牛房每年一度的兒童藝術樂園是最具冒險及未知的一個展覽，我們以探索每個小孩的藝術潛能出發，每位導師也有自身的身份及經歷，編排出不同的課程，作品出來就很不同。今年沒有定下主題，而導師及形式大部份都依照上一年的運行，但出來的效果又與往年很不同，這是因為導師的自我調整，不一定是進步，而是通過往年的經驗去思考可以再怎樣做，創造就是無限的可能性。每一次也是實驗也是練習也是成品，沒有分重要不重要，時間長短，好與壞。在一個公式化的社會，我們日復一日的做著同樣的事情，三餐一宿及工作，在這以外的藝術及玩樂之中，可以每次的玩法都不同，甚至是更深層次的發展，平衡日常的慣性及沉悶，使之生活更有趣。
井井三一繪本書屋今年的主題是「大人都喜歡的繪本」，很貼近我今年的想法，或許在展場上用了鮮艷的黄色紫色，會讓人錯覺更像兒童樂園，大眾訊息把飽和色彩灌輸為兒童或奇裝身上，是一種很狹義的認知，大人也可以愛強烈的色彩，小孩也可以愛黑白。今年阿LAM（林月娥）的學生景揚有一個獨立展區，他只愛畫單線條，把生活上吸收的訊息用公仔來表達，而且完全不用教導，像是本能一樣的畫，他不善於用說話與人溝通，可在接收英文詞語及圖像比中文語言更強。發掘及給予空間是很重要，特別對於不重視藝術的澳門，學校及大部份人覺得美術、音樂及體育是閒科，九成以上的學習都是以記憶、朗讀及運算為主，如果有些人在這些方面較弱，會被視為有缺失，反之畫畫或者音樂不好視之為正常，而且在正規學習標準上藝術的要求及空間也很低，兩者本身的不同要求就已經令到不同程度的人有差異的評分及界定。
今年Bonnie（梁慕貞）也是以一對一教學為主，當她第一年來教時，我們需要與機構合作才能收到學生，這是因為澳門對於特殊需要在視覺藝術上一對一的空白。第二年只是透過牛房去招生，很快就招滿，今年在開始報名的第一天已經報滿，也沒有界定特殊需要，正如每個人都是獨特的，將收生的空間擴闊，累積真的很重要，在有空間及資金條件之下，我們都很想藝術教育，一對一教學繼續延續下去，得以成長，啟發到更多小孩，也給家長、大人及大眾認識。因應條件、資源及循環再用的材料去教學及展示也是Bonnie很善長的一件事，這幾年我也從她身上學習到不少。吱喳也是第三年與牛房合作，導師Vanessa（梁妍慧）更是轉變最大的一位，每次都是打破上一次，與Pauline（周寶玲）一起以全新的面貌出現，也因為一般多以小件作品為主，但因為有牛房展出的機會，她給予學生創作大型集體作品，今次還拍攝整個創作過程，在認識藝術大師、二次元創作及玩樂之間遊走，探索藝術更多可能性。
來自馬來西亞的麗香及GOO（吳專選）今年繼續來辦影話戲工作坊，上一年小孩演出很有驚喜，並且初演比複演更好，是因為小孩完全直率表演他們的創作性，那是內潛的能量，只要有適當的引導及空間發揮就可以有意想不到的表現，同時因為小孩沒耐性，覺得第二次演不是新鮮事，沒有因為經驗而投入及做得更好，這些的學習都只能從小孩身上得到。影話戲的課堂動靜皆有，今年更走出課室，與小孩到附近探索，用視覺、聽覺、嗅覺及觸覺去實地感受周圍環境，再把這些體驗感受轉化成創作劇本的養分。今年初牛房開辦更多的兒童藝術班，Stella（林珈汶）及Summer（楊冠瑩）是其中兩位導師，她們都分別以不同的故事及內容去引導小孩，以個人感受及心情用藝術表達出來，展出時再將小孩的作品用概念整合出來，形成一個統一的視覺效果。
很久以前已經覺得沒有設計的設計是最好的，大家一看到poster就聯想這是什麼的一個展覽，不需要靠花巧及畫蛇添足去喧賓奪主。畫海報目的就是以小孩畫的畫來做視覺主題，就算那張畫只用了一分鐘來畫，也無礙它的價值。十五年兒童展，十五年牛房倉庫，他曾經孕育過多少人，在這個空間將會轉變運作模式前，作為我在這個空間的最後一次策展，是很值得紀念的，所以也將主題色以黄色作為代表及紀念牛房建築物的色彩。
施援程
策展人
前 言
Preface
The annual Ox Warehouse Children's Artland is a most adventurous event full of surprises, aimed to explore all the little participants’ artistic potential, with instructors of different backgrounds and experience designing different courses that have spawned quite diverse works. This year we did not set a theme, and the format also followed last edition as most instructors stayed with us. Nonetheless, the current results are very different from previous years’, thanks to the instructors’ self-adjustment – although that does not necessarily mean progress. But while pondering over past experiences and making further plans, creation entails infinite possibilities. Every creative move means an experiment, a practice or a product, regardless of its significance, length of time invested, or its eventual good or bad quality. In a conventional society, we are doing the same things day after day, in a daily humdrum existence: eat, sleep and work. By contrast, non-routine art and entertainment can be approached in a different fun way every time, or even be developed further, to counterbalance the daily boredom, bringing more zest to life.
This summer, Júbilo 31 Books takes as its exhibition theme “Picture Books Also Liked by Adults”. The idea is close to my curatorial concept for this edition, in that we decorated the exhibition venue in bright yellow and violet – possibly emulating a children’s theme park, as mass information often relates intense colours with children, the bizarre or fancy clothes. That’s a flawed understanding because adults can also love strong colours and children the plain black and white. This time, Ging Joeng, a pupil of Lam Ut Ngo, exhibits independently. The boy just loves drawing lines, expressing his daily life-inspired messages through figures. Nobody ever taught him drawing, and he draws as if by instinct. Though not good at speaking or communicating with others, he masters English words and images better than the Chinese language. (Potentials) discovery and allowing space (for development) are important, especially in Macao where art is not really taken seriously and where schools and most people think fine art, music and physical education are secondary subjects while 90% of learning activities are pure memorization, with recitations and calculations. Students weak in these areas are considered deficient. By contrast, it’s considered kind of ‘normal’ if one doesn’t perform well in drawing or music. What’s more, in the official curriculum, the educational standards and space allowed for art are poor. As a result, the different standards on art and other ‘more important’ subjects lead to different ratings and evaluation of students with different capabilities.
This year Bonnie Leong Mou Cheng also focused on one-on-one tutoring. In her first year teaching here, we had to cooperate with a certain organization in order to recruit pupils for her, because in Macau one-on-one visual arts teaching to pupils with special needs was non-existent. The following year with enrollment only through Ox Warehouse, and without defining the target as children with special needs, soon the course registration was full. As everyone is unique, it’s really important to expand the scope (space) for accumulation (of experience and learners). If space and financial resources allowed, we desire to offer truly art education, continue the development of one-on-one teaching, inspire more children, as well let parents, other adults and the public understand our approach. Bonnie is good at teaching and exhibiting works, within a limited set of conditions, resources and recycled materials. I have learned a lot from her in the past few years. Ji-Ja (Art Workshop) is in its third year cooperation with Ox Warehouse, with Vanessa Leong as one of its instructors with many new things. Every time she departs from previous experiences, showing brand-new features. This year she cooperates with Pauline to create a large-scale creative project with kids. Although focusing on smaller works, for Ox Warehouse exhibition she lets students create large-scale, collective works; this time she also filmed the entire creative process, leading her pupils on a travel through iconic art masters and the dichotomy of creation vs fun play, opening more possibilities in art.
Tan Lay Heong and GOO Zhuan Xuan from Malaysia continued to host shadow puppetry workshop this year. The children participants’ performance last year was pleasantly surprising, with the premiere surpassing the 2nd performance, since in the first the children were unreservedly and candidly acting out their creativity, unleashing their inherent potential energy. In fact, as long as there is appropriate guidance and room for them to play they could deliver unexpected outcomes. But in the second show the children became a bit impatient with the ‘repetition’, and therefore were less involved and did not perform better despite their previous experience – this does only happen to children. The shadow puppetry workshop was both static and dynamic. This year, Tan and Goo led the children out of the classroom to explore the surroundings, letting them use visual, auditory, smell and touch senses to feel the environment, before turning such experiences into ‘food for the script’. At the beginning of 2017, Ox Warehouse organised more children's art courses, and Stella Lam and Summer Ieong were two of the instructors. They used different stories and contents to guide each kid into expressing personal feelings and moods through art, then integrated the works based on a same concept to generate steady visual effects for the exhibition.
Long ago I thought a design without designing is the best. Upon seeing the posters you’ll figure out what we are showcasing here; any fancy work is extra, unnecessary. The poster drawing course is aimed at letting children use their drawing as a visual theme, so even if they finish the drawing in a minute, that does not affect its value. The annual children’s exhibition has been held along the fifteen years of Ox Warehouse existence and it has nurtured countless talents. This art space is soon to undergo operational changes, and therefore this exhibition, as my last curatorial effort, is very memorable. Because of this I have chosen yellow as the theme colour, a colour to represent and commemorate the Ox Warehouse building.
Cora Si Wun Cheng
Curator
