Lesson video

Hello, everybody and lovely to meet you.

My name is Mrs. Barrasso and I'll be with you for this unit.

This unit is on installation and site-specific art.

And maybe you're wondering what is an installation? What is site-specific art? But hopefully by the end of today's lesson you'll know all about it.

And hopefully by the end of this unit, you'll be an experienced artist in creating installation and site-specific art.

I can't wait.

Let's get started.

Here we go.

Before we start, you're going to do the following things.

As always, you'll need your sketchbook and pencil so we can record our learning journey together as we go through this unit.

You'll also need some crayons.

Old ones are perfectly fine, and a pencil sharpener.

You'll need some wax or baking pepper, some scissors.

Make sure an adult is around when you're using those.

And also some ribbons or some string.

Finally, you will need an iron but it's very important that only an adult operates that for that part of the lesson.

If you need to pause the lesson now to gather what you need please do so and then come back.

So we've started today's lesson already with our introduction.

Then we're going to move on and do a little warmup.

Then we'll be looking at the question, what is installation art? Then we'll be creating our own installation, a window hanging.

And then we'll finish by recapping on what we have done today.

So some key words that we're going to come across in today's lesson.

The first is the word installation piece.

When we talk about an installation piece, we're talking about an artwork that provides an experience for the viewer.

That's really important.

It provides an experience for the viewer.

We're looking at the word and using the word site-specific which is an artwork that is designed and installed, put into place for a particular place, okay? And the latter we're going to be looking at is the word arrangement.

And an arrangement is making creative decisions to display something in an interesting way.

As we move through this unit it will begin to make a little bit more sense.

Have a look now at the photograph on your screen.

There's arrangement of items there.

Which one do you notice straight away? I wonder if it's the same one.

I noticed the little deer statue straightaway.

Which one did you notice? Fantastic.

Well, it's amazing because somebody here has created an arrangement of items. They have decided how to display, how to arrange these items to make it look interesting for us.

On the right-hand side, maybe you notice there's two books laid down with other things on top.

And on the left-hand side, there seems to be like ribbons stacked on top of each other.

The flowers are laid all beautiful.

There's a print laid against the wall.

And actually I think there seems to be more things on one side than on the other.

Can you see that? Now, what you're going to do is you're going to create an arrangement yourself.

You'll need to gather certain items, could be random, could be a set but belong together already.

And you're going to arrange them in an interesting way.

When you do this, you'll be creating your first installation.

So, your task now is to create your own installation.

Can you believe you're already creating an installation? We're only two minutes into this video.

So, this is what you'll need to do.

You'll need to clear a space in your home.

So maybe a tabletop or a mantelpiece or even a floor space.

Then choose some items that belong to you.

You could have a theme, or just things that you like.

Arrange them in the space.

This could be by size, it could be by preference, or it could just be how you think they end up good.

Ta-da! There you go.

You've made an installation.

Take a photograph of it and record it in your sketchbook.

Press pause now and come back when you're done.

Lovely, how'd you get on with that? Well, you've already created your first installation.

Your first of many, that you'll be creating for this unit.

So well done you.

Now, we're going to take a moment to focus on what is installation art? Installation art is something that provides an experience for the person who comes to look at it.

So it's not just about looking at a painting.

Often it's about that whole experience.

They might feel a little bit immersed in what they're seeing.

That might mean that they can see things, that they can feel things, that they can touch things.

They might be asked to participate in it.

There might be sounds, there might be music.

So it's a kind of a whole experience that they're having rather than just looking straight into painting, okay? I'm going to show you a few now and we'll have a little chat about it.

So, here's the first one.

Have a look at this installation.

What can you see here? Can you see any objects that you recognise? Hopefully, you've noticed what's unusual about this one.

What size do you think this piece might be? Now if you look carefully, there's a clue right in the middle.

Can you see the clue in the middle? Did you notice the man standing there right in the middle car? Well, that's a clue, isn't it? Of how big this piece might be.

If that's the size of a man, how big might the piece be.

And how do you think the artist made this piece? I often like to think about that when I look at a piece of art, especially something so huge.

I wonder how they got those cars in there, standing up.

Maybe they had to use a big piece of equipment.

Maybe they had to dig a big hole to put them in.

It's always interesting to think about the process behind creating a piece of artwork.

Do you like this piece? Okay, can you see any objects that you recognise? Now, I'm going to be honest here and say, I really hope you do see objects that you recognise.

Otherwise it means I'm very old.

But hopefully you can recognise these objects.

What are they? What are they? Hopefully, you recognise that they are very old radios, and boom boxes, and sound systems. So, hopefully you did recognise that.

So, what might you hear at this installation if you were to go to this installation and walk around it, what do you think you might hear? You might hear different music or you might hear somebody talking on the radio.

And that artist who created this piece would have chosen those sounds as well.

There wouldn't have just chosen the radios and the boom boxes.

They would have also chosen the whole experience for the viewer, including all the sound of music.

So, what is site-specific art? Now, we've already covered this slightly when we talked about our keywords.

It's art that's created for a specific place.

So, let's have a look at an example.

So if you look carefully at this picture you might see the rainbow and the words "Stay Safe".

Now, did you create something like this and display it in your window during the lockdown? If you did that, you have already created a site-specific installation because you created something for a window.

And actually, that's where we're going to take our inspiration from today.

We're going to be creating something, a site-specific piece, for a window today.

Now throughout this unit we're going to be focusing on three key ideas.

These ideas will feature in every lesson that we do and they'll be the foundation, the building blocks that we're building upon.

The first one is space.

The question will be, what space in the world could you bring to life with your artwork? Because we're creating site-specific pieces.

We choose the site and then we're creating a piece of art to go into it.

Second, message.

What message will your artwork send? I will be focusing on it a little bit more later on.

And number three, transformation.

How will your artwork transform change? Improve the space that it's in? I mentioned already that today we're going to be focusing on windows.

And we're going to be creating our own window hanging, okay? So this is mine.

And I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what we did and why I chose to create what I created.

So, the process.

So first of all, I thought about the space.

I chose a window in my house that I felt needed something beautiful there.

And I chose the window that I look out of the most for me.

And it's winter right now.

And it's a bit gloomy looking out that window.

There's no flowers in the garden.

There's no leaves on the trees.

There's not enough green.

And that's why I chose that window.

So what message am I going to send? How will my choice of shapes and colour help this? Well, because my window was a bit grim, gloomy, and dismal, and there's been a lot of rainy days lately.

I wanted to bring something a bit bright and colourful.

And what I wanted to do, is I wanted to have the message of springtime on my window hanging.

I wanted people to look out the window, see my hanging and think, do you know what, spring is coming soon.

It's the flowers are going to come back.

The sun will shine and it's going to be beautiful again.

So I've chosen shapes and colours to help with this.

So for my shapes, I'm going to do leaf shapes and my colours will be springtime colours.

So think carefully, what shapes might you do? You might want to do hearts or diamonds or you might do flowers, or you might do geometric shapes, or you might do a wiggly shapes or raindrops.

It's completely up to you and it will depend and vary depending on your message.

Transformation.

How will the space be changed and how will people feel about it? So I'm hoping that people will feel more hopeful and bright when they look out the window and see my hanging and the space will be changed by a bit of beauty and a bit of colour.

Let me show you what I've done.

So that's my final finished piece and the colours I chose, now that you can see them on the screen.

The colours I chose.

I chose a lot of green for spring, for freshness.

And I chose two of the colours, yellow and orange.

And I wonder if you know what I was thinking of to do with spring, why I chose those colours.

There's one specific flower I had in mind that I think is a springtime flower and I wanted to incorporate a little bit of that.

Daffodils, absolutely daffodils.

I wanted people to think of spring and think of daffodils when they see my hanging.

And if you look in the background you can see there are no leaves on the trees.

But when they see my hanging they will feel hopeful and bright.

So what I'm going to do now is show you a very quick video, how I created my piece.

At the end, you might want to rewatch this so that you've got the process down before you create your own piece.

Okay, your turn.

So today you're going to be creating your own wax melt window hanging.

First of all, you're going to allow your paper on a clear surface.

Choose your crown colours and sharpen them.

Sprinkle the crayon shavings in the pattern of your choice.

I just did a random multi-colored thing but you might want to be more specific.

That's completely up to you.

Cover with a baking paper and iron quickly.

Your iron only needs to be on for one second.

It's really, really important that you wait and are patient until an adult is available to do this part for you.

Please, please, please, let an adult do that.

And then peel off the baking paper.

Draw your shapes and cut them out.

Attach strings and then fasten them to a stick in a lovely arrangement.

Finally, hang it in a window and enjoy.

And as always take a photograph and record it in your sketchbook.

That shows your learning journey.

And, it's lovely to look back off those photographs and see all of what you've created.

Lovely.

Press pause, complete your task and come back when you're done.

Lovely, how did you get on with that? How does your hanging look? I'm sure it's so beautiful and colourful and I really hope you enjoy doing that activity.

Well, we're just going to take a moment now to recap all that we have done today.

We have done a lovely arrangement for our warm-up.

We've learned about site-specific art.

We've learned about installations and we've created a wax melt hanging.

That's.

So, I hope you're really proud of yourself.

So, quick question.

Installation art is the same as sculpture.

Is that true or false, do you think? Installation art is the same as sculpture.

That's false.

And installation might have sculptures in it but it's all about the experience of seeing the art of what else might be happening of things to look at and do? It might include sculptures but it's also an experience.

We're just going to take a moment now to talk about our sketchbook.

So this is my sketch book.

The name of this lesson was "World on the window".

And what I've done if you look at my picture, I've got a before of my window before, gloomy and miserable, and I've got an after.

And can you see how the space has been transformed? Now, there is beautiful bright colour.

There is springtime.

There is a message of hope and I've just written a few notes next to it.

I've also drawn my daffodil and little sketch there.

And I thought about these questions as I was writing my piece.

So let's just have a look at the questions and then you will be able to do this in your sketchbook too.

How was your space transformed by your artwork? Were you able to convey your message? Did you enjoy using crayons in this way? Could you create anything else with this technique? I hope that you have enjoyed this lesson.

I know that I have really enjoyed it and I would love to see some of your beautiful wall hanging so that I can enjoy them too.

And I can then a little bit more about your message and the transformation that you have changed through your site-specific art today.

If you are able to and your adult say so, please share your work with us on Oak National on Twitter using the hashtag below.

See you next time for next lesson.

Lots of love.