Assemblage Sculpture Unit
Suitable for grades 9-12
A. Objectives
1. The student, using memoryware, will create an assemblage sculpture that is a symbolic representation of their world.
2. The students will be able to describe, interpret, and analyze the work of Judy Onofrio and other assemblage artists.
3. The students will be able to identify the elements and principles of design, apply the concepts, and be able to demonstrate the skills necessary to create an assemblage artwork.
4. The students will be able to respond to multiple types of feedback and reflect on how this project relates to their previous body of work
B. Materials
- 5 shoeboxes (created by the teacher) salted with memoryware. The students will practice creating a narrative from the life-world objects. We have shoeboxes in our attics. They are full of objects a relative saved because of their associated memory. They usually do not have a story attached.
- Internet connection in lab or on computer with Proxima (projector) in the classroom.
- Vocabulary Quiz Sheet
- Posters, slides, and postcardsother links to outsider and assemblage artists, grottos, environments, etc.
Click here for photographs of grottos and outsider art.
Click here to take a tour of Judyland.
- Found objects
- Stone by Stone mosaic piecesavailable from Dick Blick and other vendors.
- Liquid nails, construction cement, mastic, or DAP silicone adhesive
- 2 pink foam insulation board for armatures, wood, or cement
- Grout-tile available in all colors or modge-podge, tinted
- 8-mil gloves
- Rubber Spatula
- Bowls
- Sponges
C. Vocabulary
Assemblage: the 3-D counterpart to collage; a sculptural art form in which pre-existing elements are assembled to create a work of art
Found object: any natural or manmade object aesthetically chosen and displayed or incorporated into an artwork
Deconstruct: to investigate and pull apart in this lesson act as symbol detective
Outsider art: art created, often not intentionally as art, by one who has no formal or conventional training in art
Grout: a thin mortar or fine plaster used, e.g., for filling the spaces between objects in a mosaic
Armature: framework providing skeletal structure to a sculpture
Memoryware: objects or containers, usually functional, created using bits of personal memorabilia as surface decoration. *In an article by Donna Sapolin (Metropolitan Home 1990) it says
Throughout the ages from ancient African funerary vessels assembled from the deads beloved objects, to our centurys majestic Watts Towers, a Los Angeles folk monument of crockery, glass and sea shells ordinary people have found fulfillment in grafting fragments of their lives into sculpture and vessels. It goes by many names: in France, pique assiette (stolen from plates); here, bits-and-pieces, or the more memorabilia-laden memoryware."
Visionary: one who creates mold breaking, forward-thinking art, leading the way to new viewpoints.
Mosaic: technique for surface decoration in which small pieces of glass, ceramic, stone, or other materials are set in a mortar.
Relief: a three-dimensional work of art (height, width and depth) that is not free standing, it is often attached to a wall.
Sculpture: a piece of art that is three dimensional (height, width, depth), free standing, completed on all sides, and meant to be viewed in the round.
D. Preparation
Snappy Launch
The teacher shall prepare the five-memoryware shoeboxes. Select items that will provoke critical thinking and complex narratives. Award a prize for the most out of the box narrative.
The students will work in small groups to investigate the teachers box and develop a narrative/history/story using their Deconstruction Worksheet (30 minutes). One student will report the groups findings in a 3-5 minute presentation. Discourage show and tell recitations of the box contents. OR: challenge students to move beyond show and tell recitations of the box contents. Encourage them to create a history, using imagination, exaggeration and humor (Take pictures!). See notes on deconstruction sheet questions. What calendar date will the memoryware" narrative target? Who do/did the objects belong to? Why did this person save these items?
E. Procedure
Outdoor (group project):
- Discuss outdoor public sculpture. Use images and examples of both outdoor works by Judy Onofrio and other artists to support the discussion. Explain the process of submitting concept drawings and sketches. Students will find Web sites focused on outsider art and/or assemblage artists. Complete Reflective Journal Entry #1.
- Students will create at least two concept design sketches of a proposed group project to create a large outdoor public sculpture. Students will write a short paragraph describing his or her plans in Reflective Journal Entry #2.
- Pass out plastina clay and have students create maquettes (definition: small model of an intended work, like a sculpture)
 |
 |
| Click here for Carl's teacher reflection and student exemplars. |
- Concept sketches will be reviewed by a source to be determined by the individual situation (teacher, school board, superintendent, principal, city council, neighborhood association, etc.).
 |
 |
| Click here for Carl's teacher reflection and student exemplars. |
- The concept that is chosen will be presented to both the class and to an industrial tech. class. Students in both these classes will, with the help of the art teacher and the industrial tech. teacher, devise an action plan. See Reflective Journal Entry #3.
a. How will the work be constructed? Solve the engineering problem.
b. Who will be responsible for carrying out the various tasks? Identify participants roles.
c. What materials will be used? List.
 |
 |
| Click here for Carl's teacher reflection and student exemplars. |
- The industrial tech. class will construct a base for the sculpture to stand on. This will be done on site. See diagrams.
- Fine Arts Students will construct an armature out of either wood or metal. (Some of this might also require the assistance of the industrial tech class). See diagrams.
 |
 |
| Click here for Carl's teacher reflection and student exemplars. |
- Fine Arts students will create ceramic tiles out of clay, fire, and glaze them. Click here for illustrations.
- Start web board conversation. Fill out Reflective Journal Entry #4.
- Students will then use concrete and stucco to build up the form. See diagrams.
- A stucco recipe will then be used to set assemblage pieces in as decorative items and to install ceramic tiles.
 |
 |
| Click here for Carl's teacher reflection and student exemplars. |
- Study the Vocabulary Study Guide. Take Vocabulary Quiz.
*For stages 10-12 students and teachers will consult advisors via e-mail or web board for advice regarding construction methods.
Web Board Activities
1. To log onto the Web Board, go to www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/
2. Scroll down and select, on the left, Join the Discussion
3. The students will ask three questions they still have about the work or the artist.
4. The students will answer/respond to three different questions from their peers.
5. Each student will be required to write a paragraph describing his or her plan.
6. The students will print out their posts to include in journals for assessment. This will be the place where materials problems will be shared and mistakes avoided, deep thinking rewarded, and new friendships forged!
Click here to see Carl Anderson's illustrated step-by-step directions for outdoor sculpture construction.
F. Assessment
Click here to read about the Onofrio project in the local Remer newspapers.
Students will complete the following Assessment and Evaluation worksheets throughout this project.
1. Comparing & Contrasting Worksheet
3. Final Self-Critique
4. Rubric Scoring
5. Artist Statement Handout
Individual strands
To view individual unit strands developed by six master art teachersfive from middle schools and one from a high schoolhere in Minnesota, click below.
| HIGH SCHOOL ART TEACHER |
|
Carl Anderson
|