Total Pageviews

The Suitcase Project Artist in Residence Grade 5/6 Term 3 2013



 
The Suitcase Project 




Artist in Residence

2013

Ulli Birve

 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Ulli Birve

Who am I?

By profession I am an actor. I studied performance at Flinders University and have enjoyed a diverse career performing in the arts, television and film throughout Australia and overseas. I later studied visual merchandising which allowed me to explore and develop my love of creating conceptual artworks and installations for a ‘smaller stage’. I am a passionate collector of all things I consider beautiful – a gumnut, a skeleton, a piece of seaweed, a quotation, a splash of colour – whatever catches my eye that can be drawn into my creative web and re-spun onto a new story.



I am never bored. I am happy when I am making something – whether that is a character, an artwork or a garden. I’m happy scavenging on a beach, a flea market or a recycle yard. On the outside I am extremely disciplined, on the inside I worry a lot. On that note, I must begin making my suitcase or I’ll worry I won’t finish it in time!




This term the grade 5/6 students will have the opportunity to work with actor/artist Ulli Birve on The Suitcase Project. Ulli sees life in stories. She is passionately interested in the many ways that we can tell a story about our lives and the many ways we can represent our ideas about ourselves. Under her guidance, every student will make their own suitcase that will become a representation of their inner and outer selves.

The outside of the suitcase will represent their outer selves.
 



The inside of the suitcase will represent their inner selves.


Students will have the opportunity to explore and find their expression using a range of mediums.

The aim of this residency is to allow students to reflect on their own identity and place in the world. They will be encouraged to explore their sense of self through art and become aware of the importance of art as a means of communicating aspects of the self.

The suitcase will reflect students’ view of themselves and their lives. It will symbolise how they see themselves, what is important to them, their emotions, dreams and ambitions at a pivotal time in their young lives as they prepare to move from primary school onto high school.

The representation of the self in the form of a suitcase is symbolic of carrying ourselves through a journey in life.

Through the work of artists Fiona Hall and Joseph Cornell, and supported by Ulli Birve, students will focus on developing a range of artistic skills and techniques that will enable them to successfully create 2D and 3D work.


Week 1

This week Ulli introduced herself to the students and talked to them about what inspired her to want to work on this project with them.



“The inspiration for this project began at the end of last year when I went to the final grade 6 assembly. I was so moved by the level of emotion shown by the year 6’s, and it stuck me that they were facing a major change in their lives. They were at the end of a long familiar journey, about to embrace something new and unknown.”

In her introductory talk, Ulli introduced the students to the idea of coming to the end of a journey in their young lives, the final years of their primary school education. Over this time, their experiences have shaped who they are, who they have become and set them up with dreams and aspirations for their future journey. These years have been years of transition and change. In this residency, these years will to be acknowledged in the form of their visual artwork, their suitcase.

Why use the suitcase?

“When I travel and it comes the time to pick up my suitcase, everyone’s suitcase looks the same. I have had the experience of picking up someone else’s suitcase. After overcoming the shock of realising that it was not mine, that if I were to accidently take this suitcase home, what would it reveal about that person? Could I piece together an identity from the belongings inside? What would it tell me about that person? Would I misjudge that person? What would you put in that suitcase that would tell a story about yourself. Does the outer suitcase reflect what is inside the suitcase?”

Ulli asked the students to ponder the following questions:

Who are you on the outside and is it different to the person you feel you are on the inside?

Do you have a private inner side and a more public outer side?


 

What in that little world, that little suitcase will tell us about who you are?

Students worked hard in this first week to transform their boxes into suitcases; gluing, cutting and manipulating. No longer will the stacked boxes be referred to as boxes. Each is now a suitcase that will potentially hold the essence of each grade 5/6 student.

Our adventure begins…


Week 2

Who are you on the outside?





 


This week we commenced our work on the outside of the suitcase. It is a difficult beginning because we have to adjust the way we think so we can really begin to understand how best to represent ourselves in words, colours, textures, shapes, objects and images.

Our aim is to avoid the obvious representations and to delve deeper into ourselves to find a range of creative solutions that are layered, nuanced and felt.

 

In pairs students were asked to describe their partner. They were asked to contemplate…

How accurate was their description?

Is this how you see yourself?


How will you represent yourself in a visual way, other than in photographs?

Ulli asked the students to consider colour. Not the student’s favourite colour, but the colour you would choose to represent your outer self. Would it be bright or subdued?


How would you apply this colour?

Will it be tiny dots, large bold stripes, very straight, tidy lines, random swirls, chaotic, bold, soft water colours and wash, or a hint of colour wanting to wash away.



Will you outer selves be reflected in layers?

Will the outer be textured? Will it be rough, hard, soft and sensitive or smooth? How will you create these textures? Will you use fabric, found objects, nothing but colour, strips of textured paper, natural objects or sand paper?

How do you represent your outer self in the way you dress and present yourself? Is fashion important to you? Are labels important? Do you want to stand out, or blend in?

What personal item would you attach to your case so that only you could identify it, relate to it and recognise it? Is this your own secret visual password.


What quotes, words, texts best represent you? Find a word or quote or text from a book that reflects or relates to your description of yourself.



Are you aware of your outer image or fashion? Is it important to you? Do you want to stand out or blend in?

What personal item would you attach to your case so that only you could identify it, recognise it, relate it. It is your visual password.



 

Weave a story around your chosen images that tell you and others what your outside persona is.

 
This week was a difficult and challenging week. To define who we are on the outer and inner requires much contemplation and reflection. Students were asked to find images, colours, textures, words and symbols to represent their outer selves. Some of these were forced into the suitcase to serve as the inner self… Some remained on the outer. It became hard to distinguish ‘what we like’ from ‘who we are’.





 

Week 3

Words, Quotes, Stories
 
To support the students this week we have asked them to define who they are using words. Words that come to mind, words that they find, words they notice and reflect upon and quotes that they relate to.
The more words the students chose, the more it opened up their reflections on themselves, and triggered further thoughts and more words.
 
“It’s difficult. It’s like pain or when the breeze stops and there’s nothing. That’s how I feel sometimes on the outside.”
 
“I’m weird, but not in a strange way or crazy.  I’m weird in a funny way.”
 
“Each colour represents a different mood”
 
“I’m kind and cheerful, but the black lines represent the change from one mood to another.”

“The balloons represent lightness, joy and happiness.”
“I chose Australia because it is a safe country, big and strong. I feel safe and strong.”



When I’m lonely, I’m green.

When I’m angry, I’m red.

When I’m cared for, I’m white.

When I’m blue, I’m a ghost.

 

 


“When I am happy I feel light, and when I’m angry I feel dark, black and a strong colour.”
 
 
 
 


This week has been so inspirational and thought provoking and there have been some profound reflections and observations from the students.

 


 
How the students managed to articulate and draw a connection between a word and themselves has been at times very moving.
One student said,
“I’m learning more about myself. I put things on the outside of my suitcase and then discover that it’s not me.”



-----------------------------------------------

Week 4

Layers

This week we are focussing on words, quotes and layers. Students were asked to find quotes from words that inspire them.

The hardest thing is to build the character with all its many complex layers.

The aim is for each element of the outer character not to be floating and isolated.

This will be the main focus this week.

How do we create these layers?

Words can create layers.

Paint on paint.

Pen on paint.

Collage paper on paper.

Paper on paint.

One image on top of another.

Bleeding the different personas and layers of the characters into each other.

Ink Wash

Stamps

Words on Words

Quotes

Tags and labels.
...
We began to examine how we felt about our portrayal of our outer selves…
 

 
 
Talking and discussing ideas with friends helps a lot.


 
Layers of the persona were added tentatively and established as part of the surface.


Sometimes it seemed like hard work


Some struggled to define and express who they are…


UNTIL

A spontaneous act of kindness and assistance from a friend made things a little easier…







Starting at the beginning and helping things along… as friends do.

 
 
 Giving some a head start and a lovely place to begin.
----------------------------------------------------




Week 5

 This week we worked with a small group of students who were not attending the grade 5/6 camp. We had the luxury in this one day master class to brainstorm and discuss all those things that the students picked up to use as they worked through their ideas during the course of the day. The students’ thoughts branched out in many wonderful ways as they were given the time to contemplate small ideas and develop these into larger more complex ideas.
 

This week we discussed the importance of the process of making and creating and how this has become far more meaningful than just making something that looks complete at the end.


Today students decided that being given the time to consider why they chose particular objects as a means of expression, and a particular medium to express ideas about the self, has been integral to the whole idea of the residency.




Siena reflected on the idea that for those of us who are struggling, remember that break- throughs do happen at the most unexpected times.



For Viarne, the label or tag was her access to developing her ideas about the ‘self’ further.

“The tag was inspirational, there were a lot of elements on my labels and I thought, if I can do this on a label, I can take these ideas and develop them further on a bigger scale on the suitcase.”



Some people added and added more and more layers to the outside telling us so much about who they are.

“If ever you get stuck, the best thing to do is to look at yourself in the mirror. What do you see? What do you like? Who am I?” Lilli T



At one point Lilli asked Hannah if the suitcase looked like her. She replied that it didn’t look like her but that she could definitely, unmistakably identify it as hers.

These fine distinctions about the making and creating process defined the day.

As we move on through the process of identifying our inner and outer selves artistically and conceptually, we are discovering how different we can be in the outside and inside and how private some people are about exposing their inner selves to others. As we have moved from the outside of the suitcase to the inside of the suitcase we have discovered that some peoples inside selves are so different to their outside personas. There has been an element of surprise.
 


“Isn’t funny how all of the boxes started out looking exactly the same and now, with the same materials, we have all managed to make them so vastly different, just like us.”

Isaac Smalley


Yes Isaac, I believe you have summed the process of creating and making an art work very well…
---------------------------------------------------
 

Week 6
This week students will be moving onto the design and construction of the inner suitcase. On paper they were encouraged to reflect on their inner self and how they could represent that 3 dimensionally and most importantly conceptually.


We aimed to move away from the obvious and to clarify our thoughts on the inner self. On a practical level students made design plans and choices about materials that they would use in their 3 dimensional constructions.
Their ideas and reflections were intensely personal and honest.
 
After today, and the depth of the discussion students had with both Ulli and myself, we now feel they have a strong sense of direction and excitement about where they will go next week. This week was about stopping and consolidating our thoughts and beliefs so we are ready to move on to the next main stage of our project next week.

 

Week 7,8 and 9

We have come a long way in the past few weeks, slowly and carefully examining who we are and finding ways of expressing aspects of ourselves using colours, textures, shapes and forms, symbols, pictures and patterns. Sometimes our messages have been quite obvious to the viewer and other times we are drawn in to our suitcases in an effort to decipher the meaning behind a cluster of objects.

The representations of the self in the form of a suitcase have surprised, bewildered and delighted us all. We have learnt so much about each other and understood the struggles and joys we all face, have come to understand our place within our school community, our friendship groups and our families.

The following images tell the story we have all been given the opportunity to tell.
 
 
 

 


 
 
 
 

Hannah Rother-Gelder
Visual Art teacher

No comments:

Post a Comment