| MIDDLE SCHOOL
TITLE OF LESSON: USING OUR OWN MEMORYWARE JUDITH CHRISTOFFERSEN |
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Assemblage Sculpture Unit
Adaptable for Grades 5-12 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
Additional Resources: JUDYLAND, The Art of Judy Onofrio—an exhibition catalog with a biography of the artist.
The above museum also has a greeting card of HEAR A DEAR that is in their permanent collection. Cost: $1.50. An excellent poster of Larry Fuente's Game Fish is available from the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, which is a Smithsonian Institution. The fish is totally constructed from found objects. Making Bits and Pieces MOSAICS, Marlene Hurley Marshall Mosaics -Kaffe Fassett and Candace Bahouth The Mosaic Book-Ideas, Projects and Techniques-Peggy Vance and Celia 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 dead’s beloved objects, to our century’s 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 shoe boxes. 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 teacher’s memoryware box and develop a narrative/history/story using their Deconstruction Worksheet (30 minutes). One student will report the group’s findings in a 3-5 minute presentation. 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 1. Point out Vocabulary Study Guide and Judy Onofrio Biography Info Sheet in the student workbook. Visit Judy Onofrio link on www.ArtsNet.mn.org, along with posters, postcards, books, in the theme "Inner Worlds".
2. The students will plan their assemblage using the Project Planning Form. The students will complete a plan/sketch in their journal for teacher/peer feedback. Here is where the students set the problem. Engineering, materials, questions and problems resolved. (This is where they should be brainstorming content. they may need to explore object, memories, stories in their journals that result in sketches/engineering/problems to follow.) 3. The students will bring in their “memoryware”, “power object”, “souvenirs, toys, mementos”, etc. from their lived experience. The students will continue to plan/sketch in their journal for teacher/peer feedback. They solve more engineering problems here.
4. The teacher will execute a demonstration of materials and techniques to be used during construction (and model the use of personal narrative content). 5. Students will take the Vocabulary Quiz. 6. Students will create the works. 7. Throughout the project, students will communicate on the ArtsConnected Web Board. 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 for assemblage. This will be the place where materials problems will be shared and mistakes avoided, deep thinking rewarded, and new friendships forged! 6. The students will print out their posts to include in journals for assessment.
Individual strands To view individual unit strands developed by six master art teachers—five from middle schools and one from a high school—here in Minnesota, click below.
F. Assessment Students will complete the following Assessment and Evaluation worksheets throughout this project. |
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