Theme: Something About Love
Topic: Madeleine Wood, Vanessa Kwan, Kristina Jaugelis, Jenny Ham
Exhibition Background:
Something About Love is an exhibition of four different artists exploring the theme of love. Each artist considers the impact love has on our lives in their own unique way. The variations seen in this show include a personal look at romantic love and relationships, self-love and preservation, objects of desire, and pop-culture influences on our notions of what love is.
Madeleine Wood creates a patchwork of oil paintings depicting close up views of people, objects, and places of desire. By selecting which details to include in her series, she reveals a personal history of relationships and personal attachments.
Vanessa Kwan creates an installation of cast off materials, objects such as toys, clothing, and common household items, to question the objects we desire. What makes an object something we love or would give to someone else as a love token? What is it that makes one person love an object, where another person simply sees garbage?
Kristina Jaugelis creates life-size bed structures, an item often thought of as a place where love happens. However, her “beds” reveal objects related to fear and anxiety underneath. This positioning of objects of anxiety within an object of comfort explores the idea of love as including many different feelings and anxieties.
Jenny Ham relates love to her longing for home. A neon sign of the words “home sweet home” create a space where anywhere can be a place of comfort, familial love, and longing for the place we call home.
Objective:
• Students will gain a better understanding of a contemporary artist’s
work.
• Younger students will develop their cutting and pasting skills.
• Experiment with image juxtaposition through the combination of found
imagery to consider such questions as: Do certain colours, shapes, and textures
remind them of “love”? Do certain objects remind them of “love”?
What are some popular ideas in media (tv, magazines, etc.) about what love
is?
• Develop an understanding of the uses of colour, shape, and texture
in images.
• Develop an understanding of ‘composition’ in works of
art, in particular, how to position pictures or symbols to create an interesting
overall image.
• Introduce students to the idea of conceptual art; art that is based
on an idea.
Materials:
• Paper for collage (thick paper: card stock or poster board) –teacher
decides on the size whether this is a group project or individual collages
• Pencils and erasers
• Scissors
• Old magazines for collage (all sorts: fashion, nature, home, etc.)
• Other found objects for collage (paper scraps, arts and craft supplies,
food packaging, stickers, etc.)
• Glue
Preparation:
• Introduce the idea of collage by having students look at works of
various collage artists in books or on the internet. Some artists may include:
Picasso, Braque, or Joseph Cornell as art historical samples; Nick Bantock,
Marc Bell, or Paul Butler as contemporary examples.
• Introduce the idea of using love as a theme by looking at the works
in the Something About Love show at the Richmond Art Gallery.
• Ask your students what sort of images come to mind when they think
of the word “love”. Have a discussion about pop culture imagery
while flipping through magazines for the entire class to see. Ask your students
which images in a magazine remind them of “love”, and discuss
these questions:
• What colours in the images you see remind you of the word love?
• What shapes and/or textures make you think of “love”?
• What type of love do we see in magazines the most and the least (family,
self love, friendship, sexual, etc.)?
• How do these images make you feel about love?
• What images really stand out for you? Why?
• Which images do you like the most? Which images do you like the least?
• Who do you think these images are for? (adults, children, women, men)
• What do you think this image is saying about love?
• Younger students can focus on colours and shapes in these images rather
than having an in depth conversation about media imagery.
Procedure:
Have your students bring from home some images or objects of things they love. This may be from magazines you provide, including images of things they love or that they believe shows love. Anything they bring will be used as a collage element, so if photographs are brought from home they will need to be photocopied. If they bring objects, they need to be photographed or flat enough to be glued down. No text should be used; this is an exercise in expressing an idea with images only.
Students begin to cut out their images of ‘love’, and start to place them on their desks or store them in a folder or envelope. As their collection grows, the teacher can have group or individual discussions about each student’s collection and the many different ideas of love that are being represented.
Once students have their collected images and objects, show the samples of other artists’ collage works again. Notice how the artworks are composed, as many artists simplify their composition or use layering. As you show students samples, ask your students: Can you tell what story or concept the artworks tell? How do the pictures relate to one another? How are the pictures placed…are they placed side by side, on top of each other, or in some other way? How would you show your ideas using only pictures?
Have students place all their images and objects on their paper to be used for collage. Do not glue anything down, but move objects around to find a pleasing composition. Students will need to edit down their images to find a common theme. Remind them the focus is ‘love’, but they can simplify that even further. Some ideas are: love of certain foods, animals, places, people; relationships between family or friends; images and colours that remind them of love; symbols of love such as hearts; objects of desire; or romantic love.
Younger students can simplify their works for a focus on colours and shapes that remind them of love. To edit, they can keep similar colours and shapes and textures together for a more cohesive composition.
Once students have their collage planned out, they can begin the gluing. Spaces can be filled with coloured papers to add to the layering effect and also give some breathing room between images.
Once collages are finished, they can be sealed with watered down white glue or acrylic medium.
To conclude, have students view each others’ works. What are some of the different ideas about love? Discuss the different ways each artist expressed the concept of love. Older students can discuss the way pop culture sells ‘love’ and the type of imagery associated with love.
RESOURCES:
Atkinson, Jennifer L. Collage Art: A Step-by-Step Guide and Showcase. Rockport Publishers. 1999. ISBN 1564966402
BCATA Journal for Art Teachers. Various issues.
Leland, Nita and Virginia Lee Williams. Creative Collage Techniques. North Light Books, Ohio. 1994. ISBN 0-89134-563-9
Left: Madeleine Wood, Re Visioning, detail, 2004-5