Opening Art Club 2015: Our Homes

THEME OF WEEK 1:01: My home

21st, 22nd and 26th January 2015

Art Club with Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI 

and the Charlotte Miller Art Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador

IDEA AND AIMS:  To open our new year and new project by looking at something close to the children's hearts, their own houses.  What do they look like outside and inside, where do the children feel happiest?

REFERENCE MATERIAL:

(Top left and middle) Reference of mosaic buildings represented on the underside of bridges here in Guayaquil.  (Top right and bottom row) the collaged houses from Emily's pupils in London, many of whom are originally from other countries, signs of this show through in the textures they chose to use, whilst the form of the London homes is clear.

Cane houses in Sergio Toral, this style of house is typical of the coastal countryside, as it is said to be really cool inside.  It is common to see this type of housing in the sectors refered to as 'invasiones', meaning that the homes have been built without permission.  They are typically built up on four cane legs and in those I have been inside are divided into one or two rooms. 

(Above and below)  Houses in Socio Vivienda 1 and 2 are made from cement.  The name of these neighbourhoods translates as "Social Housing", as these are government built houses that are identical in size and layout, until families move in and paint them, add extensions, set up small businesses and plant flowers and trees.

Taking the typical Guayaquileñan houses as reference, Emily and I made collage examples and displayed them alongsife the English houses on this poster.  We asked the kids could they identify which were which.  Can you?

PROCESS:  

1. Facilitators pre-cut colourful card into various shapes and sized to be used as mosaic pieces.  

2. Children: Create the outside of their house on a coloured A4 piece of paper, using colourful card, colourful lolly pop sticks and magazine images.

3. Children that finish quickly: In Sergio Toral the children took another sheet of paper and picked and chose from photocopies of drawings of furniture and people (that Emily drew) to create a representation of the inside of their house and their patio and the people that live there, marking where they feel most happy.  In Nueva and Socio Vivienda we decided to give the children more time on the fronts of their houses and to reduce this second step to something simpler, asking them to turn their house over and draw with marker pens a picture of themself where they feel happiest.

(Above and below) working away on their houses in Sergio Toral

The children's houses coming together in Nueva Prosperina:

TAKE A LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULTS OF THE KIDS HOUSES:

SERGIO TORAL

Many of the children in Sergio Toral were very imaginative, collecting earth, pebbles and flowers from the street to include in their designs.

When asked where they felt happiest many replied, "In my bed"!  One child said "Watching TV"

As we have so many siblings in our groups it was fascinating to compare their different representations of the same house.  The image above shows houses made by four sisters, (clockwise from top left)Naomi, Candy, Genesis and Briggite.

NUEVA PROSPERINA

 (Above and below) The children's houses reflect the mixture of can and cement housing in Nueva Prosperina. On the reverse the children said they felt happiest in their rooms, on the computer, in the cyber café, with their families and friends.

SOCIO VIVIENDA MORNING GROUP

We were luck to have JUCONI orientador Uri supporting is in our morning group in Socio Vivienda because when talking to her about the activity in the car on the way in she commented on how for the children in Socio Vivienda it would be interesting to think about which house they want to represent, where they lived in the south of Guayaquil before moving to SV, or their current home.  This led to us opening the session by talking with the kids about where ther lived before and what their homes were like.  

Many of the children lived in cane houses over the edge of the estuary before they moved to Socio Vivienda.  In these homes they would swim regularly in the estuary.   You can see this reference in some of the designs above that include water and fish.

Some of the children were inspired to make 3D houses that represent very closely the style of the housing in Socio Vivineda: 

SOCIO VIVIENDA AFTERNOON GROUP

More signs of their previous cane homes in the south (above) and our most expressive house from 4-year-old Jean Pierre below.

 Plus some more 3D houses below. Our Socio Vivienda children's houses were perhaps even more original than in the other two groups because of the mixing of materials by the time we ran the workshop with them.  Having to search more to find what they wanted to work with the designs seem more creative overall.  When asked where they felt happiest some children siad their rooms, their beds, on the computer, watching TV.

My journey home

Continuing on from the last two posts, here's a look in photos at a typical journey home from the JUCONI office after a day of cmap art workshops. 

If I headed in by bike, I go home by pedalling straight up 9 de Octubre, but if I came in by the metro bus I head home on foot, passing back over the Malecón Salado with its 'singing' fountain (after dark it is lit up with colours and songs pump out of large hidden loudspeakers), under the Ferroviaria flyover with its colourful murals, passing by the park by the metro bus stop where it's not uncommon to spot iguanas shuffling in the foilage or climbing a tree.  This is where my bike route goes straight whilst if I'm on foot I veer into the Parque Lineal, with its outdoor gym, trees, fountians, smooching couples and more iguanas.  

At the Universidad Católica and its unicyclist statue I turn left and cross the Zig-Zag bridge that takes me across the estuary into Urdesa.  Here there is a long stretch of private housing with interesting colours, textures and ornate metal bars covering doorways and windows.  

Finally I turn left onto Avenida Monjas, passing Bella's bikeshop Cikla and the giant statue of an iguana (one of three giant mosaic statues in Guayaquil, the others being a parrot and a monkey) and rejoining 9 de Octubre to pass the huge shopping centres of Mi Comiseriato and Albanborja, (where I am often tempted in to buy a $1 coconut ice cream, totally delicious and always reminds me of Mr. Whippy's from the beach ice cream vans of childhood!)  

And the final stop… our house in Ciudadela El Paraíso where Emily and I live with other JUCONI volunteers from América Solidaria on the third floor of this yellow building with our baclony that looks out over the hill Cerro El Paraíso.

This has been a really fascinating exercise, documenting our daily routes in and around Guayaquil.  Funnily enough in all the time I have been here in Guayaquil (a year tomorrow) this is the first time that I have taken photos of my day-to-day surroundings.  In a way all the photos that I have taken over the year have been very 'biased', in the sense that I'll tend to take photos of artwork, murals, animals and plants, with the occasional turistic spot, but up until last week hadn't taken any general shots of the city.  Perhaps because the streets here tend to be large, multi-lane, traffic and billboard loaded, and perhaps because, in being my daily backdrop, they somehow fall out of the 'new things' photographic radar.  Either way it was surprising to realise this, and then really enjoyable taking the photos, I have felt like I'm looking afresh at the city that's currently my home and it has made me really happy and has inspired ideas for drawings and painting.  

Brilliant idea Katie at ICYE, thanks for the inspiration!

p.s. these are not on my walk home but should really be included here to be kept near their iguana friend: 

The monkey by Las Peñas and the Parrot by City Mall in the south.

 

And finally, one of the under-the-bridge mosaics that initiated this flurry of photographs of the streets.  Ever since arriving into Guayaquil these splashes of colour underneath the flyovers havemade me smile, and I've often thought about photographing them in series.  Inspired to collect reference imagery for our new Art Club project was perfect timing to finally do it, and I owe a big thanks to Tyrone for making it possible by driving me around between many of them a couple of Sundays ago.  

Our journeys within work

Continuing on from the last post about my journey into work, here's a look at the journeys Emily, myself and our JUCONI colleagues make in a typical week at work as cmap volunteers.

On workshop days Emily and I load the up the Art Club materials box, pack the back of the JUCONI truck with chairs and tables if necessary and then head into the north of Guayaquil with JUCONI colleague Ronald driving in his Guayaco Grand Theft Auto style and braving chaotic traffic.  This fisherman's roundabout is often a spot where we see jugglers busking at the traffic lights.

Here we pass through the vortex tunnel that brings us out really near our house even though we've already driven for ages…

Coming out the other side we head further north, passing the Barcelona stadium, jetting along the busy flyover Perimetral and at "la entrada del 8" (a spot under another flyerover where a lot of street vendors sell water and fruits and where many JUCONI children have first been spotted) take one of three routes:

1. On Mondays into Socio Vivienda 2, meaning "Social Housing", these are breeze block buildings laid out in blocks named by animals, with cemented streets, where families have been rehoused because of unsafe conditions along the edge of the estuary where they previously lived in the south of Guayaquil.  Having regrouped families who previously lived in different neighbourhoods in the south, there are serious issues in Socio Vivienda with gangs, robbery and drug use.  One of the issues that we are directly affected by in Art Club is that there is very little for the children to do outside of school hours, and how common it is for small children to be left unsupervised.  This means that there are always troops of tiny children wandering the streets with no adults in sight, who are obvioulsly attracted to our art activity when we run Art Club in the open air of the football pitch, meaning that it has been impossible to stick to the 20 children limit in the workshops. 







Although the houses are all identical in struture and layout in Socio Vivienda families personalise the fronts (in SV1 the rooves are green and in SV2 they are red).  The grey breezeblock is painted in multiple colours and plant beds are set up.  In some cases extensions are added on, and in an are where there is high unemployment, many small businesses are run from the home, like the delicios homemade coconut ice-cream we buy for $0.25 that come on small sticks. 

Socio Vivienda to Sergio Toral:

2. On Wednesdays we head into Sergio Toral, which of the three sectors we work in feels like it has the most strong sense of community, at least amongst our children, who all know where one another's houses are.  This is a neighbourhood of 'invasiones', meaning that the houses have been built without permission by families migrating into Guayaquil from the countryside or coastal towns.  Here the streets are earth, so there are huge ruts that have us boucing up and down in the truck (you have to be careful not to bang your head, and when my coccxy first fractured these were some of the most uncomfortable moments of our working week) and now that it is rainy season there is a huge amount of mud, restricting access to some streets.   Here the houses are built of either cane or cement, often have tin roofing and cane fences.  Many of the houses are painted and there is a profusion of beautiful plants and flowers that make the streets beautiful.  

 3. Our fourth workshop is in Nueva Prosperina on Thursdays.  Another sector of 'invasiones', it is made up of a mixture of cane and cement houses like in Sergio Toral, where the roads are also made of earth that gets really muddy with all the rain at this time of year.  Here we work in the local school La Sagrada Familia, which is just along from a spot where buses gather at the end of their routes.  Again houses are painted in various colours and often decorated with plants and flowers.

With the workshops done we retrace our journey back into the centre to the JUCONI office and after unloading the truck it's time to head home.  

Take a look at the next post for what a typical journey home looks like.

My journey to work…

Turning right onto the multi-lane road 9 de Octubre at the bottom of our road, first step of the journey whether by bike or metro.

Last week I got an email from Katie at ICYE, the organisation that sorts out the logisitcs of our cmap volunteer placements,  telling me about a campaign called "My journey to work" that ICYE is planning that will gather photos and videos of all the different journeys that volunteers do to get to work, all over the world.   Katie asked if I had any photos I might be able to share and the timing was interesting, becuase, in gathering reference imagery for the new project that Emily and I are just starting up, we had already begun taking photos around the city and in the sectors where we run the JUCONI Art Club sessions, with a focus on the houses and streets for our initial session "My house".  So over the last week I took a few more photos to fill in any gaps, and here it is, my journey to (and from) work:

I've got two ways of getting into work: 

The first is on my trusty steed La Rana ("the toad", see photo above left - currently out of action while my coccyx is healing from a fracture back in november.)  Heading out of the house I pass this replica of a painting by the "Picasso of South America" Oswaldo Guayasamin on our living room and further down the road on 9 de Octubre I pass this colourful mosaic under a flyover where I have to be on high alert for dodgy drivers trying to cut me up as they turn right towards Bellavista.

The other is braving the crowds of the metro-via bus system (yes, there are more people per cubic space than the tube in London at times - this photo below right was an oddly quiet time!). On the walk there we pass a handfull of vendors with cloths spread out on the floor or on stands or tricycles, selling haribands, sweets, newspapers, empanadas and many more bits and pieces likely to catch the eye and dollars of the students coming in and out of the girl's secondary school 28 de Mayo (whose early morning band practices wake us up even on a Saturday!)

We get off of the metro at Ferroviara and pass the underpass and its kite murals below...

…cross this traffic-loaden bridge of the Malecón Salado ("Salty Pier"), and arrive to the JUCONI office. 

…to be continued with photos of our journeys within work...