Let There Be Living Creatures
From the Series “With Babies”
Let There Be Living Creatures
28 April 1987 Maiden Pinks
Bach: Suite in B Minor BWV 1067 Badinerie
Luca: I thought I would draw a world in which unknown creatures are born.
K: What kind of creatures?
Luca: Reptiles, birds, bugs, animals that are half-vegetable, walking trees, all kinds of creatures that don’t actually exist.
K: Are yours better than the real ones?
Luca: I don’t know yet. They may be better. I hope they are better.
K: Why aren’t there people in the picture?
Luca: There are people somewhere, but they have not reached this place yet.
K: Luca, why would you like to draw such a picture?
Luca: So that there would be creatures. So that the world would be better.
1. Q: Do they express ideas in their drawings?
A: As you could read, they do. When Luca draws an unknown world with unknown, strange creatures and all sorts of things “that don’t actually exist”, she expresses her desire for a different world. It is a harsh critique of the known creatures of the actual world. The reptiles, birds, half-vegetable animals, and walking trees will be better perhaps than the real creatures. She hopes they will be better. It is a heart-rending opinion about the world in which she has to live.
2. Q: Do you talk about these?
A: No, we don’t. Rather, I provide them with the tools to express their thoughts: their critiques, too. The important thing for me is that they express their thoughts freely, in dance, in tales or in pictures.
3. Q: Why don’t you talk about these together?
A: I don’t think words are the only means of expression. They are certainly not always the most appropriate. In our courses parents and teachers can see and hear the tales of these creations, and they can learn from them. We might make them feel ashamed if we talk.
Note
Klára Kokas: The bush of happenings
…But it is not words that are the most important, but the happenings.
Q: What happenings?
A: Every minute of the class is full of happenings: they sing, metamorphose, hide in their tales, relate to somebody, move in space, run and fall silent, touch their parents, teachers, friends or mates. Each and every branch in this bush of happenings is a novelty, but also a recognition. Above all it is pleasure.
Q:Why do you call your classes a bush of happenings?
A: If you sit beside a bush, you can see, touch, smell and possibly taste its branches, leaves, flowers or fruits. These belong together in harmony. They may touch one another, perhaps laugh with one another, or turn their backs and swing back and forth. What about the things you can’t see? The roots. In my imagination I always walk around them and touch, stroke, love them, fondling each and every one of them, one by one.
Q: What about the parts of your class? How do they belong together?
A: As the parts of the bush do: in their totality. For example, I talk singing, giving advice, praising or calling attention in improvised tunes. My singing interweaves the periods between activities, as saps do in the branches of a bush bringing them towards sunlight, growth, and will towards completeness, towards development, towards the fruit and towards survival.
4. Q: Why?
A: Luca’s invented animals may be better than the real ones. She hopes they are better. I myself started to think about how I should be better, and I found many things to be changed. Luca’s relatives may not want to hear publicly what they should change. I didn’t criticize myself publicly then and there. I brought home my thoughts. And see, even after so many years I am thinking about them.
5. Q: Would you like trees to walk?
A: Very much! Trees are my best friends. It is unjust that they are helpless, bound to a place like slaves. Here in Greece building a house starts with cutting down the trees. When the house is ready, they may plant new ones. Nobody asks the tree what it would like to do. Does it want to die, or does he perhaps have new plans?
6. Q: Don’t you feel these are childish fancies?
A: If they are, I thank God for them.