Paradise Gardens

Summer 2009, Hanover Primary School, Islington, London

Following on from RIVA's previous project,’The Forest is our Supermarket’, we took the theme of Paradise Gardens to explore with children the creation of a contemplative space that celebrated a relationship with nature.

The school roof terrace, was transformed over the three weeks into a beautiful, meditative, enclosed space. Watching the place ‘grow’ as the children added different elements was an important aspect of the project.

Working with ideas about beauty, safety and abundance the children had the opportunity to work with many different media and processes.

They filmed plant shadows, recorded sounds of gardens, created smells, planted, danced, painted, printed, worked with plaster, wove, drew, made weathervanes, costumes, nests, birds, insects, plants and ponds. They watched all the disparate elements coming together as they placed them in the Paradise Garden and danced in a final performance for their parents on the last day.