Art Class: Earth Work Sculptures

So with my grade 9/10 class I started off the new semester with them by taking them outside and creating earthwork sculptures!

For those of you who are unfamiliar Earthworks started in the 1970's and it is where artist's use natural found objects like leaves and sticks and stones to create works of art in a natural setting. The works are not permanent  but they are then photographed, and then the art becomes both sculpture and photography, making the works simultaneously temporary and enduring. Of course none of my students were able to wrap their heads around that concept. We're working on it...

So once outside we were able to create works using the materials they had around them, It was clear that some of them had never really played outside as children or made a fort, so it was quite the learning process for them. We as i see jungle and think off all the cool stuff I could do with the leaves, and vines, and bamboo they just looked lost. But the over came and by the end of the third day some of the works turned out really well.

The most hilarious thing about the whole thing was that all my student were terrified to be in the sun because they didn't want to get dark so they were all working in 28 degrees and sunny with jacket and long sleeves.