School: Artists for Kids Academy, North Vancouver

Teacher: Daylen Luchsinger

Artist Collaborators: Stephen Booth

Class: Visual Arts Grade 10 - 12

 

Overview

An inquiry into the ideas of the individual vs the collective through a student sculptural collaboration inspired from the public artwork presented by the Vancouver Biennale in North Vancouver.

 

Connection to the Vancouver Biennale Exhibition

Students visited the The Meeting and Walking Figures installations in North Vancouver to discuss the guiding questions & to start brainstorming ideas of their own.

 

BIG IDEAS

Visual arts have a role in reflecting, sustaining, and challenging beliefs, and traditions.

 

Guiding Questions

What does Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver mean to you?

How can these concepts be portrayed by a figure in an artwork?

 

Cross-Curricular Access

Students are encouraged to draw on knowledge from other subject areas, what does Open Boarders / Crossroads Vancouver look like from a scientific or humanities perspective? Exploration topics include:

Geopolitics and Trade

Culture and Biology (The human organism) collective behaviour

The exploration of collective and individual rights

Individual’s membership in community and civic responsibility and expectations

Literature story telling and the visual narrative

 

Learning Process/Inquiry Challenges

•  Introduction to Public Art and the Vancouver Biennale: Brainstorming session on what is the meaning of Open Borders / Crossroads and examine the subject matter and how can it be presented.

•  Site Visit: Explore individual and collective form. Critique of sculpture, document and share in class.

•  Exploration of Ideas and Creative Process:

The Individual: Through a standardized simplified figurative form to develop individual identifiers to personalize and characterize the individual in a grouping of figures. This might the expressed through the use of colour, words or symbols or a item of personalized detail.

Directions: The use of figures or figurative representations to create group formations. The artwork to pose a narrative question through installation and arrangement.

Face It/A Personal Feature: Small standardized clay portraits with singular individual personalization mounted or presented in formations to express collective collaboration.

Topics of Discussion and for consideration:

Collective action and planing

Group behaviour

Individuality and personality

Community projects and Collective action

Nationalism

Identity

Social activism

Politics

Charitable activities and foundations

Shared class, culture, multiculturalism

Geopolitics

•  Material and Creative Process Demonstration

•  Material Preparation and Study Model (Maquettes):  Continue to explore individual identity- how do one perceive oneself?

•  Material Work Sessions and Construction: Students create individual sculptures

•  Group Installation Discussion and Configuration: How to reflect individual and collective identities

 

Student Creation

A sculptural collaboration and exhibit inspired from the public artwork presented by the Vancouver Biennale in North Vancouver

 

Timeline

January

Planning and conceptualizing sessions. The artist and the teachers planned the entire project, enlisting the objectives, approach, workshop activities

February – March

•  Visit sculptures for inspiration and discussion

•  Post-field trip – idea development

•  Demonstration of materials and figure creation (ceramic)

•  Material preparation and students create maquettes as study models

•  Students create sculptures

•  Finalizing project display to reflect individual and collective identities

April

·  Sculptures in kiln

May – June

·  Put on the final touches and prepare for final exhibition