
Surreal activity: Invent a creature with friends
Create a fantastical creature with your friends or whānau. The results willl be strange, funny, and unpredictable!
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Discover the textures of different kinds of surfaces then use them to create a landscape or seascape.
Examples of frottage (rubbing), 2021. Te Papa
Surrealists loved the unexpected results of frottage. They liked to imagine that the textured pattern could be something else. For example, if you rub on a wooden board with a pencil and paper, the resulting woodgrain pattern could be cut up and used to represent mountains, or birds, or even ... trees!
sheets of paper
pencils or crayons
scissors
glue.
Interesting textures are hiding everywhere. Find one now.
Hold your sheet of paper over the surface, and gently rub over the paper with your pencil or crayon.
Create at least five rubbings.
Cut your rubbings into different shapes.
Arrange your cuttings on a blank sheet of paper to create a surreal landscape or seascape. Once you’re happy with how you’ve arranged them, glue down your cuttings.
This activity has been adapted from the free-to-download surreal activities teaching resource
Create a fantastical creature with your friends or whānau. The results willl be strange, funny, and unpredictable!
Cut up and rearrange a picture to make a new mind-bending artwork.
Free your unconscious mind by creating an artwork without using your eyes.