Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Carter, and I'm gonna be guiding you through our lesson today, looking at how artists respond to plastic pollution.

In order to start today's lesson, you're going to need to be willing to try all the tasks and have a go at all of the questions.

I'm sure if you do that, we're going to have some fantastic learning and come up with a wonderful outcome.

Let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say, "I can transform and recycle plastic bottles into new artworks." I wonder if that outcome has started to get you thinking about what we might be making today.

In our lesson today, we're going to be using these keywords, so let's make sure that we understand what they mean.

Thought-provoking.

Thought-provoking is something that makes you think deeply or consider new ideas.

You could hear or see something that gets you wondering or asking questions, maybe even challenging what you already know or believe.

Transform.

To transform is to change something completely or make it look or work in a very different way.

Manipulate.

Manipulate refers to how we handle or work with different materials to shape, form, or change them into something new.

Our lesson today's got two learning cycles.

We're going to start developing meaningful designs and then we're gonna move on to transforming a plastic bottle.

Let's get started.

Developing meaningful designs.

Artists might aim for their work to be thought-provoking and inspiring.

What thought-provoking topic could this image link to? Check for understanding.

True or false.

Artists never plan for their work to be thought-provoking.

Pause the video and decide if you think that is a true or a false statement.

Well done if you said false.

Artists can aim to create thought-provoking work so that audiences think deeply, wondering, or asking questions, maybe even challenging what they already knew or believed.

Do you think you've ever seen a piece of artwork that made you think? Maybe it was something that you kept thinking about after.

Jacob was looking at this artwork and shares, "I think it might be linked to pollution," and I can certainly see why he would think so.

Look at all that rubbish on that beach.

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats to the planet, and a topic many artists have chosen to make work about.

Have you seen any artwork about plastic pollution? What do you already know about plastic pollution? Lucas shares that scientists think that 75 to 199 million tonnes of plastic is polluting our oceans.

Aisha shares, "75% of beach litter worldwide is plastic, and places like the Philippines and India are badly affected." Izzy adds, "Near my granddad, the plastic comes from other places and washes up on their beach." How do you think plastic is a global problem? Artists aiming to create thought-provoking artwork might need to consider the ideas or messages behind their artwork.

The symbolism, so that's the imagery that they're using and how that links to those ideas and messages.

The materials that they're using would deepen the message if you use some plastic when you're making work about plastic pollution.

The emotion or viewpoint, and that's not only their own, but also the audience's emotion and viewpoint.

Which list best explains what artists should consider when aiming to create thought-provoking artwork? Is it A, ideas or messages, size, colours, and the cost? Is it B, ideas or messages, symbolism, materials, and emotion? Or is it C, materials, size, emotion, point of view, and popularity.

Pause the video and decide which you think is the best answer.

Well done if you said B, ideas or messages, symbolism, materials, and emotion.

Artists who have used symbolism to create meaning and create thought-provoking art include Pascale Marthine Tayou's "Plastic Tree" from 2015, and it has trees with plastic bags instead of leaves.

He also chooses to change where the trees appear in a room.

They sprout from the wall coming out across into the room.

Jenny Kendler's "Birds Watching" from 2018 uses images of birds' eyes to symbolise wildlife looking back at humans.

She wants us to think of them as a witness to what we're doing to the planet.

Ananya Rao-Middleton has worked with Greenpeace on a number of works to promote climate health.

Her illustrations have been used by Greenpeace in a number of different ways.

Can you think of any artists who make thought-provoking artwork? Artists can carefully materials to manipulate or transform to deepen the meaning of their work.

The material chosen for an artwork can often communicate meaning through common association or contextual connections.

An example would be using fishing nets to communicate issues of water pollution or overfishing.

How could you transform this bottle into a thought-provoking artwork about plastic pollution? What ideas, messages, or symbolism could be added to the bottle to communicate meaning? You might want to pause the video now and have a conversation or write down your ideas and share them with me.

These students have been thinking about those questions and Aisha shares, "Animals trapped in plastic bottles could show the idea of harm to the wildlife." Sam added, "An eye could be used like in Jenny Kendler's work to link observing and make us feel accountable." Jun adds, "Sewing natural forms on plastic could symbolise mending, as sewing is often used to repair." I wonder what ideas you came up with.

So we're starting our first practise task.

And for this, we're going to be designing a mended plastic bottle to share hope for reduction in plastic pollution.

The first step will be to create an idea shower of all the imagery, words, or symbols you could use in your design.

Try not to judge your ideas as you create them and just write everything down.

You can always refine and select your ideas later.

Pause the video and record your ideas now.

Well done.

Were you able to create lots of ideas? You might have said something that looks like this.

So inside of the idea shower, we've got pollution imagery, words or symbols.

So we've got reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Marine wildlife in plastic bottles.

The recycling logo.

Natural forms, leaves, and flowers, et cetera.

The Earth or oceans.

And eyes to represent watching or hands to represent action.

Did you create more ideas? For our second part, we're gonna sketch out two design ideas.

You should lightly draw out your bottle with the top removed.

Sketch two different designs and keep your shapes simple because they will be sewn.

Now that first step, the lightly draw out your bottle with the top removed, you're going to remove not just the opening of the bottle, but a little way down so that you can get into the larger circle of the bottle.

So you're going to want to start with an ellipse at the top and an ellipse at the bottom, and those should be directly on top of each other, so an ellipse and an ellipse, and that will give you that structure of a cylinder, which is the basic shape of a bottle.

If you have a bottle that you're going to be using in front of you, you can then also take into account any curves or shapes on your plastic bottle.

Pause the video and create your two designs now.

Well done.

Did you find it hard to actually stick to only two ideas? Once you start to come up with ideas, you can often find lots of different ways of changing them or combining them, or it might even help you generate further ideas.

You may have produced some sketches that look a little like this.

And Izzy shares, "I like Andeep's designs as he's thought carefully about how wildlife is affected by plastic pollution, and his two designs are so different from each other." She's really noticed that in the first one, Andeep has really focused on marine wildlife.

But in the second one, it looks more like it's based on land pollution.

Did you come up with different topics or different places that pollution might affect? And your step three now is to evaluate your designs and decide which is the most successful.

You should, consider which will translate into sewing the most effectively.

Because you're going to be stitching into the bottle, really complicated designs may be very hard to achieve.

Consider which of your ideas is the most thought-provoking.

Is one of the ideas a better fit for communicating the idea and leaving the audience considering the topic? And annotate your designs.

Writing what you think is a good way to start noticing what you think is successful about your work and it's good practise for as you develop your project.

Pause the video and get started now.

How did you get on? Did you find that you knew exactly which one you liked, but it took you a little bit longer to think of how you were going to annotate what made it successful? Sometimes we can have a gut instinct, but taking the time to work out exactly why and recording that can help us to understand our own judgments.

You might have said something a little bit like this.

And Andeep shares, "I like this design as the marine life is meaningful, but it would be hard to create." Of his other design, he says, "The use of leaf shapes is thought-provoking as it will make me think of wildlife." Did you say something similar? So we're moving on to our second learning cycle of transforming a plastic bottle.

Artists transform waste into thought-provoking pieces that inspire sustainability.

What materials do you think an artist might use? You might have said plastic bottles, cardboard, plastic bags, metal tins, bottle tops, and old clothes.

Have you said some that I haven't included here? Okay, check for understanding time.

True or false.

The material of an artwork cannot communicate meaning.

Pause the video and decide if you think that this is true or false.

Well done if you said that that was false.

Artists can transform or manipulate waste into thought-provoking pieces that inspire sustainability.

The chosen material can often communicate meaning through common associations or contextual connections.

Some artists who transform or manipulate recycled materials in their work include: Ifeoma Anyaeji, who transforms plastic waste into the style of art she calls Plasto-Art.

El Anatsui, who manipulates metal bottle caps until he can create large tapestry-like sculptural works.

Cod Steaks are a collective who cut plastic bottles to create the sea in their work "Bristol Whales" 2015.

And Chanje Kunda transforms plastic into outfits for her work "Creating a Climate for Healing" 2024.

It's interesting how different all of these artists' work is despite the fact that they are all transforming or manipulating recycled materials in their work.

Do you know any local artists who transform or manipulate recycled materials in their work? The manipulation of waste materials can add meaning, deepening the thought-provoking effect of an artwork.

How could your bottle art be more meaningful by sewing your design into it? What symbols or motifs could you sew to deepen the meaning? You could pause the video now and answer those questions.

Lucas and Laura are discussing how their choice of material can deepen the thought-provoking effect of their artwork.

Lucas says, "Sewing links to repairs and mending, which suggests repairing the world and gives us hope that we can mend the damage." Laura adds, "The bottle transforms into a container with the top cutoff, giving it a new purpose.

Maybe you could add natural materials inside to provoke thought." What did you come up with? Did you have very different ideas to Lucas and Laura? Okay, check for understanding.

How can the manipulation of waste materials impact artwork? Is it A, it can enhance the meaning behind the artwork? B, it decreases the overall meaning of the piece.

C, it removes any deeper interpretation from the piece.

Pause the video and decide which you think is the correct answer.

Well done if you said A, it can enhance the meaning behind the artwork.

Waste materials can behave in different ways, so it's important to work carefully and safely.

Remember to use a push pin to make starter holes before cutting into the plastic.

This will prevent it bending when you don't want it to and is much safer than trying to use scissors or a knife.

Keep the cut edges smooth and free of ragged parts.

If you allow the edge of the plastic to have a ragged edge, it may be sharp.

Cover any sharp edges with tape.

If you find you can't cut a sharp edge off, if you use clear tape, you should be able to prevent it being as sharp.

Dispose of any scraps.

If you have waste scraps that you don't intend to use across the whole of your working surface, you're much more likely to accidentally get one caught on your skin.

Make sure that you keep your workspace clean and tidy.

Making sure it's clean and tidy means that it's easier to locate if there are any sharp edges.

You know where your sharp equipment is, like your scissors, and it will make it easier for you to keep yourself and your work safe.

So for our second practise task, we're going to be creating the mended plastic bottle to share hope for a reduction in plastic pollution.

The first step is to prepare your bottle.

You should mark the areas that you will cut.

You might find that you can draw on your bottle with a board marker, but do check that it'll be able to be wiped off before you allow it to sit for very long.

Make starter holes using the push pins.

You may need to make a number of small push pin holes so that you have a large enough one for your scissors to go in and then cut neatly along the edge to create a smooth edge.

Dispose of any plastic scraps.

You won't be needing any loose pieces of plastic, so make sure you pop them in the recycling.

Cover the edges with clear tape for safety.

Pause the video and get started preparing your bottle.

So step two is to prepare your sewing holes.

You should use a push pin to make holes.

You'll sew through these like a dot-to-dot.

Keep your hand clear of the pin.

Hopefully like I am, you're working with a clear plastic bottle, so therefore you can see where your hand is on the other side.

Just be mindful as you're working.

You don't want to prick your finger.

The holes need to be larger than the needle and thread.

That's something important when we start to sew into it.

But make sure that you push the push pin all the way into the bottle.

Look at the image there.

If you only pierce the very tip of the push pin through, you'll get a much narrower hole.

Pause the video and get started preparing your sewing holes.

How have you gotten on? Have you found that you've been able to produce your bottle? It should look something like this.

Alex evaluates Andeep's work and says, "Andeep has worked carefully to cut a smooth edge and tape it safely." Andeep adds, "I took the time to plan and add in all my sewing holes.

I refined my design and simplified my forms so that the holes were not too close together." Did you find you had to change the positioning of the sewing holes as you started working on your bottle? Making changes like that can feel nerve wracking, but if it means that you're gonna make a more successful piece, that's a really important step to take.

Well done.

We're now gonna start sewing into the design.

You should thread your needle.

Know the loose ends of the thread.

Start sewing from the inside of the bottle.

Follow your prepared sewing holes like a dot-to-dot.

You could vary the thickness of the thread to create emphasis.

It might be easier to do this by returning and stitching the same line again.

Pause the video and give yourself plenty of time to produce this.

Did you find you had enough time or did you start to run out of time? You might have produced something like this.

Do you think Andeep has fully finished? Sofia shares, "Andeep has created an eye-catching design with his use of colour and line thickness." I like that she's noticed that Andeep has used a thicker thread for the word recycle and a thinner thread for the leaf design.

I like the pattern he's included on one side of the leaf.

Andeep shares, "I feel my work is thought-provoking as I've included words like recycle as well as leaves.

When we finish our designs, we could arrange our bottles together to make an installation to share our message." That sounds like it could be some really exciting development of this work.

How have you gotten on? I wonder what your designs look like.

In summary of our lesson, artists' response to plastic pollution, artists might aim for their work to be thought-provoking and inspiring.

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats to the planet, and a topic many artists have chosen to make work about.

Artists transform waste into thought-provoking pieces that inspire inability.

The manipulation of waste materials can add meaning, deepening the thought-provoking effect of the artwork.

Well done for all of your work today.

You've produced so much.

You've got an idea shower, two design ideas, and the start of your bottle artwork.

That's such a lot of work.

Well done.

I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.