Artist in Residence

Dragon Rope Mural

HKWALLS + sha tin jr School

In November 2021, I was invited to be the artist-in-residence at Sha tin Jr School in collaboration with HKWALLS. I conducted a series of mixed-media textile based workshops with 150 grade 4 students (age 7-8) and staff, for 3 weeks before the Christmas holidays. It was such a wonderful way to end the year! Then I returned in January 2022 and spent 4 weeks working outside on a huge dragon rope mural on the school fence, completing it in time for Chinese New Year.

Traditionally the Dragon is a symbol of great power, strength and good luck. In Chinese culture, the dragon is a mythical creature that symbolises potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods.

Small groups of students from each (grade 4) class, took their turn to come and help me to create the cross-stitch dragon mural, over a period of 4 weeks. They were so proud to be an important part of this big project and they were excited to come to school to see how the dragon developed each day. It was also lovely to be able to chat with people passing-by from the local neighbourhood and interact with parents when they came to collect their children. Everyone was very encouraging and happy to see the work-in-progress, building up to the completion for Chinese New Year.

Here’s a daily time-lapse of me working on the most complicated section of the dragon by myself. The head took one week to complete.

Thank you for Alexandra, from @streetartorama for coming all the way to Sha Tin Junior School to see the Dragon work-in-progress.

student workshops

As well as creating the rope-art installation, I conducted a series of mixed-media textile based workshops with 150 grade 4 students (age 7-8) and staff, leading them on a fun exploration of embroidery.

We began by creating colourful patterns on perforated wooden dragons, which I had specially designed and produced in-house for this project. This was a great way of establishing the foundational skills of embroidery; threading up a needle, tying a knot, creating the simple back and forth motion of stitch. The students thoroughly enjoyed seeing their dragon come to life. This activity was helpful in building up their confidence and they were so proud to see the beautiful results they could achieve. I was delighted to witness some students attempting and succeeding at tying their first knot.

Throughout the programme the students were introduced to a variety of different stitch patterns and guided through ways to apply them, taking their understanding of embroidery to the next level. They had the opportunity to create their own design by application of the skills and techniques they had learnt. They began by working on a small bamboo hoop as their canvas and using woollen yarn as their colouring tool. The students were able to gain an understanding of the whole process, creating their own mini master piece.