L_VA7_T4T_Lesson

	Visual Arts 7: Assemblage with Trash For Teaching

HWMS Visual Arts
Lesson Plans, Candids, Resources

Found Object Assemblage
with

www.trashforteaching.org

HWMS GALLERY
T4T Assemblage

Industrial castoffs are delivered by the Trash For Teaching van.
Students select art materials from inside the van.

We set out tables to sort yarn and fabric scraps.

When the artists from Trash For Teaching arrive, they visit the classroom to speak about why they do what they do. They explain that making art from industrial castoffs reminds us to care for our resources by being resourceful.

Students label their shopping bags with their names before they leave the classroom to visit the Trash For Teaching van. The fun begins as students select art materials from the "dumpster diamonds" they find there.

This occupies the class for the remainder of our first 40 minute period.

Our student's final first day activity is storing their bags of Trash For Teaching materials.

Back to T4T Gallery Pages

Creating Storage Space:

Creating storage space for materials and artworks is essential. Students work together to store and distribute their work and materials.

Safety First: Students are trained to safely use the classroom step-ladders. Standing on stools or other classroom furniture is not permitted.

Preparing The Studio-Classroom:

Brown wrapping paper is rolled out and taped down to protect table surfaces from errant drips of glue.

Scissors, pliers, and glue sticks are distributed to each table. They are stored in Art Bin Quick View Cases and tool boxes.

Table length power strips are placed down the center of each table.

Finally, glue guns and their holders are distributed.

Glue gun holders are made from a terra cotta flower pot, a plastic paint bucket, and two small pieces of matt board.

This set-up process usually takes about 25 minutes.

Safety First: Power strips should have an indicator light which shows when they are "ON". This way, students can discern when their glue guns will be hot to the touch.

A terra cotta flower pot is used to safely hold a hot glue gun. A plastic paint bucket protects the pot.

Two small pieces of matt board serve as insulation and padding.

After the glue gun kits are distributed, each student's work station is also supplied with work gloves, scissors, and pliers.

We encourage students to use cotton or leather gloves to protect the hand that holds the work while it is being glued. Some students will prefer to wear gloves on both hands.

Many students, however, choose to work without gloves.

Should they drip glue on their hand, students are advised to immediately hold the affected area under cold running water, allowing the glue to solidify so it can be more easily removed from their skin.

Safety First: As a precaution, the students and their instructor should consult the nurse or paramedic at their school to consider treating the affected area of skin.

The Drilling Station:

An instructor-supervised electric drill station is very useful for many assemblage projects, even if it is simply for drilling 1/8 or 1/4 inch holes.

( It helps to only use one bit size per lesson. Then, the instructor doesn't need to spend class time changing bits).

Usually, the instructor wears heavy work gloves while holding the work in place for the student, but sometimes a student's partner can do this too.

Showing students how to center-punch a starting point for the drill bit is very helpful instruction.

We use a high-density plastic cutting board to protect the table top. Likewise, we often place our work over a heavy cardboard cylinder so that there is empty space between the work and the cutting board. This protects the cutting board.

We avoid using cordless drills for class projects because heavy use by students rapidly drains their batteries.

Safety First: It is crucial to require that students wear safety eye glasses or face shields while operating power tools. Likewise, some hand tool processes may also warrant eye protection. Chisel use, for instance, should require eye protection and be supervised by the instructor.

Long hair should always be tied back when using power tools, and it's helpful to have a head bands and hair ties at the workstation for those who might need them.

Our drilling and sawing table is equipped with a face shield, several styles of safety glasses (for those who wear eyeglasses and those who don't), and several styles of head bands, scuncis, and elastic hair ties.

The Cutting Station:

A small bench vise makes a handy sawing station for basic instruction in cutting small pieces of wood, metal and plastic. We use a variety of hand saws. A fine-tooth coping saw is the most useful, but a draw saw and a hacksaw are also good to have. It's wise to have a flat chisel on hand for trimming work. Japanese hand saws are versatile and interesting tools for this station.

Students will find it helpful if the instructor starts the first cut, demonstrating how the saw is drawn across the work.

Safety First: Because the saw can sometimes "hop" from it's cut toward the hand that steadies the work, students should always wear a heavy work glove on this hand.

A rotary paper cutter is a safe tool for students to use in the studio-classroom. Here it is used to customize pre-cut pieces of matt board which often serve as the bases for student sculptures.

Students appreciate the stability and strength these bases quickly create for their sculptures and they are often essential to the structural success of their artworks. We keep plenty of matt board available for this purpose.

Safety First: As a safety precaution, single-bladed "guillotine" paper cutters are never allowed in the studio-classroom.

Fastening Materials:

Tape, ribbon, rope, string, velcro, cable ties, Elmer's glue and varieties of wire are fascinating fastening materials which add texture, color, and structural elements to assemblage projects. Student's favorite fastening materials are hot glue, colored vynil ribbon, colored duct tape, colored cable ties, various colors of telephone wire, and the pliant "training wire" used for shaping bonsai trees.

Instruction:

Students are usually so inspired by their materials that they begin working without hesitation.

A site-specific introduction to proper tool use and studio-classroom safety procedures is most often enough to get everyone ready to make something.

Instructors may simply suggest that students make abstract sculptures and/or referential objects which depict non-violent, non-harmful things or creatures.

Their sculptures should acknowledge the visual and tactile qualities of the materials they have selected.

The studio-classroom assemblage process is usually completed in three or four 40 minute class periods.

As a preparatory or follow-up presentation, the instructor may prepare a Found Object Art Assemblage link page, a set of posters and reproductions, a projected folder of digital images, or a slide presentation of images about Found Object Art Assemblage.

This presentation usually works best as a follow-up activity.

Here are some links to artists who use found objects in their work:

John Dahlsen : environmental art totems / environmental wallworks

Robert Raushenberg: "Monogram" > britannica.com

George Herms: netropolitan.org

Andy Goldsworthy : Google > Images

Andy Scheussler: electromechart.com

Marcel Duchamp: "Bicycle Wheel" > nga.gov.au

fragile industries.com: what is assemblage art?

Wikipedia: Found Art

An industrious 40 minute period in the Visual Arts 7 classroom often requires an additional 20 to 60 minutes of set-up and clean-up time.

Students participate in set-up and clean-up activities as much and as often as possible. Their participation in studio-classroom maintenance is a valuable component of the Visual Arts 7 curriculum.

Back to T4T Gallery Pages

Exhibition:

Exhibition is the next step of the student's artistic process. In this way, students share with the school community and experience the social role of the artist.

Teachers, peers, and parents learn something each time a student exhibits their art work.

The final step in the student's artistic process is taking their work home to share with family and friends.

Trash for Teaching founders Steve and Kathy Stanton relate that both the inspiration and the practical model for T4T is the Reggio Emilia Approach to early education and its practice at The Growing Place and Evergreen Community School in Santa Monica, California.

Trash For Teaching seeks to serve Los Angeles area schools in much the same way that the REMIDA creative recycling project serves the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy.

To read about this concept and practice Steve and Kathy recommend Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials by Topal & Gandini. See related books about the Reggio Emilia Approach at this Amazon link.

Reggio Children