This sculptural project required my students (aged 16- 17 years) to think about how to create a sculpture using recycled/upcycled materials and how to create conceptual meaning through their artworks. They had an option of creating either a dress, a chandelier or a chair. Most of my students created dresses, and there are a lot of works that embrace the idea of ‘meaning through media’ in their work. This means that the actual objects that they have chosen to create the artwork is representational in itself.
This was a big project that required a lot of hard work and processing. I have decided to add some of the processing work that is done in a Visual Journal to this post, just to demonstrate and appreciate the thought that has gone into each of these works. They needed to research artists, create visual mind maps and create process drawings and annotated sketches that indicate their final ideas.
The sculpture in the background is a comment on consumerism in our society and is made with everyday household products. The top has been made out of plastic rubbish bags, the necklace out of coffee pods and the dress is circular cut outs from products such as chip packets, biscuit wrappers, milk cartons, washing powder boxes etc.
The dress in the foreground is a comment on body issues and the pressure placed on women to have the perfect body. It has been created using surgical gloves, medicine boxes, syringes and red wool to imitate blood. Below I have added images from the Visual Journal that demonstrates the processing required to create this dress.
Here are some more examples of final artworks…
Clockwise from top: Final sculpture- The Thinking Head; work in progress; work in progress close up.
The crazy red ball of string! It has so much energy!
This student found all the materials used in this sculpture on the beach. Absolutely everything! These were then manipulated and put together to represent a jelly fish. It is absolutely wonderful work.
Ballet shoes in a chandelier.
Some process photographs of the works being made.
This is a dress made from lost property. It is a very clever and quirky use of found material. Above is the Visual Journal processing images and below is the final artwork.
These works are incredible and I am such a proud teacher!
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