self-portrait chairs
Juliet
Myers, Art Instructor
F.A.C.T. ARTCamp
Sweeney Elementary
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Inspired by the Place
and Identity
programs of Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, the F.A.C.T.
ARTcamp 2001 summer series at Sweeney Elementary focused on the
themes of cultures crossing borders: arriving, surviving, and thriving.
Students were introduced to the work of Pepón
Osorio, featured in the Place episode of the Art:21’s Season
One, and specifically to Osorio’s use of objects and environments
altered and decorated to the extreme. The themes integral to Pepón
Osorio—place, identity, arriving, surviving, and thriving—were
pertinent to the students of Sweeney, many of whom are also of Hispanic
heritage.
The students used 12" custom-made wooden chairs as stands-ins
for themselves. Festooned with images and symbols of each artist's
cultural heritage, the chairs became self-portraits. Each one had
a box/niche to rest in, be carried in, or be stored in. Upon the
interior and exterior walls of the boxes students illustrated their
pasts, presents, and futures.
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"The themes integral to Pepón Osorio—place, identity,
arriving, surviving, and thriving—were pertinent to the students
of Sweeney, many of whom are also of Hispanic heritage."
— Juliet Myers, Fine Art for Children & Teens
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