12 Jun Art Exhibition – “Both Sides”
The young artists of Coleridge are featured in a new exhibition, open now at the Ply Gallery in Hornsey Town Hall.
This year’s theme is “Both Sides”.
SCULPTURE
To consider the theme BOTH SIDES the children created a life-size sculpture which shows them looking at the world from all directions. Upside down, downside up, headstand and handstand, above and below, twisting themselves to see both sides. Before painting the surface marks on the figures they looked at the work of American artist Keith Haring and were also influenced by the work of Italian artist Bruno Munari to create their own individual mark making techniques.
Materials: Wire, cardboard, papier mâché, paint.
Year 1
SCULPTURES
The children created a series of reflective self-portraits after considering what the theme BOTH SIDES might mean in terms of one’s own feelings. They studied the work of well-known artists such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Jacques Lipchitz and Naum Gabo.
Materials: Pen, Ink, Oil Pastels, Charcoal and Paint
Year 3 to 6 inclusive
POT PEOPLE
The children looked at the ceramics of Pablo Picasso and were influenced by his brilliant faces and by the amazing shapes he created. The children have given the pots a variety of different facial expressions to reveal the different emotions they feel, and the emotions of their family and friends. Each pot has two faces to express BOTH SIDES of a person’s character.
Materials: Cardboard, papier mâché, paint.
Year 2
CANVAS
The children of Year 4 and Year 6 created this large canvas to express a simple, direct message about BOTH SIDES. They painted dozens of faces across the canvas – each face with a different expression – and they also included the text of a poem based upon binary oppositions (hot/cold, black/white, up/down, etc.). Before painting this canvas the children looked at the work of French artist Jean Dubuffet and American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and also at images of the lettering styles used in graffiti art.
Materials: Large cotton bed sheet, charcoal, chalk, paint
Year 4 and 6
PORTRAITS
These portraits represent the theme of the exhibition, BOTH SIDES. The children were encouraged to express their personal thoughts and emotions visually. For this exhibition they looked at the work of European artists such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst and the American artist, Roy Lichtenstein.
Materials: Pen, Ink, Oil Pastels, Charcoal and Paint
Nursery and Year 1 to 6 inclusive
INTERACTIVE SCULPTURE
The children painted four life-sized figures on the vertical faces of four boxes – each figure was based upon the work of a different artist they had studied. Each of these artists had their own individual painting technique.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90)
Fernand Léger (1881-1955)
The boxes were then stacked to reveal the complete figures which can be rotated to create many different permutations.
4 x 4 x 4 x 4 = 256
Materials: Cardboard, papier mâché, paint.
Year 4