Artists As Parents As Artists

Our drawing of a clay object made by our middle child.

A drawing made when our third child had just given up breast feeding.

Young children are kinesthetic learners. They think by moving. They learn by touching and pushing and hearing the sound things make when they’re dropped or knocked over.

Taking young children to a gallery can be a trial for all concerned. The very methods by which children learn about their surroundings are prohibited. The children are frustrated, the invigilators are tense, and the parents are trying hard to protect the artwork. The frustration can be redoubled with contemporary sculpture where part of the game is to use a given material in an unusual or deceptive fashion: Roger Hiorns’ car engines encrusted with copper sulphate, Katherina Grosse’s spray painted mounds of soil, Anish Kapoor’s huge pigment-covered bowls.

Home Truths was less challenging than most exhibitions. The photographic work was mostly hung above child height. And anyway there were no invigilators.