Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about war and conflict in art, and paying particular interest to textiles.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking and exploring together in this lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to design an arpillera based on a story of conflict.

Before we start, I'd like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The key words we'll be using today are arpillera, activist art, design.

I'm going to say those again and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Arpillera.

Activist art.

Design.

Good job.

Now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions.

An arpillera refers to a stitched or appliqued textile scene originating from Latin America.

Activist art is art that tries to make a change and a design is when you plan and create something new.

So pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson, what is an arpillera and designing an arpillera.

In this first learning cycle, we're going to explore what an arpillera is.

What do you think this arpillera is depicting? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

What is this arpillera showing? And press play when you're ready to continue.

What do you think? Arpilleras are typically stitched or appliqued textile scenes showing everyday life, rural culture, or times of conflict.

They can depict scenes of wartime to show an artist's experience of or perception of war.

Arpilleras are sometimes used as activist art, especially in the context of human rights or social justice.

Activist art is art that tries to make a change.

It speaks up about things like fairness and justice.

Artists can use their work to share important messages, such as helping people who are treated unfairly.

Activist art can take any form that helps people think or take action.

Activist art gives a voice to people who might not be heard and help others understand their stories.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Activist art is art that tries to make a change, decoration, mess.

Pause the video here and have a think about which of these words completes this sentence and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that activist art is art that tries to make a change, you're absolutely right.

Activist artists use their work to help people think, care, and sometimes even take action to make things better.

Arpilleristas of Chile were a group of women who used textiles to make art that told stories of hardship and conflict.

They made pictures with fabric and thread, showing scenes of families being separated, protests and disappearances during the time of Pinochet's dictatorship.

These women created arpilleras in secret to raise money for their families.

Many of their loved ones were imprisoned and the money from selling the art helped them to survive.

The Arpilleristas shared their artwork with the world, even though it was dangerous.

Their art was sent to other countries to help the world understand the need for freedom and human rights.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Arpilleras generally avoid themes related to daily life or social issues.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's false, you're absolutely right, but why is that statement false? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well, maybe you said something like arpilleras are typically appliqued textile scenes, showing everyday life, rural culture, or times of conflict.

Arpilleras are sometimes used as activist art, especially in the context of human rights or social justice.

Well done.

These artists have all made arpilleras to reflect different times of conflict.

Antonio Amador in "En el lado 'bueno' de la valla"/ "On the 'good' side of the fence" in 2015.

Also, Heidi Drahota, "Nie wieder!"/"Never again!" In this piece, Drahota uses discarded army boots arranged in a large circle.

Each boot once belonged to a soldier and together they form a powerful symbol.

The boots represent people lost in war.

The circle shows unity and remembrance, but also feels haunting and quiet, like a warning.

And then there's artist Sabah Obido.

She's an artist from Syria who creates art to express how war has affected her country and her people.

She often uses everyday materials in powerful ways.

In "The word that caused the outbreak of war", Obido uses burned books and twisted paper to show how dangerous words can be.

The sculpture is made of pages torn and scorched, looking like they've been through fire and a single word, never revealed, said to have started it all.

This now brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to discuss the way artists have used arpilleras to represent war and conflict in their work.

You may wish to think about why is art a good way for people to express their thoughts, especially when they can't speak freely? To discuss the idea behind a chosen arpillera example, what is being depicted? What message do you think the artists wanted to share with the world? And finally, if you were making an arpillera, what story would you tell through your artwork? So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to discuss the way that artists have used arpilleras and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, let's have a look at some examples.

Aisha says, "I think the Arpilleristas of Chile were not allowed to speak freely.

Using textiles was a way of sharing the things they were experiencing." And Andeep says, "I think Heidi Drahota wanted us to fully appreciate how horrific war can be." You might've said something like Sofia, "I think Sabah Obido wanted us to see that war can happen anywhere and displace people from their homes." Or maybe like Jacob, "Although they were working in different countries and at different times, Arpilleristas of Chile and Sabah Obido have similar ideas about showing everyday experiences of living in a country experiencing conflict." So well done for having a go at discussing what these different artists do when they're creating their arpilleras.

This now brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to design an arpillera.

What techniques or processes can you see in this arpillera? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? What could you see? Well, arpilleras are made using an applique process.

Applique is a way of decorating fabric by sewing smaller pieces of fabric onto a bigger piece to make pictures or patterns.

We can see some examples here.

We can see a person.

We can see those really close stitches in that second image.

Arpilleras use a wide range of skills and materials to tell a story.

You might start your design for an arpillera by deciding what story you're going to tell.

Izzy says, "In my town, people still talk about an event from World War II.

One night, bombs were being dropped from the sky.

A Polish ship that was docked in the harbour defended the town and saved many lives.

You can loosely sketch out your design.

So like Izzy, she says, "I'm going to use clear, simple shapes, as these will make my design much clearer." So don't add too much detail, nice and simple, and you can decide which stitches might be useful for your design.

So we've got a blanket stitch here, a backstitch here for the windows on the houses, and a whip stitch down here.

Now, you might've noticed different stitches.

A blanket stitch is a useful stitch for sewing around the edges of fabric, so you can see that going all the way around the outside.

A whip stitch can be used to sew around smaller shapes, so like the people here in this arpillera.

A backstitch is useful for sewing straight lines, so you can see that on the window frames on the houses here.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which image shows a blanket stitch? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said B, you're absolutely right.

This is a useful stitch for sewing around the edges of fabric.

Arpilleras use different materials.

Arpillera means burlap or hessian in Spanish.

This is the type of loose weave fabric used as backing material for an arpillera.

Here, the arpillera shows a needle felting technique.

This process is useful when an artist wants to layer colours or have a softer outline and you see that here on the flames of the fire.

Most of this arpillera has been made from synthetic felt.

This fabric often comes in bold colours and does not fray when cut.

You might choose what materials you are going to use and make a note of these on your design, so maybe hessian or even synthetic felt.

The processes or techniques you intend to use can also be added to your plan, so you might add some needle felting here.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Arpilleras might include materials and processes such as needle felting, clay and whip stitch, synthetic felt, needle felting and hessian, synthetic felt blanket stitch and watercolours.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about which of these would help to complete this sentence and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said B, you're absolutely right.

Arpilleras might include materials and processes such as synthetic felt, needle felting and hessian, not clay or watercolours.

This now brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to design your arpillera.

First of all, decide what story you are going to tell.

Then loosely sketch out your design, and then decide which stitches might be useful to your design.

Then choose what materials you're going to use and make a note of these on your design.

And finally, add which processes or techniques you intend to use to your plan.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to go through each of those steps to design your arpillera and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Were you able to go through each of the steps? What story did you decide on and what kind of techniques are you going to include? Well, taking a look at this example here, hopefully you decided to tell a story of conflict that was personal to you or your community.

Then you identified which stitches might be useful to your design, added which processes or techniques you intend to use to your plan and chosen what materials you're going to use and made a note of these on your design.

So you can see, on this design here, we've got the hessian on the outside and some blue felt, some black felt.

We've got some needle felting here, where those flames are.

We've got some grey felt in the corner for the boat and you can see the different types of stitches that are being used there.

So well done for having a go at designing your arpillera.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about developing a design for an arpillera.

Arpilleras are typically stitched or appliqued textile scenes that have been used to depict conflict.

Arpilleras have been used as activist art, which gives a voice to people who might not otherwise be heard.

An arpillera design might include materials and processes such as stitch, synthetic felt, needle felting and hessian.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.