Mobile Moment

HANDS-ON CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

Grades: Elementary (4th)

Medium: Sculpture & Collage

Time Required: One 50-minute session

FEATURED ARTISTS

Dorothea Lange, Sean Duffy, Kori Newkirk, Lee Bul

LESSON OVERVIEW

Artists have an important social role in documenting and visualizing the times in which we live. The artworks they make—whether photographs or other media—help to capture and reflect specific moments of time. These works define our history, clarify the present, and look to the future. In the exhibition 15 Minutes of Fame, we see photographs that use portraiture to document all aspects of society and allow for anyone, well known or anonymous, to be visually sensationalized. In New Art for a New Century we see contemporary artists’ visions of the past, present and future.

Inspired by the works on view, students will each create a mobile self-portrait in three parts examining and depicting their past, present and future.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

  • Understand the basic nature of contemporary art, that it is being made currently and is process oriented
  • Understand how artists are influenced by their personal history and the world around them and how this shapes their identity and perspective
  • Create a portrait contextualized by their personal identity, past, present and the future

MATERIALS

  • 11x17 reproductions of Lange’s Migrant Mother, Duffy’s Horizontal Mobile II, Newkirk’s Hutch + detail, Bul’s Supernova
  • Posters with definitions and instructions for each segment of the mobile
  • Completed examples of mobile
  • Three 3” pre-cut, pre-folded paper circles with text templates for each student
  • Three 3” pre-cut, pre-folded circles of patterned paper for each student
  • Three 3” pre-cut, pre-folded paper circles in a solid color for each student
  • 21” of yarn, with bead and loop at top (pre-made)
  • Beads (optional)
  • Tacky glue & glue sticks
  • Large brown paper bags for collecting projects
  • Markers in various colors, distributed into bins for each table

ONGOING PREPARATION STEPS NEEDED

  • Print text templates
  • Cut paper circles (text templates, patterned and solid) and fold in half
  • Cut lengths of yarn; tie in loops with beads

VOCABULARY

Art Terms

  • Contemporary Art: Art of today produced by artists living in the twenty-first century.
  • Exhibition: A display of objects that have something in common
  • Mobile: a type of sculpture characterized by the ability to move when propelled by air or touch, or by a small motor. Mobiles are usually suspended and consist of a group of shapes that are connected by wires, string, or metal rods.
  • Personal History: The events and experiences of an individual's past that shapes your identity.
  • Portrait: An image representative of a person.
  • Self-portrait: A portrait created by yourself

Language Art Terms

  • Adjective: a word that describes a noun
  • Verb tense: a way of telling when an action took place

LESSON OUTLINE

INTERACTIVE INTRO DISCUSSION – 10 MINUTES

  • Welcome group to the classroom, review classroom rules and introduce the activity by discussing the exhibitions using the 11x17 images of works on view.
  • Many of the works you saw/will see in the galleries were portraits. What is a portrait? Is this a good example of the kind of portraits you’re talking about? (show Migrant Mother)
  • Look at portrait of Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange. - What does the portrait tell us about the people captured in the image? What can we discover about the time or place that these people lived?
  • Dorthea Lange took this photo of a woman and her children in 1936, during one of hardest times in our country, called The Great Depression. When this photo was taken, the woman and her family were moving to find work. What do you know about this woman’s life before this photo was taken? What about after the photo was taken? Photographs are a great way of capturing a moment in time, but they don’t always tell you the whole story about a person’s life.
  • This is the idea of today’s project; we are going to create a portrait that explores who we are at this moment, what we were like in our past, as well as what we hope to be in the future.
  • Artists don’t always tell us about other people in the way that Dorothea Lange is telling us about the woman in this photograph, artists also use self-portraits. Can someone tell us what a self-portrait is?
  • Many of you pointed out that photographs are a great way of making portraits, but we are going to use a different technique and material to create our portraits!

HANDS-ON WORK PART 1: PRESENT – WHO ARE YOU? (SEAN DUFFY) – 10 MINUTES

  • Hang up poster board with terms, photos of artwork, ideas for this time period, and the prompts for each circle. We are going to make mobiles, much like Sean Duffy did in his piece, Horizontal Mobile II, which you can see next door in the galleries. Have any of you ever made a mobile before? Sean Duffy created a mobile made of photos from album coveres of the favorite bands. In his free time, Sean Duffy spends hours listening to music and music is a big influence for Duffy as an artist. The kind of activities you participate in and the kinds of things you like tell a lot about who you are.
  • What we are going to do now is make a segment of our mobile that shows who we are today. Assistant’s nameis going to pass out a piece of paper that asks you to write one word to describe yourself. It can be an adjective, which is a descriptive word, like ‘silly,’ ‘happy,’ ‘playful,’ ‘artistic,’ or it can be a noun like ‘sister,’ ‘brother,’ ‘student,’ ‘soccer player.’ I’m sure you are all playful and artistic, but I want you to think of words that are unique to who you are today. Once you get the paper, write down your word, then put your pen down and look back up at me so I know you’re finished.
  • Remember we are talking about ourselves today in the present day. We are using verbs that tell us what time it is. Can someone give me an example of a verb? (run) If I say “I run” what time period is that taking place in? (present) If I say “I ran” what time is that taking place? (past) What about if I say “I will run”? (future). Today we are going to use the verb “to be” to describe ourselves captured at different times in our life. Right now, we are using the words “I am” to talk about who we are today.
  • Sean Duffy shared his personal identity with us by showing us his favorite types of music. I’d like for you now to think about your favorite sport or activity you like doing. Choose a solid color piece of paper and make a quick sketch of your favorite activity.
  • Now pick one patterned piece of paper from the bins that you like. After you’ve done this, put all three of your circles in a pile on your right.

HANDS-ON WORK PART 1: PAST – WHERE DO YOU COME FROM? (KORI NEWKIRK) – 10 MINUTES

  • Hang up poster board with terms, photos of artwork, ideas for this time period, and the prompts for each circle
  • You have all shared some interesting facts about who you are today, but artists are also very good at telling us about history, just like in the photograph by Dorothea Lange that I showed you earlier. Artist Kori Newkirk, created this work to share his past and personal history, showing where he comes from and how that has shaped him. What type of landscape has Kori Newkirk captured in this work? Is it a place that you would want to live or spend time? This image is of Kori Newkirk’s neighborhood where he grew up. What is this artwork made of-can you tell? Newkirk made it by stringing beads on strands of synthetic hair, mimicking the way beads are worn in braided hair by some African Americans (it was especially fashionable in the 1980’s when Newkirk was growing up). These materials, and the image created on the beaded curtain tell us about the artist’s past. His art grew out of his personal history. What is a personal history?
  • Art can be a great way to tell people about your personal history and how it has shaped who you are.
  • Assistant’s nameisnow going to pass out another part of our mobile, where I ask you to tell us what city you were born in. This tells where you come from.
  • Notice we are using the word “was” because we are talking about ourselves in the past.
  • After you write the city you were born in, choose a solid color paper from the bins. On this circle, draw your favorite toy or stuffed animal from when you were younger. Your favorite toys from when you were little are specific to the age you where when you played with them. Do you think your favorite toy will change over time?
  • Now, select a patterned piece of paper from the bins. On this paper, write your name. This will help us know whose mobile is who’s but our names are also important to our personal history. Please put all three of these circles in a pile to the left of other pile.

HANDS-ON WORK PART 3: FUTURE – WHAT WILL YOU BE? (LEE BUL) – 10 MINUTES

  • Hang up poster board with terms, photos of artwork, ideas for this time period, and the prompts for each circle
  • Even though Hutch and Mobile II aren’t portraits in the traditional sense like we discussed earlier, they are works of art that reveal parts of the artists’ identities and their personal history.
  • Last, let’s look at Lee Bul’s sculpture, Supernova. This work represents Bul’s vision of the future. What parts can you identify? Bul combines technology with nature to create a totally new form. Lee Bul’s form is abstract looking, because she doesn’t know exactly what the future will hold. Can any of you see into the future? Well, even if we don’t know what will happen in the future, we can certainly wish for things to happen in our life.
  • Assistant’s nameisnow going to pass out another part of our mobile, where I ask you to tell us what you will be in the future. Nobody knows for sure what he or she will be, so write down what you hope to be in the future. Again, you can use an adjective like “rich” “happy” or “silly” or you can use a noun like “astronaut” “president” or “football player”
  • Notice we are using the words “will be” because we are talking about ourselves in the future.
  • After you write what you hope to be in the future, choose a solid color paper from the bins. On this circle, draw a wish you have for the future. What do you hope the future will bring? If you want, you can draw an abstracted wish like Lee Bul did.
  • Now, select a patterned piece of paper from the bins.
  • Make sure each of your present, past, and future sets of circles are in separate piles so we can move on to putting our mobile together to great a whole self-portrait.

1. Focus on the Past/ Where do I come from? (Newkirk)

  • (Template) Where do I come from? (Prompt: “I was born in…”)
  • (Solid) What was your favorite toy/stuffed animal when you were younger?

2. Right Now/What influences me today? (Duffy)

  • (Template) Who am I? (Prompt: “I am…” – fill in with adjectives/nouns)
  • (Solid) What is your favorite sport/activity?

3. Looking Ahead/What are your hopes for the future? (Bul)

  • (Template) What will I become? (Template: “When I grow up I will be….” – fill in with profession or adjective)
  • (Solid) If you could have one wish for your future, what would it be?

Template text printed circles:

  1. I was born in ______
  2. I am ______
  3. When I grow up I will be ______

For each mobile level (4th grade and up):

Choose 1 text template to fill in the blanks

Choose 1 question to be drawn on solid paper

Choose 1 patterned paper to represent time period

For each mobile level (2nd grade):

Choose 1 text template to fill in the blanks

Choose 1 solid paper – with no drawing

Choose 1 patterned paper

HANDS-ON WORK PART 4: ASSEMBLY AND WRAP UP DISCUSSION – 10 MINUTES

  • Regain group’s attention, and briefly discuss the process we just went through. Ask, how do these three parts of our mobile represent us? Compare and contrast the mobile to a photograph of ourselves from the past and present? How does the mobile capture moments of our past, present and future? Why do you think contemporary artists like Sean Duffy or Kori Newkirk choose to use experimental media like mobiles and beaded curtains for their art rather than traditional media like photos? Many contemporary artists make representations of the past, present and future to tell a story, and you all did just that, telling us a story about yourselves! This portrait captured the present moment of our lives, reached back into the past and looks to the future. When you get back at school take some time to look over everyone’s mobile and you can see how unique they each are and how the person’s history shapes their present and future.
  • Ask students to clean up their workstations and push in their chairs.
  • Have students line up at the door and collect finished mobiles into the large paper bag that will be given to the teacher to transport home.

ASSESSMENT

  • Do students understand the concepts of portraiture, personal history and contemporary art?
  • Do students understand the way time plays an important role in art personal identity?
  • Were students able to successfully create a portrait of themselves and identify forces that influence our perspective?

State Learning Standards

Visual Arts

1.0 ARTISTIC PERCEPTION: Processing, Analyzing, and Responding to Sensory Information Through the Language and Skills Unique to the Visual Arts

Students perceive and respond to works of art, objects in nature, events, and the environment. They also use the vocabulary of the visual arts to express their observations.

Develop Perceptual Skills and Visual Arts Vocabulary

1.1 Perceive and describe contrast and emphasis in works of art and in the environment.

2.0 CREATIVE EXPRESSION: Creating, Performing, and Participating in the Visual Arts

Students apply artistic processes and skills, using a variety of media to communicate meaning and intent in original works of art.

Skills, Processes, Materials, and Tools

2.3 Use additive and subtractive processes in making simple sculptural forms.

4.0 AESTHETIC VALUING: Responding to, Analyzing, and Making Judgments About Works in the Visual Arts

Students analyze, assess, and derive meaning from works of art, including their own, according to the elements of art, the principles of design, and aesthetic qualities.

Derive Meaning

4.2 Identify and describe how a person's own cultural context influences individual responses to works of art.

4.3 Discuss how the subject and selection of media relate to the meaning or purpose of a work of art.

Make Informed Judgments

4.5 Describe how the individual experiences of an artist may influence the development of specific works of art.