When the BA first brought her friend's teapots home for perusal, Himself suggested that she needed to name them. The teapots themselves varied greatly in both style and interest; some were wonderfully quirky, others blandly utilitarian. Giving them a name and perhaps a few props, he suggested, would transform them from teapots into works of art. His first suggestion was naming them after cities.
The BA had planned to use flowers with the teapots and so there was the idea that the flowers might reflect the nature or culture of the city. An oriental teapot begged for some bamboo and a more 'Australiana' number called for gumleaves. The BA was interested in the idea but not entirely sure. On the way to school one morning we were talking about options and I had a light bulb moment.
"We could call the whole thing 'Creativi-TEA'!! I suggested.
We then spent the rest of the drive into school brainstorming nouns ending in 'ty'.
Tranquility
Comedy
Unity
Authenticity
We seemed to have a concept.
That night, as the BA finished off an assignment, I sat looking at teapots and coming up with titles. I then created a list of suggested props to supplement our 'names' and the following afternoon we went shopping.
Some of our ideas had to be modified to cater for what we could get in the Reject Shop. For example we had planned to use a dummy (paci) and baby hat for 'Maternity', but on discovering that dummies retail for around $12.00, we decided to look for other options!
On the night before the exhibition I set up mock displays on the dining room table and 'shot' them so I could recreate them the next day in at school. What did people do before digital photography? Oh yes, there was the Polaroid.
Anyway, here is a sample:
Tranquili-tea:
Vani-tea:
Monstrosi-tea:
Festivi-tea:
And the one no-one 'got': Inscrutabili-tea
(cf: The Inscrutable Oriental)
I had a lot of fun doing this, finding props around the house and matching the teapots to the task. Tomorrow I'll show you the finished product.
1 comment:
Oh that WAS a great inspiration! Really pulled it together - fantastic!
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