group encourages people to show off their creative outfits for their weekly trip to the kerbside to put the bin out.

There has been everything from wedding dresses to Disney costumes, pyjamas and even just normal 'dressy' clothing.

The social media campaign has already amassed more than 961,600 followers.

While this was started as a Facebook campaign, we want to see and share your photos too.

Send them to [email protected] , or in a message to our Facebook page - www.facebook.com/DeniliquinPT.
Police answer your questions
We asked you to send us your questions about traffic laws, and the Deniliquin police have answered them.
Question 1: What is the correct procedure for going around a car in a single lane when they are waiting to turn into a driveway or business.
In relation to a vehicle waiting to turn into a driveway or business, you can go around them providing there is nothing coming in the other direction.
Make sure it is safe the same as you would to overtake. Don't forget to indicate.
Question 2: What if there are double lines?
If there are double lines, again, make sure it is safe and go around. Legislation provides an exemption to cross double unbroken lines in certain circumstances. One of those is to manoeuvre around an obstruction on the road provided it is necessary and safe to do so.

This is part of a local initiative to educate drivers.

Email your questions to [email protected] and watch for the answer in the Pastoral Times.

Make a Day

Do you want to win a balloon bouquet?

Take part in our 'Make a Day' initiative to help the community make a birthday, anniversary or other milestone special for someone they might not get a chance to see during Coronavirus restrictions.

Each person who takes a 'Make a Day' notice will go in the running for the weekly draw for a balloon bouquet, which will be delivered to your home by Party Pack + Wrap.

To arrange your special message, contact our Local Classies department on 1300 660 886 or email [email protected] .

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Talkback: Meteors will be visible, a big blue thank you, bin isolation outing and more - Deniliquin Pastoral Times

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There might not be any sport or cinemas at the moment but nature has your entertainment sorted. The Lyrid meteor shower is on its way and the Bureau of Meteorology said meteors will be visible this week. The peak of the meteor shower is expected to be April 22 to 23.

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An aged care engagement specialist is calling on the sector to reconnect with their performers and artists or recruit others to deliver window therapy to aged care residents, writes Natasha Egan.
Prior to the COVID-19 visitor precautions, creative engagement specialist Maurie Voisey-Barlin made around 60 scheduled one-on-one visits and 20 spontaneous interactions a week with aged care residents at five services in the Hunter region of New South Wales.

"Under the current visitor restrictions, creatives like me who work therapeutically, saw their wellbeing programs cancelled," Mr Voisey-Barlin tells Australian Ageing Agenda.

Maurie Voisey-Barlin

However, Mr Voisey-Barlin has developed a way to continue creatively engaging and connecting with residents from outside the facility.

"In response to the COVID-19 precautions, I have adapted my approach and now interact with my elders at their room windows or at the large windows in common areas for playful interactions," he says.

"I've been using the fat chalk style whiteboard textas to draw comic portraits of them on the window or write messages, writing backwards of course."

Mr Voisey-Barlin also plays Tic Tac Toe, charades and guessing games with residents through the window.

'Something to look forward to'

Meaghan Feringa, care supervisor at residential care facility Merton Living, Denman, says the approach evokes playfulness and creativity, which are hard to find for residents isolated from the people they care about.

"In such uncertain times Window Therapy has provided consistency, a familiar face, an emotional connection of a friend and something to look forward to for our consumers, many of whom are craving the outside world," she says.

"This approach is a creative way of bringing it as close to home as safely as possible."

And Mr Voisey-Barlin wants aged care facilities around the country to help do the same for their residents.

"My aim is for individual residential services to reconnect with artists they were working with prior to the visitor restrictions and try this out," Mr Voisey-Barlin says.

Or they can try sourcing other performers, artists and creatives from the arts health sector, he says.

"It is a specialist type of role but in the times of COVID-19, many performers who have good engagement skills and a deep curiosity for people could give this a go," he says.

Creating opportunities for interaction

Maurie Voisey-Barlin draws comic portraits of residents as part of his window therapy program

Mr Voisey-Barlin says it is important to choose an artist, creative, performer or entertainer who creates opportunities for interaction rather than perform at the residents.

"They need to be able to engage, be curious, a touch provocative but able to read cues and moderate. They need empathy, insight and a cheeky streak a mile wide."

Mr Voisey-Barlin says the role requires thinking physically because residents cannot always hear from the other side of the window.

Unless you call them on a phone, which he has done.

Another useful approach is to cause trouble and pretend to try to get inside, says Mr Voisey-Barlin.

"Two weeks ago, in a surprise attack at Merton Living Denman, the elders were given foam bullets and Nerf guns by the activity officer to use me as target practice as they shot at me.

"It was a delightful scene."

He says the activities or lifestyle officer who can encourage the elders to join in is another crucial ingredient for success.

"They are on the other side of the window with the elders and help the interactions from inside, making it fun, perhaps naughty, and help focus the activity, support those with physical or cognitive barriers or add to the cheeky playful responses."

Whiddon rolls out window therapy program

Mr Voisey-Barlin is delivering window therapy sessions to residents at several facilities four days a week.

Whiddon is another aged care provider who has already partnered with him on the new program.

The provider is rolling it the program to its three homes in the Hunter region after trialling it at Whiddon Largs, says Karn Nelson, Whiddon executive general manager.

Maurie Voisey-Barlin with Whiddon residents

"Our residents have responded well to this new approach and are delighted that they can still laugh along with Maurie, and enjoy the benefits of the sessions - albeit it through the window."

Mr Voisey-Barlin visited Whiddon weekly prior to the restrictions to provide a much-loved creative engagement and play program for residents.

Ms Nelson says they were worried how residents would respond to him being unable to attend and so were delighted to work with him on the adaptation.

"We are currently extending the sessions to our care homes in Redhead and Belmont, which is very exciting for our residents and employees in these homes," she says.

Like many aged care providers, Ms Nelson says Whiddon is limiting visitors to its homes to help protect residents and employees from COVID-19.

"We understand that this is a difficult time for everyone, and know how important it is right now as an aged care provider, that we find creative and innovative ways to help ensure our residents continue to stay happy, connected and well."

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Facilities encouraged to engage artists for window therapy - Australian Ageing Agenda

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An aged care engagement specialist is calling on the sector to reconnect with their performers and artists or recruit others to deliver window therapy to aged care residents, writes Natasha Egan. Prior to the COVID-19 visitor precautions, creative engagement specialist Maurie Voisey-Barlin made around 60 scheduled one-on-one visits and 20 spontaneous interactions a week with aged care residents at five services in the Hunter region of New South Wales.

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Drawings of rainbows have started appearing in the windows of houses across the country.

Thousands of children are being encouraged to make the pictures to 'spread hope' amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Students across the country are stuck at home after the government ordered the closure of all schools in the UK last week in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus.

'Make people smile'

Kayleigh Page, a mum of two from Gosforth in Newcastle, said her children were "adding to our window something bright and colourful everyday of isolation."

In a post on Twitter, Kayleigh told her followers that her children had been feeling a little sad and anxious, and so decided to make bright and colourful art to put on their front window "to make people smile".

The 25 year old said looking after her daughter, aged seven, and her son, aged four, was a challenge when the schools closed on Friday.

"The kids found it very odd at first," Kayleigh said "and were quite down because it is so confusing not having a routine or seeing friends.

"They find it hard to sit still, so the first day was hard," she added.

'Get creative'

But when Kayleigh had the idea of making rainbows, the children felt better. The designs have proven so popular that family friends have started making them too.

Kayleigh says she is trying to get as many parents as possible to do the same. " I would definitely encourage others to get creative like this with their children.

"Making them made the kids think about all the people they could make smile as they went past our house. It also kept their minds occupied."

Coronavirus: the facts

What is coronavirus?COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that can affect lungs and airways. It is caused by a virus called coronavirus.

What caused coronavirus?The outbreak started in Wuhan in China in December 2019 and it is thought that the virus, like others of its kind, has come from animals.

How is it spread?As this is such a new illness, experts still aren't sure how it is spread. But, similar viruses are spread in cough droplets. Therefore, covering your nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing, and disposing of used tissues straight away is advised. Viruses like coronavirus cannot live outside the body for very long.

What are the symptoms?The NHS states that the symptoms are: a dry cough, high temperature and shortness of breath - but these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness. Look out for flu-like symptoms, such as aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose and a sore throat. It's important to remember that some people may become infected but won't develop any symptoms or feel unwell.

What precautions can be taken?Washing your hands with soap and water thoroughly. The NHS also advises to cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze; put used tissues in the bin immediately and try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell. Also avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth unless your hands are clean.

Government adviceAs of Monday 16 March the government advised that everyone should be observing social distancing - avoiding unnecessary travel and working from home where possible. Anyone with a cough or cold symptoms now needs to self-isolate with their entire household for 14 days.

The government has now instructed bars, restaurants and theatres to close and will review on a 'month to month' basis. Schools closed from Friday 20 March for the foreseeable future, and exams have been cancelled.

The over 70s or anyone who is vulnerable or living with an underlying illness are being asked to be extra careful and stay at home to self-isolate. People with serious underlying health conditions will be contacted and strongly advised to undertake "shielding" for 12 weeks.For more information on government advice, please check their website.

Should I avoid public places?The advice now is to avoid public places and any non-essential travel. Travel abroad is also being advised against for the next 30 days at least, and many European countries have closed their borders.

What should I do if I feel unwell?Don't go to your GP but instead call NHS 111 or look online at the coronavirus service that can tell you if you need medical help and what to do next.

When to call NHS 111NHS 111 should be used if you feel unwell with coronavirus symptoms, have been in a country with a high risk of coronavirus in the last 14 days or if you have been in close contact with someone with the virus.

Sources: World Health Organisation and NHS

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This is why people are putting rainbows in their windows during the coronavirus pandemic

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Drawings of rainbows have started appearing in the windows of houses across the country. Thousands of children are being encouraged to make the pictures to 'spread hope' amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Students across the country are stuck at home after the government ordered the closure of all schools in the UK last week in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus.

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Coronavirus means we're getting fewer hugs, something we are hardwired to crave

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Catherine Newton loves hugs so much she captures them by clutching blobs of 900-degree Celsius molten glass to her chest. Wearing a firefighting suit and holding a heatproof blanket, the Canberra artist lies down and wraps her arms around a hot glass vessel. As the glass cools, it maintains the shape of her hug.

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Production Club designs drink- and vape-friendly PPE suit for clubbing during a pandemic

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Creative studio Production Club has designed a personal protective suit for clubbing in the time of coronavirus, which includes features for phone integration and beverage and vape consumption.

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Here are some of the most fun and creative Coronavirus things from the internet including Coronavirus masks, Coronavirus graffiti and more.

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New York's Joe Doucet has designed a less "uncomfortable and awkward" face shield to protect against coronavirus that could be worn like a pair of sunglasses.

Doucet's conceptual design comprises a curved, see-through guard that fronts a dark sunglass lenses and arms. The minimal shield would be put on like a pair of glasses.

The designer developed the face shield in response to the question: "how do we encourage mass adoption of an unwanted necessity?". He hopes this version could be a more attractive option of personal protective equipment (PPE) for non-medical users.

"Covid-19 is understandably going to have a longterm effect on how we re-engage with daily activities and the wider world," said Doucet.

"Until a vaccination is confirmed to be effective and rolled out through a global, mass immunisation programme, we all will have to integrate forms of social distancing and PPE into our daily routines."

Face shields are an effective way to protect the eyes, nose and mouth from Covid-19 infection. They are typically used in conjunction with masks and limited to frontline medical workers who are most at risk of infection. But they could become more commonly worn by the general public as outbreaks continue.

In a recent interview with Dezeen, US physician and epidemiologist Michael Edmond said the public should wear a shield whenever they leave home.

Doucet believes, however, that current designs aren't comfortable enough to encourage people to wear them.

"Studies have shown that face shields or visors are much more effective than surgical style face masks, but in their current, basic format they are uncomfortable and awkward," he added.

"Every person should have a face shield" says epidemiologist Michael Edmond

"It is hoped that improving the basic face shield design will encourage far greater uptake of its usage and help everyone adjust to the 'new normal' that awaits us."

The designer has envisioned the shield in visuals he created with 3D design tools - a new skill he acquired in lockdown. "I modeled these in Fusion 360 and rendered in Blender," he continued. "No photoshoots happening these days."

He create the renderings to look like a fashion shoot with models wearing the devices in empty streets..

Doucet, who is currently searching for a brand or manufacturing partner to produce the shield, imagines that the entire device would be made out of polycarbonate and manufactured in the same way as typical sunglasses.

A number of architects and designers have re-focused design skills to create PPE, as hospitals and medical workers face shortages amid the crisis.

Brands including Nike and Apple, architects including Foster + Partners and BIG and educational institutions including Cambridge University and MIT have all developed or adapted designs for face shields recently, utilising 3D printing, laser cutting and even origami

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Joe Doucet designs face shield to be a fashion accessory

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New York's Joe Doucet has designed a less "uncomfortable and awkward" face shield to protect against coronavirus that could be worn like a pair of sunglasses. Doucet's conceptual design comprises a curved, see-through guard that fronts a dark sunglass lenses and arms. The minimal shield would be put on like a pair of glasses.

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Our third artist,

, grew up in a military-housing complex in Beijing before moving to the U.S. in 2014. His photographs are autobiographical, if not diaristic, helping him to reclaim his lived experience as a queer member of the Chinese diaspora. In the series "Temporarily Censored Home" (2018-19), he covered the rooms of his childhood home from floor to ceiling with magazine editorials, family photos, and both self-made and found portraits of himself and other gay men. The rooms are unoccupied, but contain evidence of the colliding conservative and progressive lifestyles that once animated them (with the latter covering up the former). As much as his photographs depict a private disquietude, they also speak more broadly to the censoring of Asian identity in America and queer identity in Asia.

Unlike Ngô, Zhu, and Xu, who are all established artists that have exhibited worldwide, Damien Ding and Tinwai Wong are MFA students at the start of their careers. Ding is primarily a painter, whose alienated subjects oscillate between vulnerability and introspection. For example, in Last minute late night thoughts (2019), an ambiguous figure is shown alone, looking out into the distance in a heightened, almost uncomfortable moment of contemplation. A halo or shadow emanates from the crown of their head, leaving the impression that this person has found solemnity in their solitude. Meanwhile, in Wong's MAMA (2019-20), we hear a series of audio recordings featuring the artist repeating the word "mama." Over the course of the work, she's heard sobbing in a state of surrender, hardly able to catch her breath. Playing each of the recordings, the word "mama" starts to sound foreign, as if it has no allegiance to a specific language. Ding's and Wong's contributions stand out in the exhibition for their emotive and amorphous propositions, manifesting the psychological disorientation we experience in social isolation.

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Why COVID-19 Spurred Us to Create an Online Show Highlighting the Asian Experience in America

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Our third artist, , grew up in a military-housing complex in Beijing before moving to the U.S. in 2014. His photographs are autobiographical, if not diaristic, helping him to reclaim his lived experience as a queer member of the Chinese diaspora.