Saturday 9 April 2011

Parting Moments

Our final day at Liminal Space begain with a crankie workshop, during which a participant spontaneously invented a great new method of making a crankie performance. Get random cut-out words from a magazine, arrange on a long scroll of paper, join together via hand-written creative writing to invent a very unique story!







 Some dear visitor friends stop by one last time...


 The sign comes down early evening......

And Liminal Space becomes empty once more.

A thousand, thousand thank yous to all those who entered our doors since the 14th March. And to others who didn't, of course - like the manager of Budgens Belsize Park, who read our shopping list and gave us the money to pay for it, wishing us well. We are fascinated, charmed and deeply attached to Malden Road and its surroundings - a neighbourhood in which all the life initiation stages from the mythic world are played out daily on the streets: red for youthful, untamed energy, black for grief and suffering, and white for re-integration. Young people wander, carrying their hurt, confusion and frustration, police cars descend like a swarm of bees at any moment, and meanwhile a mother holds her child's hand as they come into the shop to make a kite. Around the corner at the market, there is more of a genuine community spirit than in most other urban streets, and yet people glumly tell me that the market was often referred to as London's murder mile.
We've made so many friends during our month here, and we are sorry to close our doors to them.

For now, Camden Council's Pop-up Scheme has ended due to lack of funding. It is down to us to be thirsty in our hunt for new ways to bring life to the ugly, unloved empty shop boxes which decorate our urban surroundings.

Modroc madness

A mask-making day at Liminal Space, with the choice of smothering ones face in Vaseline and sitting beneath a modroc mask for a few hours with nostril straws to provide an airway, or simpy making a nice half mask out of paper materials and mount board. Having already applied moisturiser today I opted for the latter, and made a 'King and the Seed'-inspired eye mask with mount board, painted wool and collaged William Morris flowers.



Meanwhile a stream of eager visitors get the modroc treatment.



Flat Moving Stories

 Toy Theatre time at Liminal Space, and oh how easy it turns out to be to knock together a toy theatre with some cardboard....


We have another toy theatre on show veering towards the opposite end of the spectrum of simplicity...

Nonetheless, the challenge is to create the entire story of the King and the Seed in toy theatre form. It begins with a useful scribbling session in which story is broken down into scenes, into movements, finally into visual pictures. 

The King's land ready for assembly...

Meanwhile Max works on a more meditative scene...
A very enjoyable session with less completed works than we might have hoped for, but several engrossing projects to continue working on.

Take One Milk Container

Week Three, and it's time to use up our plastic milk containers. But what story characters shall they become?









Tuesday 29 March 2011

The Three Threads workshop

On Sunday afternoon Liminal Space hosted the Three Threads workshop - a collaboration between Liz Lake, Meg Saunders and Clare Mason. Participants were taken on a journey into writing, making and movement which culminated in the most unusual and memorable way... Without giving too much away I will recommend that you make your way to the New Gallery in Peckham between 4 - 10th April to get involved in the Three Threads week-long program of events.





A Week of Story Dice, Willow and Candle Wax

The past week, in a nutshell....
Our window has been filling itself as ever.

We've had the loveliest of guests, bringing with them curiosity, enthusiasm, stories about Chalk Farm in the 1930's and even an astrological sun sign chart...

And as ever the shop's collection of story-making tools expands. (above: story dice being made).

But at the weekend the theme was most definitely willow and tissue paper. Liminal Space went kite and lantern crazy, with the help of Bella Lyster and her Kite-puppet workshop...






As darkness descended over London we lit our lanterns...

Gathered together....

Turned off the lights and left the shop, complete with puppets and folk costume...



Celebrating Earth Hour we meandered the streets.

At our destination in Queens Crescent Market we serenaded the firey alchemy of a staff with paraffin-dipped ends, a spark and an animated dancer!


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Special Happenings on Weekend of 26th/27th March......

Two major events of note will be happening at Liminal Space this coming weekend:

Liminal Space will be commemorating WWF's Earth Hour by switching off the shop's electrical illuminations, lighting candles, and hitting the streets with a Candlelit Lantern Procession. Our procession will celebrate all that is non-electric and non-digital, namely: acoustic music, courtesy of our special guest Michael Tyack and his medieval instruments; puppetry, courtesy of our puppeteers and puppet-maker friends; and non-electric light sources, courtesy of the lanterns which we will be putting together in the shop this week and.........of course...........the Fire Performance courtesy of our fire-spinning dervish James Bettany!

Arrive at the shop from 7pm onwards to join us. Or you could always sign up for Bella Lyster's Kite-puppets workshop from noon - 6pm and turn your creation into a lantern in the evening.




And on Sunday.....
Collaborate, experiment and play with Three Threads - a writer, dancer and visual artist. Through a series of exercises and games we will build, map and share stories in relation to the body, the space and each other. We will be working with all three disciplines, so come prepared to move, write and make your mark!

No need to book for this workshop, just come along...suggested donation £5.

This workshop is a collaboration between dancer Megan Saunders and illustrator/print-maker Liz Lake.

Also happening throughout the day.....
MAKING MOVING SPACES
Join us throughout the day to contribute to the creation of a dance film capturing a specific space and moment through human activity.

Down in the Basement....

......a Story Den awaits.



We officially christened our Storytelling Den on our first Saturday at Liminal Space, with a very lovely folk round-singing session courtesy of Rachel Drazek and Sarah-Jane Miller. The Den is still very much hungry for more stories though...

Storytelling through Lino.....

Last Saturday we were treated with the visit of Liz Lake, an individual whose quiet creative brilliance and modesty continue to strike me just as much now as they did when we first met as interns at the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Vermont, USA. Liz creates worlds, creatures and narratives through print-making, namely lino-cuts, and I've seen her bring these to life via incredible shadow puppetry performances too. But today she arrived to lead a small group of workshop participants on a storytelling journey through the folk tale of Baba Yaga.


After a telling of Baba Yaga in the storytelling den, by yours truly, the group began to map out key moments of the story and decide which ones each person wanted to develop further. There followed an hour of the most contented silence I've ever witnessed, as each participant drew out there scenes and began to carve their lino cuts.

And now to the printing.....





Liz introduced us to a  simple way of 'animating' still images - by turning them into a story bunting chain! And with that she was off onto her next adventure.....