Arts Explorer #6: Spraying with Scissors

by id-iom, click for full size

An art project for adults*, inspired by street art and billboard liberations. Time to get outside take back some public space!

Difficulty level: High

When I last wrote to you about Africa

Last night I went to see El Anatsui's amazing retrospective at the ROM. This piece is called Peak Project (photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist). From far away they look like shimmering, beautiful golden peaks but when you get closer you see that they're made from rusty tin cans. The sculpture is actually crafted out of Peak brand milk can lids, hence the name.

Photo by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist

This piece is called Open(ing) Market and it's made from hundreds of small wooden boxes with product labels glued inside. It looks like a sea of people moving around a market as it opens in the morning.
If you can't make it to the ROM before February 27th, at least read the full Torontoist post and see these photos in full size...

Photo by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist

Area B, 2007. Photo from http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post.html

One of my favourite pieces was Area B, a massive gold sculpture draped from a dark blue wall. I thought the whole exhibit was incredibly well done - the colour of the walls and the shape of the room made Anatsui's work look amazing.
(This picture is from another gallery but the same piece is at the ROM right now.)

Area B is so beautiful and so huge that it is almost overwhelming to look at. Each piece of metal, each bottle cap is painstakingly attached with thin wire and the end result is this fluid golden fabric that seems to weave a million silent stories together.

I'm going to leave you with a video that I think speaks to the beauty of this exhibit. Last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing spoken word artist Carlos Andrés Gómez perform at the What Makes a Man conference at Ryerson. Here's a video of him performing his poem, Save Africa:

Arts Explorer #5: Watch an art film and chat

Donnie, Gretchen and Frank (from Donnie Darko, 2001, Newmarket Films)

I decided to go for Donnie Darko. Nostalgia got the best of me and I went for the movie that most reminds me of high school.

There's really so much to love about this movie, especially when you're 16 but even when you're not. You've got a mysterious evil man-rabbit, time travel, an amazing 80s soundtrack, and of course, the boyish good looks of Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal...

the biggest tree in the world

 

Last tree post, I promise.

This tree is called the Tule Tree. It has the biggest trunk in the world, measuring 119 ft all the way around. It is massive. I went to see it on a trip to Oaxaca a few years ago and I couldn't believe how big it was.

The branches also make cool irregular fractal patterns...

trees!

Looking up at the tree patterns outside my building.

 

Trees at an ethno-botanical garden in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Seeing the fractal pattern?

Here's one more...

Arts Explorer #4: Patterns

Apartment building in construction on Edward St.

Building on Edward St.

Tile floor in my building

Men's clothing at Nomad

Wooden railing in my building

Tile floor in my building

Noticing patterns was fun. Patterns (art word of the week) are all around us. When I deliberately started looking for them it kind of changed the way I look at my everyday surroundings. I love that when you start looking for something, you suddenly see it everywhere.

The word pattern points to repetition; consistent elements that are recurring (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). The elements can be shapes, lines, colours, textures, icons, symbols... you name it.

Some of the patterns I found were symmetrical and some were asymmetrical. Some were regular (like the tile floors) and some were irregular (like this tree):

Tree on Brunswick Ave.

Tree patterns are my favourite because they're almost fractals and fractal patterns are super awesome. More of these to come.

This blog assignment was interesting because it asked me to look around and take things in. As ECEs, we can pose careful questions at just the right time to change the way they see their surroundings. They can learn to choose which way of seeing they'd like to use at different times, discerning what different situations or projects call for. Sometimes we want to tune out the visual chaos around us and sometimes we want to tune in, so we can begin to learn this capacity and pass it on to young children through exercises like this one.

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References

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art and creative

     development for young children. Belmont, CA:

     Delmar.