The intimacy within small and hidden places.

(Possible title of thesis)

 

I'm interested in spaces that exist within in our world, that are small worlds in themselves. They exist in the small corners of our houses, inside draws, books and matchboxes. They are under rocks, crocks of trees, in the envelope when your letter arrives or it could be the star pattern the seed made when you cut an apple in half. It is something that is hidden and fills you with wonder. It's another world within our world, and they can exist simultaneously. One can be an escape from the other. They are tiny, peaceful places, just like finding a quiet corner in an otherwise busy mind.

I would like to explore the relationship between people and these spaces.

 Through out my own childhood these spaces have fascinated me… I would seek them out. The relationship between me and these spaces and the wonder they filled me with was private and beautiful. This concept is a reoccurring theme throughout children’s books and other literature. Think Alice and wonderland and the tiny door to the garden, Roahl Dahl’s ‘Minpins’, or ‘The Indian in the cupboard’. I’m interested in the spaces themselves, but also their role in literature, partially children’s literature. In the long term, I hope my research to influence and inform an illustrated children’s book, the theme being hidden small spaces and a characters interactions with it.

Something else that is a related topic to my research, is a Childs belief in magic... From a psychological perspective, and the “fantastical” part of there brain, that is essential to their development.

 Ideas of spaces

With-in a draw (my mothers draw)

With-in Babushka dolls (my mothers)

With-in a book

With-in a letter

With-in a nest

With-in a beard

With-in a cut apple (the star pattern that is hidden inside)

Under Rocks (and the tiny animals that live there. they always crawl away when you lift up the rock, as if you just crashed a secret party)

Moss (a tiny island of grass)

 

Infinite spaces

Put two mirrors together, and look at the space that is created. The reflections never end. Note also The Bjork film clip ‘Joga’, and the concept of infinite landscapes, landscapes that exist within landscapes etc. Babushka dolls also invoke the idea of a infinite space, something the open and opens and open, getting smaller and smaller.

 

Book references

Summer book by Tove Janssen (the magic forest)

Alice in Wonderland (the garden)

In a dark dark house by unknown

The man

The Minpins

The Indian in the cupboard