09/07/2024
Colour Your Canal by Enfield based artists Cath Carver and Christina Kalinowski
The artists are inviting people to join them this Saturday to activate a path of colour along the canal towpath using chalks, chalk sprays and stencils to make a collaborative and evolving design along the waterways. Their project is based upon the connections between colour and place with the Lee Navigation/River Lea as the catalyst embedded in the heart of one of the largest regeneration projects in London. Working closely with pupils from Years 7-9 at the Aylward Academy in Edmonton, over the last few months they have been exploring, through a series of walks along the canal, conversations and practical workshops at Bloqs and at the school, what impacts colour has on thoughts and emotions, and what happens when colour is applied to the environments around us. The pupils to closely observed what’s around them locally by using the place diagram from the Project for Public Spaces to guide these conversations in terms of connections to nature, wellbeing, safety and belonging. Introductions to the work of other artists who use light installations, land art, murals and craft practices gave the pupils insight into the huge potential impacts of colour and artwork within urban and natural environments, furthering discussions, skills and opportunities to make their own art works in response. Pupils made sketches, three-dimensional models, collages, writing and experimented with different coloured lenses, kaleidoscopes and transparencies, placing and layering these over photographs of different areas of the canal.
These processes allowed the pupils to look at the transformative effects of colour before using their imaginations to design their own landscape interventions. Some of the highlights from the pupils’ ideas included a proposal for a sensory wall along the canal, a flower-shaped streetlight, gardens for pollinators and an egg-shaped structure with seating that would provide a safe space to read and to rest within the landscape. Text with thanks by .french .enfield
