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A
Silhouette Project: Creating Tension & Communicating Ideas
in Visual Form
Amy Van Horn
Visual Art Teacher, Art Foundations
Burrillville High School — Harrisville, RI
VIEW
SLIDE SHOW OF "A SILHOUETTE PROJECT" (10 images)
Background
When I originally created this lesson it was meant to fill a very
short week before the Thanksgiving break for my Art Foundations
classes. Art Foundations is a very basic art course designed to
familiarize students with the world of art; learning about a variety
of media, artists, and movements. Many of my students enter my
class due to a graduation requirement and I delight in trying
to “win them over” throughout the year.
I knew I wanted my students to work in groups and work with individuals
that they had had little or no contact with before this assignment.
My classes are all 9th through 12th grade and it is often difficult
to encourage students to work well with people they do not know.
I have four sections that I broke into five groups of five.
Contemporary Artist Kara Walker & Using
Art:21 in the Classroom
From the first time I saw Kara Walker’s work I was drawn
to its simplicity and accessibility. Her ideas and the communication
of those ideas are the core of her work and this is an area that
many students have difficulty incorporating into their own personal
work. Walker’s technique and materials are so approachable
that I felt her process was one in which I could easily adapt
to my classes. Therefore, the focus of this lesson was on visual
representation and communication.
To begin the lesson, we watched the Art:21 segment on Kara Walker.
Afterwards we discussed our first impressions of her work. Some
felt it was “grotesque” or “disturbing”
and we used those ideas as jumping off points for the rest of
our discussion. I asked them if they felt the work was “gross”
the same way a bloody horror movie scene is “gross”
and they immediately refused my association. They said it was
“grotesque” because those horrific acts had really
happened, and that was what made you uneasy about the situation.
We also discussed the importance of Walker’s personal relationship
with her work. Even though Walker had not experienced slavery
first hand, she feels the repercussions of it on a daily basis.
I went on to validate the fact that Burrillville High School is
98.6% Caucasian and that for us to identify with Walker’s
feelings towards race would be rather difficult, but one classification
that all of my students can associate with is the stereotyping
and generalization of what it means to be a teenager in today’s
society. We then engaged in a rather passionate discussion of
instances in which my students had felt discriminated against
because they were adolescents.
The Assignment
The course of the dialogue eventually evolved into the concerns
my students have for their safety and survival in our society.
We listed a number of issues relating to underage drinking, teen
pregnancy, gangs, depression, war, drugs, etc. This then became
the fuel for our artwork and I reviewed the outline for the assignment.
Each group must select one idea in which to visually represent
through a silhouette or pair of silhouettes. They were allowed
to use small props if necessary, but were encouraged to really
think about body positioning and implied tension. The actual creation
of the artwork would be simple, so I stressed the importance of
idea versus medium.
I broke the class up into five groups of five and handed out a
worksheet to each individual [download
PDF]. The groups were then asked to brainstorm a list of issues
they felt adolescents are concerned with growing up today in this
world. The only rules were that they could not select the same
issue as any other group and although the ideas may be serious
and challenging to the viewer, they could not be “inappropriate”
or unnecessarily violent. Each group selected one idea and made
a list of props they would need for the following day.
Creating and Installing Silhouettes
When students entered the classroom the next day, I had set up
two overhead projectors in the room. To create the silhouettes
each group elected one or two individuals to “pose”
in front of the light produced by the projector. I have got a
very large roll of sticky-backed black vinyl and also one of red.
Each group cut a life-size piece of vinyl and taped it to the
wall behind the “models”. The other group members
used pencil or permanent black marker to trace the outlines of
the silhouettes. When finished, the silhouettes were cut out using
either scissors or Exacto knives. This process took about two
days until all groups had time to use the projectors.
On the fourth day, we adhered the silhouettes to the stark white
walls in the hallway outside my classroom. Each class was assigned
one wall and it was the decision of the class to decide how the
silhouettes would be arranged. Would they be interacting? How
would the overall installation flow from one image to another?
Within minutes, the controversy began. Students walking down the
halls, stopped and questioned us, teachers shook their heads,
and the principal visited me with the school psychologist and
guidance counselor. Did I understand that some people were getting
upset about the artwork my students had created? How would I explain
the purpose of our work to individuals not involved in the process.
My students wanted to convey their concern with these images and
not advocate them, why couldn’t people understand that?
Teaching the Concept of Censorship
The next day, I relayed the experience to my students. I told
them they were facing issues artists encounter on a daily basis:
controversy and censorship. I told them there was a possibility
we may have to take their images down if others find them offensive
and my students became upset. They responded by saying that people
were upset because all of their images were true and that they
shouldn’t be upset that students were facing these issues
and creating artwork about them. We decided that since we had
attracted so much attention, we should use the opportunity as
one in which to educate.
I challenged each group to find one quote or statistic they felt
best communicated the idea they were trying to represent. The words
were written on sticky vinyl as well and arranged around their silhouettes,
becoming a part of the piece. For homework that evening, I handed
out an article I had found in the January 1996 issue of School Arts
relating to censorship in the art classroom. In response, I asked
my students to think of how they would defend their artwork given
the hypothetical situation that the school or community wanted the
work torn down. I received some very interesting ideas [download
PDF].
Results
The next day, The Providence Journal came to my classes, took
photographs, and interviewed my students featuring them in an
article the following week [download
PDF]. My students and I have received nothing but praise from
the administration and the public since.
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