The Museum of Modern Toddler Art

[Tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Now, Abandoned Breakfast is a particularly important piece. Note the toast finger hanging disconsolately from the eggshell, yolk leaking over the edge of the plate and pooling onto the table below. We can see from the setting that the breakfast was barely touched despite the care used in preparing it, and the futility evoked stands in direct contrast to the cheery cow-patterned eggcup and bright yellow plate. The viewer is confronted by the eternal question: What Is The Bloody Point, I Ask You?

Toast Jammed into DVD Player highlights the contrast between our base need for food and our increasing reliance on electronic devices for entertainment. Note the detail of hand-smeared peanut butter and drool-covered remote control.

abandoned sock this is an outdoor piece from the same artist that produced abandoned hat

Unmade bed - In this moving-time exhibit we examine the frustrations that can often occur between carer and child around night-time rituals. We first meet the artist DN, age 3, when she develops the piece during a discovery led period in her life, as she learns to fully express her fragile wants needs and desires, a rage against societal norms and standards around appropriate behaviour, reasonableness and the increasing tension emanating from her carer as bedtime slips further and further away from her grasp.

It is interesting to note the juxtaposition between exhibit one, DN3 and exhibit 4, created when DN was 13, when unmade bed expresses her frustration and tension with society's desire for order and cleanliness. During this period, much of DN13's life revolves around the bed and the wider space of her room, with carer access limited, perhaps in unspoken retaliation for earlier periods of dominance in DN's life.

Congruent with the earlier periods in DN's life however is the timing of both pieces which both revolve around interactions between DN and her carer during the early hours of the morning.

Lunchtime exhibits none of the restraints of afternoon nap. In fact, quite the opposite can be observed; the pattern of the sprayed pasta sauce mirrors the artist's whirlwind like mood while the creamy colour contrasts beautifully with the background of the dark brown carpet. The pasta that lays in haphazard heaps in a large radius of the toppled chair gives the viewer an impression of abandonment and dispair. The delicate placement of the half-eaten, slightly melted, club

bar on the sleeping baby's face communicates tenderness.

And this is our new installation, Tantrum, by a very exciting artist. The eye is drawn by a number of competing elements, including the tipped-over small chair, trail of biscuit crumbs, discarded clothing and approximately thirteen billion sequins. Perhaps the most dominant aspect of the installation, however, and certainly the most challenging for the viewer, is the presence of the artist herself in the centre of the work, lying prone on the carpet and yelling at the top of her lungs. By inserting herself into the work, the artist creates a unique tension between object and viewer, fostering the twin desires to clean up and bugger off simultaneously.

Tortoise that piece is exceptionally powerful in the way it challenges the viewer to become part of the work themselves

Exploration, a continuum piece from an eager young artist signifies her debut on the scene. In one corner, an apparently haphazard pile of DVDs on the floor; in another, soggy ripped corners from magazines and crayons. The centrepiece, however, is the collection of TV remote controls together with the cordless phone, each delicately strewn with a faint trail of saliva. Everywhere material consumerism meets actual consumption - this ingenue's statement on technological advances and the overwhelming desire to have speaks volumes. A special feature of this piece is that every night it is carefully put away, for the artist to recreate it the very next morning with a dedication that is second to none.

Repetition
This auditory artwork consists of phrases such as ?Mummy, mummy? and ?Why, why? and has the power to emote the response ?What do you want? in a very loud voice from the listener.

silence
this leads the audience to worry and search for the installation in progress. The visual affect of opening the curtain accompanied by the auditory response of giggles from the artist and screams from the audience at the horrors on the wall behind the artist

Nappy Change.

Urine, faeces and sudocrem on plastic mat, clothing and skin.

This exceptionally challenging performance piece does not reward the passive viewer but invites them to literally wrestle this very prolific artist. Results are infinitely variable and the artist repeats the work several times a day. Responses from those engaging with this difficult piece have varied from, 'Phew just about got away with that' to 'How is that possible when you have eaten NOTHING AT ALL?' and some have been moved to tears.

This artist will shortly begin Potty Training, a long term performance piece which promises to offer its own challenges.

gift shop desire and despair

In the foreground is an epitomy in despair and anger as the childs screwed up tear stained face and open mouth scream silently at the viewer. The background of this piece is a colourful gabmit assault on the senses of fluffy toys, pens, an amusingly overpriced bars of fudge. In the midground between the two one can see the judgemental and pitying faces faces of the other shop goers. The viewer gets the feeling that just off screen somewhere there is a despondent parent simply wanting to go home.

Puzzles

A thought provoking concept piece, where the artist intermingles a countless number of puzzle pieces of varied provenance. The mound of discarded pieces is surrounded by empty boxes, perhaps reminding the viewer that where now chaos reigns, there was once order.

park journey

is a daily changing piece by a prolific 6 year old. A different bag is filled each day with a seemingly random selection of important objects, which today included woollen socks, 2 spare dresses, a snow globe, colouring book, a silver cake slice, a wind up hamster, knitting, dog treats, a pocohontas mini figure and 16 other items. The viewer is encouraged to question our need for material possessions and question whether the phrase "useless old tat" has had a detrimental affect on the artist's hoarding capabilities.

funniest MN thread ever!

i like refusal and refusal likes me

A short durational piece which entails this emerging artist answering every question and request with a simple 'no'. Exploring the expectations and demands placed by society upon the individual, as well as the opportunities afforded us to explore our own individuality, this work will be repeated, at varying volumes, until Dad comes home.

(Supported by Arts Council England and CBeebies.)

Mummy's handbag

A textural piece designed to challenge and confound expectations. Consists of a black leather receptacle containing several crayons, a marker pen, a small astronaut, and half a sausage. As an added layer of juxtaposition to this fascinating installation, the purse and travel card which one would expect to be in the black receptacle will instead be found (empty) in a shoe cupboard and buried in a box of lego, respectively. The artist will be found eating the lipstick that was in the black receptacle in a courageous challenge to society's conventional ideas of beauty practices and the cost of maintaining such practices.

I said I wanted chocolate and instead you gave me this

Affectedly artless swirls in tones of burnt sienna draw the viewer into a visceral and marvellously textural expression of anger and despair.

Medium: beans

The Walk

An extended performance piece, during which the artist challenges accepted norms regarding time and space. Drawing heavily upon Kafka-esque influences, the viewer is led to believe that there is an end point which must be reached, but later realises that this is a merely a social construct which confines and diminishes. Warning: mild language.

whe'va

In this choreographed piece, the adolescent artist repeats a series of almost-imperceptible circular movements of the neck. The viewer is challenged to explore the liminal space between rage and restraint.

It is a companion piece to divvy, in which the artist uses her tongue to brutally distend her lower lip. Both pieces constitute a cohesive, if sometimes arch, commentary on power relations in continuous flux.

potty training pants
The ability of the artist to integrate their work and personal life enables the artist to establish an intimacy with the viewer.

sleeping teenager

This exhibit may look like a simple closed door but is in fact an interactive piece. If said door is opened a string of well timed profanities may be heard interspersed with some incomprehensible babble. The reactions of the viewer can range from amusement to shock and these reactions are considered to add to the overall ambiance of this simple piece.
WARNING not suitable for children under 16

Don't touch that, Don't touch that

In which the main protagonist seeks to achieve the exact opposite of a sculptural and sensory garden - thus emphasising the difference between the contained and the madness that is enticing blobs of dis-guarded chewing gum and stinging nettles. In autumn it will be part of a joint exhibition with

Don't step in that, Don't step in that

Crusted glaze in which the artist playfully laces organic tracks in the medium of mucous through a pretreated dehydrated Yoplait culture surface. The artless juxtaposition of startlingly solid sculptures in human hair using the same cultures draw the eye beyond the cleansing swipe of the mucosal river through its ravaged landscape and toward the inherent message : It'll take more than a wet-wipe this time.