Mapping and Overlapping: The Importance of Collage
Activity: In making a collage, students can bring to it all of
the questions that they consider when making a painting or a sculpture,
but many find the process easier because they can use found objects to
create their projects. Spend some time on the Web sites listed below to
help students understand what a collage looks like and how it works. Though
Picasso was the first artist to bring collage into a museum, it has existed
as an art form for centuries.
- Prepare students to think about the following project as if it were
a puzzle of their own making. They will choose images that go together,
so they should consider the size and shape of the images and how they
will fit into the overall shape of the completed collage.
- Ask students to pick a theme: It can be home or school, a special
interest, an event or just an idea that they have been thinking about.
- Have your students start collecting images related to their theme.
Ask them to think about how they want to put the pieces together. For
example, do they want to cut the pictures into clean geometric shapes
or tear them out and leave ragged edges?
- Students should work on a layout for the images and then think about
bits of found objects: leaves, seeds, bits of string, plastic, or metal.
Hair, glitter, and different colors of tape or paper add texture and
color.
- Once students have made their decisions about layout, instruct them
to begin the process of affixing the images and objects they've chosen.
Proceed until all articles are glued to the paper.
- Once the collages have dried, students can also draw on or write in
any text that they think fits into the collage.
- Collages are now ready to hang in class!
Variation: The activity above is geared toward horizontal collages,
on paper. Depending on the interests of the class, these collages can be
created in three dimensions as well: in shoe boxes as dioramas, or on wire
hangers as mobiles. The only additional supplies would be the shoe box for
dioramas or wire hangers for mobile support, as well as string and additional
cardboard for the hanging images of the mobile. |
|
