Arts 105 - History of Art I – Creative Reflection Project

Arts 105 - History of Art I – Creative Reflection Project Art Response Piece and Comparative Research Statement Professor: Jessica Walton Each of you throughout this semester will create a work of art in response to a work made during a cultural/historic period discussed in this course. Your response piece can be made in any medium. For example, your work can be a painting, a drawing, a photograph, a ceramic piece, a sculpture, a digital work, a photographically documented installation, performance, etc. Your response piece should respond visually and/or thematically to the work you chose from the past. Throughout the semester, each of you will individually present to the class both the piece that you made and as well as how your piece relates to a work from the past. You will research the piece to which you are responding and intelligently describe to the class how your piece is responding to this work.

Artist’s works often respond to art history. This assignment will give you a chance to articulate how your own work conceptually relates to the past.

The following are examples taken from contemporary artist’s work. These are just examples to show how a contemporary piece could relate to work from the past. In your project, you will create your own creative response.

Afterlife always open to danger so tombs were equipped with practical items such as food, clothing, and furniture as well as reliefs, paintings and other objects (such as jewelry with protective or magical functions, figures of deities, and miniature models of building, servants, and soldiers). These were all designed to insure safety and well being of person through eternity. Tomb of Meketre, Thebes, Egypt ca. 1,985 B.C.E.

Ancient Egyptians buried their dead in tombs with miniature models of houses in order to provide a home for the spirit of the deceased. Model of a House and Garden Tomb of Meketre, Deir el-Bahi 11th Dynasty c. 2125-2055 BCE Painted and plastered wood and copper Length = 33 inches

Do Ho Suh is a contemporary artist who created an exact replica of his childhood home from Korea made to scale in silk. He discussed this work relating to his feeling of displacement and wanting to transport the physical and emotional space of “home” wherever he went. Do-Ho Suh, SouelHome/ L.A. Home/ New York Home/Baltimore Home/London Home/Seattle Home, 1999, Silk, 149 x 240 x 240 inches

Do Ho Suh states: My Korean house project was about transporting space from one place to the other, a way of dealing with cultural displacement. I don’t really get homesick that much, but I’ve noticed that I have this longing for a particular space and just want to recreate it or bring it wherever I go. So the choice of material was fabric. I had to make something light and transportable, something that you can fold and put in a suitcase and bring with me all the time.

Here is another artist’s work that could relate to the Ancient Egyptian model of the home Charles Simonds Charles Simonds, American, b. 1945,Floral Font (detail),1989, Clay, wood, plaster

Stretch, detail, 2001

In addition to creating your own reflection piece and presenting it to the class, you will turn in a statement (at least one page) describing the relationship between your work and the historic/prehistoric work to which you are responding. Your statement should include both a researched introduction to the work you are responding to as well as a reflective description of how your work is responding to this piece. This statement should include at least one non-internet source other than the text for the course. Please cite your sources in MLA or APA format. http://library.ccbcmd.edu/screens/web/index.html Example Bibliography: Van, . M. M. (2011). A history of ancient Egypt. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Stokstad, M. (2008). Art history. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Your grade for this project will be determined by the creativity and thoughtfulness of your art piece, your preparedness and articulation during the presentation of your work to the class, and the quality and thoughtful reflection in your comparative research statement.

What could you make to relate to these examples of work we’ve looked at in class?

Chauvet Cave paintings Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, Ardèche, France ca. 30,000-28,000 B.C.E. pigment on stone

Human with Feline Head from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany ca. 30,000-28,000 B.C.E. mammoth ivory 11 5/8 in. high

These figures were constructed by covering bundled twig figures with layers of plaster. • Clothes and other features were once painted on the body. In the eyes were inserted cowrie shells and small dots of a black tarlike substance called bitumen – the figures probably wore wigs and clothing and stood upright • These figurines, like the deceased, were buried, however they were buried in pits in groups and not under the house. Human figure From Ain Ghazal, Jordan ca. 6,750-6,250 B.C.E.plaster, painted and inlaid with cowrie shell and bitumen H= 35 inches

This piece was originally colored with red ochre Venus of Willendorffrom Willendorf, Austria ca. 28,000-25,000 B.C.E. limestone 4 1/4 in. high

Arts 105 - History of Art I – Creative Reflection Project