Pupils expand artistic horizons

A surprise symphony from a choir of koauau was planned for the opening of a Wanganui exhibition on Monday night.

The Community, identity, achievement show by the Keith St School Art Collective runs until Sunday at the Community Arts Centre. It's an extremely varied range of creations from 24 Keith St pupils.

In groups of eight at a time they have each had a term where they spent two hours a week working with Wanganui artist Leonie Sharp.

One thing the children did was hunt for real life objects that looked like letters of the alphabet. They then used the school's cameras to photograph them, and strung them together to write their own names.

At first they found it difficult to notice the shapes, but by the end of the first day they were seeing letters everywhere.

They also did a lot of work with clay, making kete, paua, tiles and representations of their families, and they tried a variety of glazes. Some pieces were raku fired, and others went into the Wanganui Potters' Society kiln, thanks to the "lovely ladies" there.

The show's koauau, Maori flutes traditionally made of bone or stone, were also made of clay. When Callum Sturzaker blew his it emitted a hollow wavering sound.

Hokorima Hamilton said she had never worked with clay before, and it was pretty fun.

"You can be yourself, express your feelings."

One child created a series of cartoon drawings. Others made kaleidoscopes and others painted and drew.

"We did a lot of colour mixing and painting feelings and smells rather than things," Ms Sharp said.

Each child had at least two pieces in the exhibition.

Ms Sharp said her time with the children was voluntary.