This lesson is suitable for students in : Secondary 2, 3 & JC1
Artwork title: Figure of Speech
Name of artists: Joanna Ng, Shuhui, Chia Wei Hou, Ang Tze Qi
Artwork Lesson Idea description
What is drawing? Drawing is essentially a story told through mark making. If a drawing says a thousand words, can we not use drawing for conversation?
This lesson explores using alternative methods to engage in drawing.
One such method would be palimpsest whereby we are able to layer the marks one on top of another to form a dense histories and journeys taken by the artist as they respond and react to the previous drawings.
This way of working is definitely performative, as the participant responds to the one another through drawing on the drawing, a conversation or dialogue will be forged with the artists.
Students are encouraged to be imaginative and take sensible risks to enact this task of drawing upon other drawings, and to enrich it with meanings and visual outcomes.d
Students will also learn to be observant as they will be exploring and discovering different means of mark making and drawing with different types of drawing tools.
Lesson Sequence:
1. Students are introduced to the concept of palimpsest through the visual analysis and appreciation of works/drawings of contemporary artists such as Julie Mehretu, Il Lee and Sol Lewit.
2. At the same time, students are informed to perceive drawings as act of “mark making”— before we recognise the subject matter in the drawing, we first acknowledge that it was “drawn” and it was made up of different types of marks that essentially constitute a piece of drawing.
3. Students will form groups of 4 to make a drawing based on their own ideas or inspirations for 15mins.
4. After which students will pass their drawings to the next person in their group, and the next person will continue to “act” or “draw” on the same piece of drawing.
5. Students are reminded that they are supposed to draw over the previous drawings and respond to it. They can respond to the drawings and add on to it in any creative ways, for example, draw with different types of drawing tools, or they can also use the eraser as a drawing tool.
6. This will repeat until a drawing has been circulated through all members in the group.
7. The lesson will end with a mass critique on the drawings students have made. Comments should be deliberately made to get students to appreciate the wide range of mark making found on layers of drawings made onto a single piece of paper.
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