Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

I hope you're having a good day today.

My name is Esther.

Some people call me Miss Esther, and I am sharing a lesson with you today called Art installation: sculpture you can walk through.

I'm very excited about this.

I'm an artist and an art teacher, and I love sharing art.

It's part of the unit Imagined spaces and shared stories.

Great.

Let's get started.

Today, our outcome is that you'll be able to create a collective sculpture by exploring a variety of materials and approaches.

Ways of making.

We have some key words for today.

I'll say them first.

You say them after me.

Materials.

Repurposed.

Link.

Fantastic.

Well done.

Materials are the things we use to make art like paper, paint, fabric, or clay.

A repurposed thing is an old or used item that's given a new use, and a link is a connection between objects or a connection between ideas.

It's our lesson outline.

Firstly, we'll be exploring and arranging materials in new ways.

Secondly, we'll be piercing and folding materials.

And thirdly, we'll build a shared sculpture together.

It sounds really exciting.

I can't wait to start.

Okay, let's get going and explore and arrange materials in new ways.

I have a question for you.

What is similar about these two images? Pause the video and talk to someone nearby pointing at the things that you think are similar and the things that you think don't match up.

Well done.

I hope you had really good conversations.

Sometimes artists will arrange different materials so they have shapes, patterns, or lines in common.

Artists could use similar patterns, shapes, or colors, and they can help an artwork to have rhythm or make it feel like a collection even when the materials are quite different.

Have a look at the picture here and think about what's the same about these materials and what you feel is different.

A collection is a group of materials or artworks that feel connected.

Even if the artist uses bubble wrap, fabric, cardboard, or string, the artwork will still feel like it belongs together if the materials are connected in some way.

Repeating colors or shapes can create a connection between different materials.

So thinking about something that repeats is something that happens over and over and over.

We'll have a check for understanding and think about what we could do to make different materials feel like they belong together.

I can see bubble wrap, fabric, cardboard, and string.

Think about how you would make these different materials feel like they belong together in a collection.

Talk to someone nearby and come up with a plan of what you would do to the materials to make them feel like they belong together.

Fantastic ideas and conversations.

Well done.

Sofia says, "I might arrange different materials with similar patterns, shapes, or colors to make my artwork feel connected." Thanks, Sofia.

An artist might explore ripping their materials to create similar shapes.

The pieces are also connected by the ripped edges.

Oh, I see.

So the edges look quite similar here.

An artist might also cut shapes from similar colors so their materials can be connected in this way.

Some amazing patterns in this.

An artist might use one material and create different effects by pressing their material flat or by scrunching it.

Here the artist has only used one material, so their shapes and forms are still connected.

I like all those green dots, especially when they're scrunched up.

You can explore arranging materials in a way to make them flow or to feel connected.

When you're ready, you could stick them into your sketchbooks.

We'll do another check for understanding.

True or false.

An artist must only use one material to make an artwork feel connected.

Is it true or is it false? Pause the video and have a think about this.

Great if you got false.

Why is it false? Let's find out some more.

Artists might use materials to create flow and rhythm in their artwork, but they can also do this by selecting similar colors and shape.

We are ready for task A, explore and arrange materials in new ways.

Okay, we have some newspaper here.

We can cut, fold, scrunch or rip the materials in repeated ways.

So doing the same action over and over create some flow by using similar colors, shapes, or materials.

Then arrange your materials in a grid or a line or a cluster.

It's completely up to you.

This is your artwork.

Pause the video and enjoy exploring materials.

Great explorations of pattern making with materials and repeat.

When you did your work, you might have arranged your materials with similar colors, used a single material on its own, or arranged your materials with similar shapes.

Good work, everybody.

Now we're ready for part two of our lesson, piercing and folding materials.

We'll find out some more.

Sometimes artists use specialist art materials such as drawing pencils, printing ink, and paint.

I'm sure you've all used some of these materials before.

Artists can also repurposed materials that others regard as rubbish.

What have we got here? We've got a cardboard box and a bottle top.

These materials such as plastic bottles, fabric scraps, or even food wrappers are typically thrown away by most people, not by me.

I love to keep a store of materials ready to be repurposed.

However, artists can repurposed them in meaningful ways to create powerful works of art.

We're going to find out a little bit about an amazing artist called El Anatsui.

He is an artist from Ghana, West Africa.

He makes big artworks from repurposed materials like bottle tops and old metal.

El Anatsui carefully cuts, flattens, and joins hundreds or even thousands of small pieces of metal to make his sculptures.

El Anatsui's work reminds people about reusing materials that all materials are art materials instead of throwing things away.

It also reminds people of some African traditions such as weaving and storytelling.

"Behind the Red Moon" is a huge artwork shown in a big space called the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London.

He joined old bottle tops and metal together with wire to make giant, shiny cloths that hung from the ceiling like curtains or sails.

It was hard to do this project on his own, so he had lots of people helping him.

We'll have a check for understanding now.

True or false.

Some materials are too simple to be art.

We have pictures of what we worked with before.

Is it true or is it false? Talk to someone nearby and have a think about this.

Pause the video and restart it when you have an answer.

Fantastic.

It's brilliant to hear you share your thinking.

Let's find out the answer to the question.

It's false.

Let's find out why.

Artists like El Anatsui use simple, reused materials to make powerful work about memory, movement, and transformation.

One of the things he says is that all materials are art materials.

You can start a repurposed artwork by taking a small square of cardboard.

"This cardboard measures 10 centimeters by 12 centimeters", says Sofia.

That's brilliant, Sofia.

Really exact.

An artist may start by deciding which repurposed material to add to their cardboard in their artwork.

Sofia's looking at some really lovely, shiny materials.

Sofia says, "I really like the idea of wrapping my cardboard with different brightly colored and textured materials." Good choices, Sofia.

An artist might try changing materials.

You can see something's happening here to the foil in the top of this picture.

Rolling, painting, wrapping.

Oh yes, wrapping.

Wonderful.

Like sweet wrappers, aren't they? Folding and piercing going through the material.

Exciting things to do.

Finally, they might consider how they could link their materials to form a grid or a cluster.

Pause the video and have a conversation with someone nearby about how these things that you can see in the picture.

On the left-hand side, I can see some bouncy elastic, some tape, some safety pins, some pegs, and some paper clips.

How might they be used to link materials to form a grid or a cluster? Pause the video and have a conversation with someone nearby.

How did it go? What did you think you could do with these different things to link materials together? Let's hear from Sofia.

Sofia says, "I'm going to use a hole punch to pierce my tinfoil before linking my pieces." Exciting.

This artist is folding tinfoil around their cardboard.

What do you notice? This is a check for understanding, so maybe you could copy the action of the artist looking at the picture and have a think while you copy that action, what you're noticing about what they're doing.

Well done for thinking about it.

They're carefully folding the foil over the card, really wrapping it up.

They're covering all of the cardboard with the tinfoil, so the cardboard's disappeared.

Now it's time to practice task B.

Starting with similar sized pieces of cardboard, explore ways to use repurposed materials.

You might think about painting, rolling, folding, wrapping like sweets, or piercing.

Pause the video while you do task B.

Great explorations, everybody.

I hope you had a lot of fun doing that.

You might have explored your materials by rolling, painting, wrapping, folding, or piercing.

Okay, now it's time for the second part of task B, piercing and folding materials.

We're going to explore some ways to link your repurposed materials together.

These are some things that you might use to do this.

Tape, pegs, paperclips, string, safety pins.

Remember to explore the different things that you could use.

Pause the video and have a go at linking some things together.

It's great to see some new ways of linking things together.

While done for all your hard work.

You might have linked your materials by using tape, pegs, paperclips, string, safety pins, Whatever you use, well done for trying out some new ways of connecting materials.

We have our last lesson cycle now, building a shared sculpture.

Sometimes artists will create parts of an artwork separately before linking them together.

The October Gallery Education 10x10 Project is a creative project where many individual pieces of artwork are linked together to form one large collaborative piece.

Each small section of the final artwork is created by a different person, meaning that each part is unique and reflects that person's ideas and creativity.

Although each piece is different, they're all connected when assembled.

Together, they tell a larger story.

Creating out this way can be a chance to share your ideas with others.

A way to learn from other people's creativity and see what they do with the same materials.

A reminder that everyone's contribution is important and a way to feel proud of being part of something that's bigger.

We'll have a check for understanding.

What is one important reason for creating art together as a group? A, so everyone has the same picture.

B, to see who can finish first.

C, to build a bigger artwork using everyone's ideas, or D, so only one person does all the work.

Have a conversation with someone sitting next to you about an important reason to create artwork together as a group.

Pause the video and restart when you're ready with your answer.

Well done if you got C, to build a bigger artwork using everyone's ideas.

You might start by placing all of your work on the floor or on a large table and arranging your pieces.

We have Jacob, Alex, and Sofia.

Look at how your materials mix with others.

Is it soft next to hard, shiny next to dull? Jacob, Alex, and Sofia are talking about their ideas.

Sofia says, "We tried putting a mixture of colorful pieces in the center and duller colors towards the edge." Oh, I love that idea.

How clever.

It might take few tries before you are happy.

Here's Sofia.

"We tried moving our artworks around before we were happy with our arrangement." This is also how the artist El Anatsui works.

You could work in groups to link your pieces using the corners like the artist has done here.

Sofia says, "We used wire and string to link our artworks." You might try to make pathways, shapes, or clusters.

Explore your group artwork together.

How has the space changed now your artworks are linked together? Has anything changed in the space you are in? Sofia says, "The space has become colorful and reflective.

We can see ourselves mirrored back together in the tinfoil." Also a reflective shiny sculpture.

Wonderful.

We'll have a quick check for understanding.

True or false.

Artists will always agree on their first arrangement for a collective artwork.

What do you think, is it true or is it false? Pause the video and have a think about this question.

It's false.

Why is it false? Artists often have different ideas and visions, especially when working together on a collective artwork.

They may need to discuss, listen, and make changes before everyone can agree.

This is a normal part of collaboration and helps make the final artwork stronger and more creative.

It's time for us to be building like artists now and build a shared sculpture.

We have task C.

Link your repurposed materials to form one collaborative sculpture.

I can't wait to see what you do.

You might think about arranging your artworks before linking them together.

That's a really good idea.

Using safety pins, pegs, paperclips, or tape to link the corners of your work.

Exploring and discussing the work you have made together.

I think that's crucial to discuss and arrange and explore together and have some fun.

These are questions I'd be interested in hearing back from you.

We arranged our work like this because, the sculpture changes the space by, or we linked our works by.

So things to think about while you do your arranging and joining.

Pause the video.

Enjoy building your shared sculpture and I'll see you soon.

Well, how big did your sculptures grow? I hope you enjoyed using different ways of joining your repurposed materials.

This sculpture looks like it's grown a lot.

Sofia, Jacob, and Alex are going to share some of the things that they discovered when building their big sculpture together.

"Our sculpture changes the space by adding movement and shape." Fantastic.

"We linked our sculpture using paperclips and strings." "The sculpture changes the space by making it bright and full of texture." "We can see our ideas joined together in the patchwork patterns and colors." Fantastic.

Yes, it's amazing what pattern that sculpture has made all joined up.

Brilliant work.

We have had a brilliant and very busy art lesson.

We'll have a think about what we've learned in this lesson, Art installation: sculpture you can walk through.

We've thought about how repurposed materials can be shaped to look alike or contrast with each other and explored artist El Anatsui.

Artists can use repetition and transformation to change the meaning of something.

And sometimes artists will create parts of an artwork separately before linking them together.

We explored our materials together and we connected them and thought about how they might work in a space.

Will they hang in the middle of a room or would our joined up artworks be hung overhead to create a ceiling? Lots of things to think about.

Well done for today's lesson.

You've worked really hard with your creative ideas and been fantastic artists.

I hope to see you again in a lesson very soon.

Bye for now.