artistteachercef

Year 7 artists building, thinking, recording.

Year 7 have joined the RGS Newcastle Senior School. It is a time of change for them. I want them to work together to explore the idea of being in a new world.

As a first group Art project, I want them to explore a place of difference; underwater. They are tasked with developing a ‘diving mask’ using repurposed safety goggles/ glasses recycled from the school Science Department.

I want the students to explore a range of materials and be able to access and develop skills with glue guns, scalpels and recycled modelling materials.

I want them to help each other to critique, adjust and develop their designs and masks and test them for the effect on the change in eyesight of the wearer and the effect of the mask on their audience.

I want them to perform in their masks and perform with them, understanding how small changes in how we can process the world around us can be creative, exciting and thought provoking.

I want them to see Art as being creative, personal and for them to be ‘cultural brokers’ passing on intelligence of feeling, references and stories to their friends, families and communities.

This is a ‘WaterWall’ photographed in Leeds at the Henry Moore Institute, the work was on show as part of the public participation activity at the ‘Weight of Words’ exhibition. Alison Smith, Learning Officer at Henry Moore, Leeds, has given me permission to reference and respond to her work.

I would like the students to respond to the ‘WaterWall’ by writing down on strips of blue stained tracing paper, how they felt on their first day in RGS senior school, what it feels like to be in a new world and what it feels like to wear their own mask and perform in both their own and a group performance.

I would like the students to use Flip Grid to record a video of them wearing their own mask and moving through their ‘WaterWall’.

Students can use video editing on Flip Grid very easily and Adobe Creative Suite is available for them to use in school for learning Final Cut Pro. Some students will have editing software on their devices and editing apps on phones at home.

I will invite Ruth Gibson, our Art technician to do a formal recording of the on stage performance of ‘WaterWall’ and to edit the resulting film for a whole class record to be played at the school Open Morning.

This is a photograph of a disused doorway in an old building in Venice. There is an anon. bill poster artist using the motif of the diving mask in a creative way. The work can be seen as a single poster or a collective, they choose to post on old walls or disused spaces. The bill boards are drawn/collaged cleverly onto images traced and enlarged from famous Leonardo Da Vinci paintings and drawings.

There is a humour in the juxtaposition of the mask, blue underwater vibe and the fun of seeing multiples of the art work around Venice.

RGS has a history of poster making to advertise clubs and events around the school. I want the school to become a gallery for the year 7 new students’ works.

This opens up developments for me; to ask students to take a pose from a Leonardo painting or drawing of their choice and become familiar with his images, Folios and to become accustomed to researching artists’ work.

Students will have chance to create a ‘self portrait’ wearing their own mask, emulating the pose from their choice of Leonardo’s work and referencing the billboard idea.

Digital drawing or tracing of the original Leonardo and collaging their own mask onto the tracing combines a lot of skills and materials. Transferring images, testing and applying materials, creating a cropped poster image, reviewing and adjusting, making changes and recording progress.

Photocopying using the ‘single colour’ function on the photocopier will enable the same effect to be achieved.

The billboards look like they have been weathered and to give this effect, students will be tasked with distressing their work using sandpaper and then wheat pasting onto board/ surface. The distressed/ weathered posters can be printed and displayed anonymously, continuing a culture of Art belonging to both new and established students.