Lesson video

Hello and welcome to our art lesson today.

I am Ms. Holland and I'm gonna be your teacher, so let's get started.

Our lesson today is about "The importance of relationships and connections through art," and this is part of our unit "Art for life: expression and belonging." By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to have made a creative, collaborative connection through line and malleable materials.

So our keywords today are connection, collaborative and malleable, and we will of course explore these further later on in the lesson.

But just briefly, connection in art and in this context means emotional, intellectual, and personal engagement with something.

Collaborative in art is the act of more than one person working together to create something.

And something which is malleable is a material which can be pressed or moulded into shape.

Our lesson today is of two halves.

The first half is exploring the connection and communication through art, and the second half is about creating artistic connections and collaborations.

So let's get started, are we ready? "Connection and communication through art." Have you ever felt a connection to an artwork? Have a look at this artwork.

Our pupil here says he felt an instant emotional connection to this artwork as he can clearly see the mother elephant's love for her offspring through her body language.

And we can really see this, can't we? We can see the larger elephant, the mother really bent in towards her offspring, showing that caring feeling.

Examples of artists who express connection within their work are Jesus Rafael Soto.

Soto was a key figure in kinetic art, and kinetic art is art that depends on movement.

And Soto's works were designed to be touched and connected with, so physically connected.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya is a contemporary photographer who uses connection in his work through the inclusion of friends, collaborators, and even himself in his photographs.

And Ildiko Nova highlights her ethnicity through her artwork and explores human rights issues.

So these three examples all express connection in different ways within their work.

Art is a form of communication and can create an emotional connection and response from us when we interact with it, like our Oak pupil looking at that painting of the elephant.

Some ways that artists promote this connection through art are through the choice of mediums and techniques that they use; through literal collaboration with other artists to make their art; through their communication of ideas and thoughts; and through, again, literal touch, so through visible textures or actual touch.

So these are ways that artists promote connection through art.

Can you think of any examples where you've felt that connection through any of these ways? Touch can create a strong connection to and through art, whether through direct physical touch or by appreciating the textures and how they may feel by looking at them.

Aisha is looking at this sculpture and she says, "This sculpture looks really interesting to touch.

I think the smoothness would make me feel calm.

It is like touching it through my eyes." So she's imagining what it would feel like.

Raised surfaces, sculptural elements, or interactive parts helps to make the experience even more inclusive and meaningful.

And in this illustration here you can see lots of different raised surfaces and textures.

And as Alex says, "This piece feels soft in some places." Can you see those places? Maybe the woollen places.

"And scratchy where there are metallic threads." And if you look really carefully in the centre, you can see a spiral of metallic threads.

And Aisha says, "Being able to physically touch art allows visually impaired people to experience and connect with art in a physical way." A quick check for understanding.

True or false? Touch can be represented and explored through art, both in how it is made and how it is experienced.

True or false? Well done.

Yes, it's true.

And why is this? Hopefully you've been able to formulate an answer for yourself, but I've written, "Touch can be encouraged in some artworks.

So it can also be expressed in art through texture, material choice and gesture.

Even without physically touching the artwork, viewers can often sense the presence of touch." Such as when we look at a sculpture, perhaps it's made out of marble and we can feel and imagine that sense of smoothness and coolness.

Communication can happen through nonverbal storytelling.

So nonverbal, so not the actual act of verbally storytelling.

And instead through aspects such as facial expressions or body language or symbolism.

Have a look at this work.

Jun says, "Within this portrait, the eyes are communicating sadness." Is that how you felt when you looked at it? I think what it is communicating is sadness and perhaps loneliness too.

And that is nonverbal storytelling.

There is no text there.

We are understanding the story through facial expression.

Connection might also be achieved through literal collaboration, so making art in collaboration.

And this builds trust, it encourages risk-taking and can lead to a better connection through understanding other people's perspectives.

So by collaborating with other artists, we can understand their perspectives and bring them into our artwork.

So working collaboratively can build connections.

Materials and techniques play an important role in creating connection and may look like photography to capture moments of communication; collage, including layering for overlapping stories, so there's multiple perspectives we could layer, literal layering of those stories through collage; and sculpture, so that physical space between or around figures.

Check for understanding.

Which of these builds trust, encourages risk-taking, and can lead to a better connection through understanding others' perspectives? A, the use of colours in an artwork.

B, the arrangement of shapes in an artwork.

C, collaborating to make art.

Well done, it is indeed C.

Collaborating to make art.

Many artists use line in intentional and expressive ways to create connection in their drawings.

Sir Michael Craig-Martin is known for his bold, very precise line drawings of everyday objects, often using continuous outlines.

And a continuous outline is when you don't remove your pencil or pen or drawing tool off the paper, it's a continuous line.

Shilpa Gupta uses line in her projects about borders, identity and separation.

And Norval Morrisseau was known for bold black outlines and vibrant colours and used line to connect figures and symbols, reflecting on spiritual and cultural narratives.

So, moving on to Task A.

So we're now going to be inspired by those artists and use line drawing to explore connections through objects that are meaningful to you.

We need to choose three objects that are meaningful to ourselves, so it could look like what Lucas is saying.

Lucas is gonna choose his favourite mug, his camera, which is important to him, and a trophy that he won.

What will you choose, Sofia? Sofia replies, saying, "I'd like to draw my dog's collar, a bottle of my favourite nail varnish, and a tin of watercolour paints." So they are three objects which are meaningful to Lucas and Sofia.

You can then use line drawing to explore connections through objects.

So you're gonna begin by drawing one of the three chosen objects.

Use line only, so we're not gonna use tone.

Then you're gonna draw the second object, ensuring it overlaps the first drawing.

So here we go.

Can you see we've got the bottle of nail varnish first? No tone, a simple line drawing.

And then, overlapping with that is the dog collar.

And finally we're gonna draw the third object, ensuring that some part of it overlaps the previous drawings, and so here we now have the watercolour palette overlapping with the dog collar.

All three objects are now connected through line.

So through line, these three objects that are meaningful to you are connected.

Take some time, really think about what objects are meaningful to you, collect them and then start drawing them.

Remember to draw the first one, then the second one overlapping, and then have some form of the third one overlapping too.

Pause the video.

Right, well, of course there are multiple outcomes depending on what the objects are that are meaningful to you.

Lucas has said, "I've drawn my favourite mug," we can see here, a trophy that he won and a camera, and they are now all connected through line.

So he started off with the mug.

Over that he drew in line, no tone, the trophy, and then on top of that the camera.

Well done, so you've started that connection through line and now we're gonna move on to looking at "Collaborating and connecting using malleable materials." Craft-based practises are sometimes passed down through families, communities, and generations.

They are rich in cultural knowledge and they connect people and they have deeply personal meanings.

So for example, this is an example of Peruvian weaving.

It's a craft-based practise that has been handed down.

Many cultures work with malleable materials such as this clay work here.

Other examples are intricately painted pottery from the Quechua people of the Andes and Bolivia, and sculptural vessels from the Yoruba people of Nigeria that carry deep spiritual and ancestral significance.

Which of the following is an example of a malleable material used in art and craft? So A, glass in its solid form; B, clay; C, stone.

So really think about the meaning of what malleable is and think about the answer.

Well done.

Yes, indeed it is of course clay.

Glass in its solid form and stone are not malleable because they're hard and brittle, so they can't be shaped or moulded by hand.

Many cultures use locally sourced materials and techniques for their craft, so those materials they find in their local environment or that are locally sourced.

And an example of this is basket weaving.

Have you ever done any basket weaving? Well, there's lots of different types of basket weaving, and the Gullah people of the American Southeast use coiled sweetgrass.

And the Samoans and Tongans use finely-woven panadanus leaf mats.

So both of those are locally sourced materials and techniques.

Paper is a highly malleable material.

So if you think about it, paper is malleable because it can be cut, it can be folded, torn, rolled, layered.

It can actually also be broken down so it can be popped and then reshaped into something else.

And increasingly it's becoming a material to mould into objects.

Examples of this include Korean hanji, which is made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree, and the hanji is known for its strength and durability.

And Japanese washi paper is used in a number of traditional craft techniques, including screens and lanterns and kites.

Many artists themselves use malleable materials within their artistic practise.

So Joy Gregory often uses paper and textiles as well as natural materials in her work.

And she uses these to explore themes such as language, history, identity.

Chris Day fuses clay and glass, so brings together clay and glass in highly personal sculptural installations.

And Janine Antoni, who has sculpted with soap and chocolate, exploring identity, body and touch.

So we can use a whole range of different malleable materials.

Sam and Izzy are discussing craft-based practise.

Sam says, "My grandmother taught me how to knit.

I'm hoping to make myself a scarf for next winter." So this is an example of a craft that's been passed down the generations through a family.

And Izzy says, "I learned at Scouts how to use recycled materials to make paper pulp.

I'd love to make a paper vase." And again, Izzy is part of the Scouting community, and so through the community and the connections within that community and the collaboration between them she has made craft-based objects, or would like to.

Some artists choose to work collaboratively, and sometimes with communities, bringing together their unique ideas, skills, and as we said earlier, perspectives.

Maren Hassinger has done collaborative projects where she works with others to make art, including braiding newspapers with communities.

So she takes newspapers and braids them.

Thomas Hirschhorn has created collaborative artworks in working-class communities.

He's worked with local residents helping build and maintain the installations, so there's a sense of longevity too.

And Suzanne Lacy was a pioneer of socially engaged art and public practise, and she worked with the people of Pendle to create a collaborative artwork.

So there are lots of examples of collaboration not only between fellow artists, but between artists and communities.

True or false? Artists always work alone to create their art.

Of course that's false, but why? Well done, we've just seen lots of examples.

Many artists collaborate with others and they work in teams or invite the community to be part of the process.

Making a collaborative artwork is a great way to share ideas and learn from each other and understand each other's perspectives.

It also builds teamwork, creativity, and of course, connection.

Izzy and Andeep are discussing collaboration.

Izzy's saying, "I'm worried about making a collaborative artwork in case the part I make isn't as good as everyone else's." And Andeep is reassuring her, as we should, "You shouldn't worry, Izzy.

Everyone's contribution is important and your part will help shape something no one can make alone." And that's really important.

It's not about being the best or letting anyone down.

The point of collaboration is coming together, sharing our unique perspectives and working together to create something.

So moving on to our final task.

We're gonna take our inspiration from that lovely line drawing you did earlier of the three memorable and meaningful objects and we're gonna make a 3D paper form.

So we're gonna use a viewfinder to choose an interesting section of the drawing.

And if you remember, a viewfinder is a piece of paper or card with a square cutout.

So it's a little bit like a frame that you can hold up and see different views.

So I would like you to either make one or take one and hold it over different parts of your drawing and find a part of your drawing that you think is interesting.

You're then gonna zoom in on that part and you're gonna draw it on a larger scale.

So we can see here that the part that was chosen has now been recreated on a larger scale.

Remember, only through line, no tone.

So once you've re-drawn it, we're gonna move on and you're going to look really closely at where the lines in your drawing cross over each other.

Can you see here? And you're then gonna construct the drawing into three dimensional using the malleable material paper.

So can you see how that has been reconstructed in 3D form? You don't have to worry about making it exactly the same.

This is about experimenting with paper and 3D and trying to echo where the lines cross over each other.

To do this, you tear newspaper or recyclable paper into long strips.

Then you're gonna twist the paper, 'cause it's malleable, you're gonna twist and twist.

And then you're gonna wrap it with tape so that it holds its shape, and then you can bend it and play with it.

And then when you're happy with the shape and where the lines are crossing over, you can take those bits together to make sure they stay.

Go and experiment.

Get your viewfinder, redraw that part of your picture larger, then get your paper, twist it, and then start sculpting that part of the drawing.

Right, I hope you had fun doing that and you really experimented with different shapes.

So, this is what Lucas did.

Lucas focused on the section in his drawing that includes lines from all three of the objects, so he really wanted to emphasise that connection.

He then redrew it.

And then, using the twisted paper, recreated it.

He's happy with the section of the drawing because it's translated well into paper form.

And Sofia here said, "I can't believe this paper structure has developed from a drawing of a dog collar, a nail varnish bottle, and a tin of watercolours." And isn't that true? That's developed from her drawing, very simple line drawing, into this beautiful structure piece.

The second part of this task is collaboration.

So if you are in class, I'd like you to collaborate in a small group to make a structure from the paper forms created earlier.

If you're working at home, you could create several different paper forms and do the same task.

Sofia is saying, "I'm going to collaborate with Andeep, Izzy, and Lucas to make a structure using our paper forms." And what they're gonna do is bring them together to create a beautiful, beautiful sculpture.

As I said, if you're working in class, please go into groups and work collaboratively.

And if you're at home, you could play around with some other paper and then form those together.

Pause the video.

Well done, let's see what Sofia, Andeep, Izzy, and Lucas made.

So, Andeep and Sofia first of all joined their paper forms together and it's beginning to look really interesting and it reminds Sofia of quite a skeletal structure.

Let's see what some of the other peoples have said.

So, Andeep has then said, "Lucas attached his paper form and it's becoming a lot wider and taller." It reminds Andeep of an insect.

Now Izzy is saying her form was added last as their collaborative structure and she actually thinks it looks really prehistoric.

What do you think? I think it does, it looks like a fossil.

And Lucas is saying he really enjoyed working collaboratively with everyone coming together to contribute to the final outcome and he decided to take a photo from a different angle.

And Andeep says, "There are so many possibilities of developing the structures.

We could collaborate with the rest of the class to make one huge structure, or we could paint them.

They could be photographed and digitally edited or even wrapped in threads." You could adorn them further with different textiles to allow people to communicate and touch and connect with your sculpture.

Well, thank you for joining me today for the lesson "The importance of relationships and connections through art." We've done a lot of work around collaboration and creating these connections and we know now that collaborating in art helps people make meaningful connections.

We can share ideas, learn from each other, understand each other's perspectives, and build trust through doing the creative process.

And through collaboration, relationships are not just formed through the final artwork, but through the actual act of making together.

And finally, using malleable materials like paper, like we did, or wire or thread or clay adds to this process because it allows us to have hands-on experimentation and flexible responses to each other's ideas.

Thank you again, and I hope to see you very soon.