Hare-Raising: Giant Paper Sculptures

First-year and postgraduate Design for Performance students teamed up to reach new heights in their first assignment of the new term.

In a project about collaboration, teamwork, meeting tight deadlines – and of course, creativity -the two cohorts came together armed with paper, tape and big ideas to create a family of mind-blowing hares.

The hares are in full flight now @RWCMD Wonderful first achievements from our new design students collaborating with composers- the stunning exhibition is open in the Linbury gallery. Congrats, congrats all! pic.twitter.com/KHbFcWfmvA

— Helena Gaunt (@hgaunt) September 27, 2019

Striking different poses, each animal was built and positioned in eight short days and finished with lighting and sound specifically designed by Composition students.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B20_-5anVrk/

Postgraduate design student Sophie Turner emphasised the importance of collaboration during this project:

“Collaboration was the most important thing in this whole process, so that we could see the bigger picture and ensure the whole exhibition came together as one whole, rather than lots of separate structures.

So it was really crucial to communicate with each other, and to make clear decisions, share our knowledge, help each other and recognize each other’s strengths.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2yQLQ9nsuH/

She also talked about the complicated process of creating the giant creatures:

“There were many stages of creating these hares, beginning with ideas and pictures, creating drawings and sketches, then making our own individual maquette.

These mini cures were then put alongside each other to decide which hares worked best together.

We then transferred them into large scale card, and blocked out the body ready to add the muscle and bulk.

I loved seeing the shape being made and the body coming alive, refining the shapes and looking more closely at smaller sections of the body, particularly on the hands and feet, and the face and eyes, and adding colour between the toes and fingers and in the eyeballs.

Taking care with these very small elements of the whole structure, meant the hares became much more refined.”

Giant Paper Sculptures - 2