Object Trouve

1. Object Trouve MYP 4 The impact of decision-making of ourconsumption society canbepresentedthrough the change of context of everydaydiscardedgoodsandproducts, in order toincreaseaudience awareness.

2. Remember the last unit we did? The first lesson we have made our own Inquiry Questions in order to understand what we could expect from the unit. This time we are going to do this differently. Go and sit in 4 groups: Each group will receive several sheets of paper on which we are going to do a task.

3. ATL F • Task: • On the A3 paper thatyou have receivedyou are goingto make a mindmaptogetherwithyourgroup. • Write down the words • Discuss the meaning of the individualwords (notethem down next to the word • Make connectionsbetween the different words (indicatethemwitharrows, andwrite down whatyouthinkconnectsthemwitheachother • Connect all the wordswitheachother (write down a statement at the bottom of your paper) D • Encourage others to contribute • Negotiate effectively • Manage and resolve conflict and work collaboratively as a team • Listen actively to other perspectives and ideas 0/8 Globalisation and sustainabilaty Change Presentation Audience One man’s trash is another man’s treasure

4. Change Style From Cave to Metropolis Scientific and Technical Innovation Boundaries Innovation So, we think that architecture developed from cave to metropolis because things changed, the invented new things. Or maybe the style of architects might have been changed because there were no boundaries.

5. One Man’s trash is another man’s treasure Have you ever been to the art store to buy materials? They don’t come cheap. While saved expenses are a bonus, most garbage artists use trash to create their artworks for other reasons. Some try to make statements about the nature of waste in our society while others employ recycled materials simply to get us to think about ordinary objects in a new and different way. We all know that you’re supposed to reduce, re-use and recycle, but for artists, re-use and recycle often haven totally different meanings than they do for the rest of us.

6. It started with the collages that we find in the Cubist artworks made by Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Both artists began working on collages about the same time, but it’s difficult to say who actually invented collage as it is now known. • Collage is the process of pasting bits of newspaper, ribbons and other objects onto paper or canvas. • Picasso wanted to expand the 2d-picture and sought to change it. • Collage developed along with Cubism. In 1912, Picasso created three-dimensional ‘collages’. Although these collages featured found objects pasted onto the canvas as did the earlier ones, these objects became sculptures on the canvas. This was a departure from the original goal of Cubism. Picasso’s first creation in this vein was a guitar.

7. What makes a work of art? F D 0/8 • Make a list of your criteria for what art is by considering these questions: • What should an artwork provide to both the maker and the viewer? • Who is it for? • Where does one encounter art? • What is the role of the artist? • Does art always have to be beautiful? Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel. New York, 1951. and In Advance of the Broken arm. • Compare, discuss and debate your criteria with your classmates. Which criteria do you have in common and which do you disagree about? • Reflect: Do bicycle wheel and In Advance of the Broken arms by Marcel Duchamp meet any of the criteria? Do they challenge your expectations of what a work of art can be? If so, in what ways?

8. Many artist pick up on this idea and start exploring with the use of collages and found objects. These found objects are often reffered to as ‘object trouvé’. • Some artists like Marcel Duchamp used this medium in order to evoke the discussion on ‘What is art’. • Seeking alternatives to represent objects in paint, Duchamp began presenting objects themselves as art. He selected mass-produced, commercially available objects, designating them as art and giving them titles. • These ‘Readymades’, as he called them disrupted centuries of thinking about the artist’s role as a skilled creator of oriniganl handmade objects. Instead, Duchamp argued, ‘An ordinary object (could be) elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.’ Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel. New York, 1951. (third version, after lost original of 1913)

9. Make your own ‘readymade’ • Bicycle wheel is the first of Duchamp’s readymades (sometimes manufactured or mass-produced) selected by the artist and designated as art. • Research: Conduct research on how Marchel Duchamp uses readymades in his work and what can be perceived as a readymade. • Select three objects from your surrounding environment to designate as readymades. • Reflect: Brainstorm a list of titles for your readymades. Display or take snapshots of your readymades along with their titles. • Did wordplay or humor play a role in the titles you selected? How do the titles affect the way these everyday objects are perceived by yourself and others.

10. Artistic Exchange with a friend • Explore the spirit of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque’s collaboration by writing a letter or e-mail to a friend about a new or past artwork. The letter should describe what the work looks like, what message it conveys, and what process your used in creating it. Here are some prompts to get you started: • Dear _____________, Let me tell you about my latest artwork, [Title]. I got started first by …. When I was making this artwork, I was thinking/expressing…. When I got stuck I …. I decided it was finished when ….. Or I would still like to do ….. Do you have any suggestions or feedback for me? • Share: Give your letter to a friend. Your partner should resond in kind with a letter • Reflect: Talk about what insights you have gained from your friend’s comments and suggestions. Through exchange, you may decide to collaborate on a joint work or project.

11. Assessment Criteria 1st letter

12. Assessment criteria evaluation

13. Robert Rauschenbert, Bed, mixed media, 1955 Robert Rauschenberg, Canyon, mixed media, 1959 • An artist that was very inspired by the work and the statements made by Duchamp was Robert Rauschenberg. • He was considered by many to be one of the most influential American Artists due to his radical blending of materials and methods. • Bed is one of Rauschenberg’s first combines, the artist’s term for his technique of attaching found objects, such as tires or old furniture, to a traditional canvas support. • Legend has it that these are Rauschenberg’s own pillow and blanket, which he used when he could not affortd to buy a new canvas. Hung on the wall like a traditional painting, his bed, still made, becomes sort of intimate self-portrait consistent with Rauschenberg’s assertion that ‘painting relates to both art and life… [and] I try to act in that gap between the two’ • For Rauschenberg, the combines were about discovery and chance: ‘I wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the suprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises. And if it wasn’t a suprise at first, by the time I got through with it, it was. So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing.’

14. The French-American artist Arman had first emerged as an abstract painter before rejecting the style and began making sculpture inspired by the concept of the readymade. Arman’s most notealbe work was preoccupied with the consequenses of mass production. His accumulations often reflected on the identical character of modern objects, his Poubelles, or ‘trash cans’, considered the waste that results when these objects are discarded. Poubelle refers to a certain technique in which the objects are put in a glass box or jar. Arman, Unique, 1972 Arman, Household garbage in glass box, 1959 • Arman’s persistent use of trash was deliberate nod to the waste that mass production generates when time passes and goods are discarded. It also points to the wreckage of human history and the treat that humanity’s production of waste might eventually literally bury us. Arman’s work might be read as an important early response to environmental issues.

15. Art and Controversy • At the time they were made, works of art like Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel were received with controversy. Critics called Duchamp’s readymades immoral and vulgar, even plagiaristic. • Research: Conduct research on a work of art or art exhibition that has recently been met with controversy. Find at least two articles that critique the work or exhibition. • Reflect: Write a 500 word summary of the issues addressed in these articles • What is it about these works that upset, challenge or offend the critics? Was the controversial reception related to the display or installation, the medium, the scale, the costs, or the location of the work. Do you agree with the critic’s assessment? • Need ideas? Start at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art#Controversial_art.

16. Another artist who made great use of trash in his works of art was Kurt Schwitters. ‘I could see no reason why used tram tickers, bits of driftwood and old junk from the attic and rubbish heaps should not serve well as materials for paintings, they suited the purpose just as well as factory made paints…. It is possible to cry out using bits of rubbish, and that’s what I did, gluing and nailing them together.’ • His works were born out of his post-war feeling. ‘Everything had broken down and new things had to be made out of the fragments: and this is Merz.’ Kurt Schwitters - Merzbild - Rossfett (1919) The years immediately after WWI were filled with great ferment and experimentation. In this climate Schwitters developed his own unique aesthetic, which he called ‘Merz’. The concept was based on assemblage and for Schwitters Merz was an attempt to achieve freedom from all social, political and cultural fetters. Kurt Schwitters: Construction for Noble Ladies (1919)

17. Create a poem object (Poème-Objet) • Dada artists created work from everything from found objects to the items pulled from their pockets. These were combined with words to create something called a ‘poem object’ • Make: Choose a partner and pull items from your pockets, wallets, or bags. Arrange the object on a sheet of paper. • Taking turns, write a word, a noise that comes to mind as you assemble your creation. Your poem needn’t to make sense, nor does it need to have a clear connection to the objects your chose. • Record your poem on a sheet of paper.

18. Make a collage • As we have seen artist sometimes incorporate unusual elements into their paintings. Create your own collage that features a person and reveals something about their emotion or state of mind. • Start with images cut out of magazines and newspapers. Think about subject matter, style, and composition, then come up with a title for your work.

19. Joseph Cornell’s signature art form is the shadow box. Infused with a dream-like aura, the shadow boxes invite the viewer into Cornell’s own private, magical world. Alternaterly known as ‘memory boxes’ or ‘poetic theaters,’’ the boxes evoke the memories associated with the items contained within, while also containing parallels with, or expressing reverence for, other art forms. • Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s, ‘readymades,’, Cornell elevated the found object to the center of his oeuvre. Often purchased on Cornell’s frequent visitis to New York secondhand shops or cut out from magazines, these objects comprise the primary materials of his art. • This work was the first of his shadow boxes, containing many characteristic features of his signature art form. In these works he used surrealist practice of juxtaposing unrelating found objects. • Some writers have interpreted the piece as a family portrait. Joseph Cornell, Untitled (soap bubble set), 1936, Wood, glass, plastic, paper, box construction, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Hartford Doll’s head: the artist Egg: symbolizing the mother Pipe: Symbolizing the father Four blocks: Cornell and his 3 siblings