Lesson video

- Hi everyone, and welcome to today's lesson with me, Mr. Di Salvo.

Today we're going to be creating a sculpture inspired by Yinka Shonibare's work.

So, let's begin.

Now, before the lesson begins, you're gonna need the following.

So you're gonna need some paper and pencil, and you're gonna need some objects.

Now, I put a question mark there, because I'll explain that in a second, because today's a slightly different lesson in terms of how we're gonna create our artwork.

So you're gonna need some objects and I'll explain that to you in a minute, okay? So just listen to this carefully, okay? So hopefully you've done your intro quiz today.

We're gonna look at the work of Yinka Shonibare, and then we're gonna choose some objects, and then we're gonna create our sculpture before we have our exit quiz.

Now, keywords for today's lesson are as follows.

Assemblage.

So we're gonna create an assemblage artwork.

So an assemblage is a collection or gathering of things or people.

We're gonna use things rather than people, so objects.

An art commission.

So, it's the act of requesting a creation of a piece of artwork.

So people often commission artworks.

It could be public ones outside, in places like in town squares, or people can sometimes commission things like sculptures of themselves or their family members.

And our last one is composition.

So the idea of the arrangement of elements within an artwork, okay? So three words for today that are really possibly new to us, but are gonna be really important in creating our work today.

Now, who is Yonki, sorry, Yinka Shonibare? So, he was born in 1962 in London.

He creates work across multiple disciplines.

So he paints, he sculpts, he photographs, he creates installations and films, so a real multi-disciplinary artist, okay.

Someone who works across a whole array of different mediums. And his work explores things like cultural identity.

So he looks at his own identity and his own cultural references.

And we're gonna take an idea from that, shall we say.

Now, there's one work that we're gonna look at in particular of his work, and the artwork is called, "Cheeky Little Astronomer".

This is the artwork here now, and it was commissioned for an exhibition at the Astronomer Royal's apartments into 2013.

And the sculpture is an assemblage of objects.

So again, my reference here.

And the sculpture makes reference to themes such as African culture, so linking back to Yinka Shonibare's own cultural heritage, and he does that in that sculpture by the use of fabrics and where they've come from.

And he looks at the ideas of things like aspiration.

So the idea of looking forward through the telescope.

So that idea of this child, and the idea of being multicultural.

And the sculpture there, it's head is a globe, so the idea of linking to the world.

So, yeah, it was commissioned by the Royal Astronomer's apartments in London.

And again, yeah, they asked him to create this artwork and he's created it with this lovely little sort of reference here.

And again, this, sort of, childlike pose, you know, looking on, sort of, leaning on a chair, looking into the future.

So a really clever little artwork.

And we're gonna take this idea of assemblage today, and also of the idea of commissioning an artwork.

And so here's why you're going to need your objects.

Okay.

Now here's the question for you.

Which objects could you select to represent your experience of lockdown? Now, while you're thinking about the answer to that question, think about this.

Lockdown is possibly one of the only events ever in the history of humankind where everyone's experienced it.

So when there's been wars, or other kind of moments, it's being experienced by certain people in certain places, but lockdown was across the entire world.

So it's a real multicultural, global thing.

So I'd like you to think carefully, which objects could you select in your house right now that would somehow represent your experience of lockdown? Okay, that's the question for you.

Now, this is your task.

Now then, I would like to go around the house now and select a series of objects which represent your experience of lockdown, okay.

To help you with that, you're thinking, eh, what? How would I do that? I'm gonna give you some ideas.

So for example, one of my objects that I chose was my headphones.

And why, it's because I really like music.

And so during lockdown, I really enjoyed being able to listen to music.

And sometimes when the house was really, really busy at home and really, really noisy, I could listen to music and focus on what I needed to get done.

So it was a great distraction away from other things.

Okay.

So that's an example of one objects.

Please pause the video now and select your objects.

And when you've done that hit play and we'll continue.

So away you go.

Okay, so welcome back.

And this is your task.

So you have been commissioned to create an assemblage artwork that represents what lockdown feels like, okay.

So what lockdown feels like.

And it's really, really important that, again, it's personal to you.

It's an assemblage artwork, so we're not gonna draw anything.

The paper and pencil I've asked you to get are only for you to use if you need to maybe, make a list of the things that you want to collect, or that you've got, okay.

But yeah, so that's the, kind of, the task, what lockdown feels like.

So we've all experienced it.

And so, that's our commission.

That's our brief.

Now I'm gonna share with you how I did mine, but it's very personal to me, and to my experience of lockdown.

So it's not that I want you to copy it.

It's just to make you understand how I've approached this task.

And a bit like Yinka Shonibare was asked to create a response to the Astronomer Royal's apartments and what they wanted, and then the same for us.

So let's begin, okay.

So here's my example.

So I've put exploring composition.

And I'll explain to you why, because I'm not gonna make the sculpture with you.

I'm gonna leave it down to you to do that.

But I wanna show you some ideas about why composition is really important.

So on these next two slides, you'll see how I've looked at composition.

How I've changed things up a little bit, and just changed things around.

So explain my choice of items. So as you look at the screen, why the globe? Well, the globe, I thought, made a good reference back to Yinka Shonibare's work, because he used a globe, and I've got one at home, so there's a nice link there.

Also, lockdown was, remember it was global.

It affected the entire world.

The mask I've had to put on the globe.

'Cause it made sense that the globe was the head again, the mask, it shows us all about wearing masks.

That kind of stack there.

I've got some reading books there.

I've got some art books there.

So the idea of reading, because reading is a great place to lose you.

So during lockdown, I did a lot more reading than normal, because I had more time to it.

The whisk and the spoon, they're there because I already like cooking.

And I found that during lockdown, I really, really, really looked forward to my meal times, and cooking things, and making a fuss of cooking for the family.

And I quite like the spoon and the whisk, kind of like up here, almost like in sort of shock, or like that, kind of, worried pose.

Almost like the worry of lockdown.

So there's little ideas there.

Now, other things I've included, as we work from left to right.

Ironically, I chose books that are zero negativity, and can't hurt me, just because they're like, positive thinking books, which is a really good thing to have, I think.

Especially of all times, now.

I then, of course, as you go across left to right, I then bagged up, using some spare testing kits.

Of course, testing kits.

I've kind of like, little bagged up bits of the box.

It says, kind of, COVID self-test, and those, the little tabs that we test on.

And in the bag, I end up using the spare bags to put things like my drawing, my art pencils.

'Cause of course, I love art.

So of course, I was always going to draw anyway, but the great thing was I was even more encouraged to, sort of, draw.

And then, as we move across there to the third from the left, my coffee cup there.

I love coffee.

It's my favourite drink.

And again, it was one of the things that if everyone has a, sort of, moment to think about things that are in lockdown, and sort of contemplate what we're doing next, or how I could do things and get over things.

Cup of coffee, it was.

And on the far right is when I then thought, ah, headphones.

I say, I've got to be, my model, my sculpture's got to be wearing headphones.

So this idea of, you know, the head being the globe, the mask, the headphones, kind of like, with the, trying to, kind of like, lose myself in a sense, or get away from the, sort of, madness of what was going on.

So you can see that these, the different compositions, and I've even started to incorporate the light there on that one.

And you see that dramatic shadows.

Now on my next slide, I've kind of gone a step further there.

I then included my, yeah, my kind of, rather worn running shoes there.

'Cause the idea about getting outside.

Because things like exercise, it became a real privilege to be able to go out and do that, and have a real purpose to do that.

So I then started to incorporate the idea of my running shoes being in there.

And again, trying different compositions.

On the far right of the page, there was actually a painting a friend did of my family's village in Italy.

So I even tried incorporating that into it, because it's somewhere that I'd really love to go to, but I haven't had a chance to go back there for a couple of years.

And so, that link as well.

So I got a place that I'd like to go.

Now again, these are really specific, these objects and these competitions, to me and my experience and the things that I like and want.

And I want you to do the same.

I want you to imagine that it's, the commission is for you to give your take on that.

Like Yinka Shonibare, he cooperated those African textiles to show link to his own cultural heritage.

And that's not what he was, it was asked of him.

That was inputting his take on the work.

And the great thing about our kind of commission, our assemblage, is that we are giving our own personal takes.

I really want you to be aware of that.

How do you make it personal to you? Now, where your composition is.

I'm just gonna get my, in fact, my phone would be another good example.

I'm just gonna open my phone up just so you guys can see.

When I talk about composition, I counted it up, I actually created a hundred different competitions.

So if I just flick through my phone, you can see there are so many slight variations.

And I could bore you going through my entire phone now, but you can see these are all slightly different variations.

So these are all different compositions.

So to say there's a hundred.

There really is a hundred of these different, sort of, angles, and slight tweaks of things.

Where I've put objects higher and lower, and to one side, and tried looking at it from a different angle.

Because when we are creating an assemblage artwork, I'm gonna stop kind of going through there.

Now I've just decided to bore you.

But that when we are creating an assemblage artwork.

because we haven't made, we haven't painted, we haven't drawn, we have to choose the objects really, really carefully, and justify why each one is there.

And how we look at the importance of those.

So really, really important that you spend a huge period of time now, we'll ask you to be doing just that.

Now this is your task.

I would like you now to create your sculpture using your found objects, and you should try to create a series of compositions.

I did about a hundred and I think that now we're able to look, I could have done even more if I thought about it.

I could, sort of, double, triple that, I think, just by finding more objects, and trying different angles, and such forth.

And if you've got a camera phone, or a phone of some sort, or sorry, a camera of some sort.

And please photograph your compositions, 'cause it's really important for you to go back through and look and find your best one.

Please now pause the video and now create your composition, your sculpture.

Away you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So, our what went well, even better ifs.

So for me, my what went well, I think.

I'm really pleased, my sculpture meets the commission brief, and that was to, a response to COVID.

I really am pleased with it, with the variety of compositions.

So I like how simple it is, but how it really does look like a head.

I hadn't really thought about it, but that really does look like a head now.

I'm really pleased about that.

And I think I'm really pleased that I've learned how to create an assemblage artwork.

So at first it was quite hard thinking about what objects.

But in actual facts, by the end I had so many objects.

So many of them that I probably could have, kind of, carried on, as I said, for an age.

Now EBI's, my even better ifs.

I'd like to create a stronger link to the artist.

So I think what I'd like to do next is go back and look at Yinka Shonibare's work, and see if I can't make another link, maybe two.

I've got a little hint of a link there, I think to my cultural heritage, I think, with the canvas of the painting of Italy, but it's not strong enough.

And I think that Yinka Shonibare did a much better job of that.

So I think I'd like to go back and try that wider range of objects.

So I think that I like those objects, but my whole thought is, what else could I include? What should I include next? And again, I think it could be a bit more experimental.

So I like the idea of it being, the globe being the head with a mask on.

And I wonder whether or not I could maybe, to be brave and be more experimental, is actually try and create a person.

So just like Yinka Shonibare's done, he created that the "Cheeky Little Astronomer", kneeling there on the seat.

I wonder whether or not I could maybe have included, you know, as I said before, I had the hands, or the sort of, whisk there, which was looked a bit like "The Scream", which is a famous painting by Edvard Munch, but I quite like that being the hands, and I've got my trainers, my running shoes.

So I wonder whether or not I could have maybe have made a sitting sculpture of the person, maybe looking out the window.

'Cause I spent a lot of time, like everyone did, looking out of the window, you know, gazing into the outside world of COVID.

So I think I'd like to, if I was to do this again, or improve upon this, is do just that.

I would like you now to self review your own sculpture.

So I'd like you to write down two things that went well, and two things you think you could do better, okay.

And when you can, please include the key words that we've learned, okay.

And please do that now.

And then once you've done it, come back to the video, okay.

Away you go.

Okay.

So, welcome back.

And that's it for today's lesson.

So thank you, as ever, for learning with Oak National Academy.

And I look forward to seeing you next time.

And it's now time for you to take the end of lesson quiz.

Away you go.

Thanks again.