overview
Lesson 1 | Summary
Activity Pages
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lesson 1 | ode to a view
activity | ode to the inanimate
| Time Period: |
Four 45 minute sessions
plus studio time |
| Materials: |
Sketchbook/journal, pencil, drawing
materials, found images, heavy paper, glue, scissors, quality
drawing/water media paper, illustration materials (water based
paints, markers, colored pencils, etc.) to be chosen by student,
video camera and editing software (optional) |
| Online Resources: |
John
Keats, “Ode to a Grecian Urn”
How
to make a flipbook
Stop-motion
animation, software, films & artists
How-to
tutorials & tips for stop-motion animation |
| Art:21 Films: |
Time
(Vija Celmins segment)
Memory
(Hiroshi Sugimoto segment) |
| Web Clips: |
Celmins—Early
Paintings
Celmins—“To
Fix the Image in Memory”
Sugimoto—"Conceptual
Forms"
Sugimoto—"Architecture" |
| Interviews: |
Celmins—Building
Surfaces
Sugimoto—Marcel
Duchamp's Influence |
| Slideshows: |
Celmins—Artwork
Survey
Sugimoto—Artwork
Survey |
Across time, countless artists and writers have lavished loving
attention on the inanimate objects that make up our daily landscape,
whether meticulously rendering the fruits of still life arrangements
or describing interiors in prose so vivid, one feels a part of the
scene. Art:21 artists Vija Celmins and
Hiroshi Sugimoto are contemporary champions
of the visual ode to the inanimate, bringing life to subtle objects
selected with a sensitive eye and created through lovingly laborious
processes.
Vija Celmins has created a large body of paintings, prints and drawings
focused acutely on objects found in nature—“Untitled
(Web 1),” “Desert-Galaxy,”
and “Ocean
Surface Wood Engraving 2000”—or around her studio—“Eraser,”
“Heater,”
and
“Pencil.” These images and objects are rendered
over the course of years, through incredibly detailed working processes.
In his finely crafted photographs that are made using only natural
light and the traditional craft of lens and aperture, Hiroshi Sugimoto
monumentalizes mathematic models—“0001
Helicoid: Minimal Surface” and “0009
Conic surface of revolution with constant negative curvature”—
machinery—“0039
Internal Gear” and “0026
Worm Gear”—celebrating their accidental beauty
and granting them status as sculptural objects. Sugimoto has also
trained his camera on architecture—“E.U.R.
Palazzo Della Civiltà Romana, Marcello Piacentini”
and “Villa
Savoye, Le Corbusier”—creating images
of buildings as in the fuzzy and abstracted "mind's eye"
of the architect.
Introduce your students to the work of these two artists. Use Celmins’
and Sugimoto’s video segments, interviews, and slideshows
(see links above) to begin discussing the ways in which artists
can monumentalize inanimate objects. Why do Celmins and Sugimoto
lavish so much attention on these objects? How is the translation
different from the original? What makes the translation a work of
art while the original is not? How does Celmins' and Sugimoto’s
work function as an ode to the objects they each choose as subjects?
Also discuss the ways in which objects are monumentalized in words:
Why might writers go to such lengths to describe inanimate objects
in vivid detail?
Have students look at slideshows of both artists’ work (see
links above) and ask them to describe a few of the images in their
journals as if they were speaking to someone who had never seen
them before. Then ask students to read John
Keats’ “Ode
to a Grecian Urn” and write an ode to an object (something
relatively common and moveable like food items, small appliances
or kitchen wares, art or office supplies, etc.) of their choosing,
being as descriptive as possible.
After writing their ode to an inanimate object, students should
pay homage to their inanimate objects by animating them. Using drawing
or painting media, photography, or collage, students should create
a flipbook in which they bring their object to life in a simple
scenario or narrative. If you have the equipment available, students
can use a computer and digital camera or scanner to create their
flipbook pages OR could create a storyboard for a stop motion animation
film featuring their object (the actual object or a claymation version).
Students should trade flipbooks, storyboards, or films with a partner
and write a short essay comparing this form of ode to that of Keats,
Celmins and Sugimoto.
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