Tatiana Kronberg, Super Intergalactic Ocean Adventure, 2019, ceramic pigment on porcelain tile, PS 303 Addition, Queens

Super Intergalactic Ocean Adventure is a digitally-printed ceramic mural created by artist Tatiana Kronberg specifically for the new PS 303 addition cafeteria. Kronberg’s inspiration came from imagining the curious and open minds of children - how they perceive the world around them and how they weave fairytales and dreams together with everyday play. First graders at the school helped develop the content during a series of photography workshops. Each student constructed their own unique fairytale character using collage and then posed for a photo shoot dressed as their creation with props and costumes. As their final project, students worked together to design a large-scale paper mural combining their characters into one unified narrative.
 
Kronberg used the students’ fairytale characters as sketches for her 70-foot long mural. In her work, child-like figures appear in a surreal environment where an underwater world mixes with outer space. The characters play in vignettes across a background of ethereal blue, like illustrations for chapters in a book. Kronberg created the figures using a camera-less photography method. Children dressed in costume posed against light-sensitive paper in a darkened room exposed to flashes of light. The results are life-size, silhouettes called photograms. Their soft and dreamy quality adds to the artwork’s overall sense of fantasy. Magical and mysterious, Super Intergalactic Ocean Adventure is meant to reflect the limitlessness of a child’s imagination.