Welcome to our weekly Explorer at Home activity. Today we are making Hybrid Collages inspired by artist Bharti Kher.
Bharti Kher is a British artist who lives in New Delhi, India. She has been collecting clay figures for a long time and has built a large collection of them. They get broken and the artist likes to make new sculptures from the broken figures. These sculptures are called the ‘The Intermediaries’. You can find more information about Bharti Kher here.
Bharti Kher is really interested in Indian mythology, and here you often find gods and goddesses who are part man or part woman and part animal. This also occurs in lots of other mythologies and folklore too. Sometimes these beings are called ‘Hybrids’. A hybrid is a mixture of two different things in one. Today in popular culture we have hybrids such as the characters from Marvel comics. Did you know that Spiderman was a boy who got bitten by a spider and became a hybrid – part man, part spider just like Antman or Wolverine.
You could make your own character by cutting out people and animals from magazines. Carefully cut out the body parts, try different shapes and sizes – a big nose on a small head maybe? When you are happy with your combination, use a glue stick to stick them on some card or paper.
How about giving your Hybrid a name?
Have you ever heard of a Grolar Bear? Have a guess of what it might be. See the answer here.
The materials that you need are:
- Magazines, comics or newspapers.
- Scissors.
- Glue stick.
You can have lots of fun making different combinations. A fun suggestion is to place your Hybrid in the garden or take it to the park and take a photo of it!
