|
A
Portable Landscape
Subject
Area
This activity has been designed for the Visual Arts curriculum
in a unit on three-dimensional media. Students are to design and
execute a sculptural landscape that is fitted inside a portable
carrying case. This is designed to allow students to express some
aspect of themselves or their environment. The case is to be of
garbage quality, that is, the enclosure must have been obtained
from a dump, trash can, or attic. The lid will contain a two-dimensional
image and the lower section will be formed with found or natural
objects. The two components are to be integrated into one unified
work of art.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching, learning and evaluation will focus on the students
ability to:
- Design
and construct a portable landscape;
- Demonstrate
awareness that physical and cultural environments influence
the function and form of artifacts;
- Control
materials and tools;
- Create
and follow a plan through to a finished product;
- Visually
interpret a theme through the medium of a portable landscape.
Materials
The materials required for this activity depend on the media chosen
by the the students, but may include: plaster, wire mesh, and
paints. Remind students that all materials must be from post-consumer
sources. Discarded paint, paper, wood, wire, bits of consumer
products are all acceptable materials for this activity. Examples
of the work of other students, other cultures, and other time
periods are also essential for students to help them to understand
the options and variables available to them through this activity.
Timing
This activity will take approximately two weeks to complete. The
first week is taken up with the class introduction and discussion,
individual research and design. The second week is reserved for
the construction of the artifacts, class presentations and discussions.
Background
The case or container is a potentially powerful metaphor, especially
for environmental themes. A cigar box can be metaphorically presented
as a symbol of pollution, while the expression like sardines
in a can represents the idea of overcrowding. Both of these
containers can, for the artist, represent environmental themes
relating to population and industrialization. Cases are also used
for a variety of purposes in various cultures and societies, and,
as such, they present an opportunity for rich artistic expression.
A case may be used to contain something sacred, or at least very
preciousas with coffins, and jewellry boxes.
In this activity, students must first decide what they feel is
symbolically important and deserves to be preserved and protected,
or perhaps contained and prevented from escaping.
Many religions have sacred objects which are housed in significant
boxes; the Jewish ark that contains the covenant of Abraham, Russian
Orthodox Icons, Japanese Dibutsu (Buddahs). Students will be able
to supply more examples.
Pandoras box is another powerful box with associated
meanings that are relevant in an environmental context. Many people
see the powerful knowledge which has emerged recently, such as
nuclear power and genetic engineering, as a potential a Pandoras
box, which once opened unleashes all manner of unexpected results.
Cases which open and close evoke questions about the nature of
Earth. Is the global ecosystem open or closed? What are the implications
of living in a closed system? What significance does the concept
of closure have for humanity? What significance does the concept
of containment have to a species which prides itself on breaking
through all barriers?
The core of the romantic ideal, as expressed in the poetry and
art of William Blake, is that freedom, the essence of life, is
to break loose from all of the chains which bind us. Modern artists
claim this tradition for their own even while they reject most
others; the generations of the late Twentieth century have accepted
this unquestioningly.
Finally, cases often have locks. What are the locks and what are
the keys?
References
Marcel Duchamp. Boite-en-valise. 1938. Trans. by George Hamilton.
New Haven: Ready-made Press, 1957.
Duchamp, Marcel. Definitely Marcel Duchamp. Cambridge: MIT Press,
1993.
Lyotard, Jean Francois. Duchamps transformers: a book. Venice,
Ca.: Lapis Press, 1990.
Classroom
Development
- Introduce
students to the themes to be developed in this activity. Words
and ideas such as sacred, protected, protecting, freedom, struggle,
closure, locks, locking and unlocking, open and closed systems
(intellectual, religious, and environmental) can be written
on the board or presented orally. Have the class, in whatever
size group it wishes, brainstorm the personal, environmental,
social, and political dimensions of these ideas. Inform students
that the aim is to discover an issue that they can address in
a work containing the elements outlined in the Background section
above.
- Discuss
symbol-making and interpreting symbols. Examine how an artificial
environment can express natural symbols. Have students sketch
ideas that try to symbolically illustrate the environmental
message which they would like to communicate in a contained
space.
- Discuss
the plastic nature of sculpture, and outline how students are
to approach their own design. Students are to research and design
their own portable landscape. Make sure that they keep a complete
log outlining the research, ideas, influences, and intellectual
processes that go into their work. They are to express some
aspect of themselves and/or their relationship to the material(s)
they are working with and their environment (either natural
or altered by humans). This expression must be documented by
the student so that the success of the translation from concept
to completed work can be properly understood by the student
and critiqued in class. As part of this log, each student is
to present a proposal for the miniature portable installation
which they plan to construct.
- Students
should be given an opportunity to forage for materials
for constructing their landscapes.
- Students
are expected to complete their work in class so that the instructor
can make sure that no non-reused materials are used. Remember
that the prohibition against new materials include glues, hardware,
and paint.
- Students
present and discuss their art work. Each student should be ready
to explain the symbolic content of their work within the context
of their notes.
Cross-disciplinary
links
EnglishWilliam Gibsons novel Count Zero (Ace, 1986)
would extend this activity into the English curriculum. The main
theme of the novel is that of an artificial entity called Wintermute
who seeks to escape from physical and psychic bondage. This AI
(artificially intelligent computer program) is unknowingly sought
by an art dealer named Marly who is looking for the mysterious
artist of highly prized Boxes identical in spirit
and construction to the ones that the students will be creating.
The AI is the artist that Marly is seeking. This novel is suitable
for senior students only. The activities Johnney Mnemonic
and Novel Study also consider the works of Canadian
writer William Gibson.
|
|