An Exploration of Spirals: Art, Movement and Feelings

An exploration of spirals began as the children developed an interest in representing snails using winding strokes and by coiling clay. Spirals also began to appear in other drawings portraying water, plants and even “messy cupcakes”.

We set up various provocations to encourage the children to look closely at spirals in nature- e.g. plants, wood biscuits, shells and to explore different ways of representing spirals using marker pens, paints, string, wire and clay. We also began looking at spiral art by Louise Bourgeois. 

Looking closely......

An introduction to Louise Bourgeois' spirals 

"The spiral is an attempt at controlling the chaos"- Louise Bourgeois

 Art and movement:

We listened to Tchaikovsky's 'Trepak Dance', danced, and created large and small spirals to the music.

Inspired by the art and words of Louise Bourgeois, we began to discuss how spiraling in and spiraling out might feel.

Inspired by Louis Bourgeois

Using a black 'pipe cleaner' who we named‘Little Black Arch’ (a supposed friend of Agnes Hsu’s ‘Little White Arch’ from ‘My Color is Rainbow’), we created a story together about how LB Arch began to wind in when he was sad, hungry, sick or when he had no friends.

The children held hands to create a line and wound in to create a tight spiral.

“How did you feel?”

 “Sad” EJ (4 yo)

“Sad” W (5 yo)

“I feel like……very teeny tiny” O (5 yo)

“And you are sick” LJ (2 yo)

 “Mummy scold” TL (5 yo)

Then we continued our story with ideas to make LB Arch feel better. EJ showed a funny face that he would pull, O said that she would give him food, TL said that she would be his friend. A few children said they would give him presents. (This was also a great opportunity to talk about kindness)

We then listened to Enya’s ‘Caribbean Blue’ and spiraled our bodies outwards……

“Bigger! Bigger!” K (3 yo)

The children spun around the room with gusto!

Winding in\Spinning out.....can you see\feel the difference?

Bourgeois stressed the spiral’s two opposing directions: inward and outward. The outward movement represented “giving, and giving up control, trust and positive energy….” While the winding in of the spiral embodied “a tightening, a retreating, a compacting to the point of disappearance.”

~The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)