30 March 2009

Exhibition in the IPC Library: Mosaics by Students

A Way to Develop Creativity as well as Language Ability

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Chris Muckersie and Moira Blake.

Saki Yamada (in the middle) explaining her mosaic picture "My Lovely Dog"

Kanami Muramatsu answering questions about her mosaic pot "Apple's Trip"

Takahiro Hara explaining his mosaic picture "Jaguar SS100"

On 24th March, six Diploma students from the elective class "New Zealand Art and Craft" held a Mosaics Exhibition at IPC Library to exhibit their achievements at the end of this summer term. It was a collection of 12 pieces consisting of flat mosaic pictures and mosaic pots as well as several mosaics made by their lecturer, Chris Muckersie.

In this class, each student was given the task to look for and choose 2 examples of mosaic art from websites. Once a student found them, she or he had to find out the background and history of the mosaic art and then present this information to the class. They also had to write a report about it. After that, they moved on to focus on the English vocabulary related to mosaic production and then make their own mosaics.

Saki Yamada (a 2006 student from Japan) created a mosaic pot entitled 'Peace' with Celtic patterns in mind. She used small sized tile pieces to get the effect that she wanted. "The smaller the pieces (used in the mosaic), the more difficult it is to make", she said. "It took a month for me to finish the pot. My hands hurt from cutting so many tiles but I am really satisfied with the result." Saki also made a mosaic picture 'My Lovely Dog'. The design showed the footprints of a dog and its owner side by side on a path, expressing her love of her dog at home in Japan.

Takahiro Hara (a 2005 student) expressed his love of racing cars in his mosaic picture 'Jaguar SS100'. "Based on the colours, each tile piece has different thickness. I wanted to create depth effect for the title part of the mosaic so I used the differences to achieve it."

Another unique creation could be seen at the exhibition. A mosaic pot "Apple's Trip" made by Kanami Muramatsu (a 2007 student). It featured a fantasy story of an apple that tries to hide from a rabbit by transforming itself into a mushroom monster and when the rabbit is gone at last, it turns back into an apple, its original self. "Making the mosaics trained me to concentrate. When I started, I had to focus on a story or an image in my mind. It wasn't easy to find tile pieces with the exact colours I wanted to use, so it was like doing a jigsaw puzzle, trying to match the colours and the shapes. Because I could not really know how my mosaics would turn out, it was a nice surprise to see the end results." Kanami also made 2 more flat mosaic projects. One, entitled "Magic Mirror," was made using black tinted cement as the base, and the other one was entitled "A Double-faced Dog", and portrayed a black dog and a white one side by side, facing in opposite directions.

The exhibition was only on for a few hours, but a steady stream of visitors kept the students busy talking about their work.

The students' creations on display in the Mosaic Exhibition

The students' creations on display in the Mosaic Exhibition

Saki explaining about the materials and tools used in creating mosaic art to a visitor

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