Kara Walker: Projecting Fictions... interview & clip (picture above)
Walton Ford: Printmaking & Natural History interview & clip (picture below)
Lesson 3—Confronting Conflict
overview
LESSON TITLE:
Confronting Conflict
ARTISTS:
Ford, Sikander, Walker
LEVEL:
Grades 9-12
SUBJECT AREA:
Visual & Performing Arts
NATIONAL STANDARDS:
#1 Media & processes
#3 Symbols & ideas
#4 Visual arts, history, & cultures
#5 Assessing the merits of work
#6 Connections between visual arts & other disciplines
THEMES:
Loss & Desire, Identity
LESSON CONTRIBUTOR:
Jessica Hamlin, Art21; Dipti Desai, Director of the Program in Art Education, New York University
Representing conflict, be it in the form of histories of war, national strife or personal struggles, has preoccupied artists across the centuries. By recalling conflicts of the past, how can we better understand present conflicts? War and strife are typically depicted in terms of black and white, suggesting two sides engaged in oppositional struggle. This apparent opposition is the focus of this lesson.
The work of artists Kara Walker, Walton Ford, Shahzia Sikander will be used as the starting point to discuss how imagery informs our understanding the past, specifically controversial, provocative, or factional issues and events. Kara Walker's cut-outs and silhouettes reference the events of the antebellum South, while Walton Ford’s paintings and prints recall 18th and 19th century naturalist images but subvert their traditional beauty with references to colonialism and eco-terrorism. Shahzia Sikander’s intimate and detailed miniature paintings reflect the ongoing conflict between Muslim and Hindu cultures. This lesson will explore how formal artistic elements such as contrast and symbolism can graphically portray how conflict is often seen as a relationship of opposites: right versus wrong, good versus evil, light versus dark, etc.
objectives
• Students will consider the representation of conflict in visual art and the notion of presenting opposition through symbolic and conceptual ideas.
• Students will consider how history is constructed by voices that typically represent only one side of conflict.
• Students will explore Kara Walker’s work as it relates to the idea of conflict and opposition, the hero/heroine and the anti-hero/anti-heroine.
• Students will create their own representations of opposition and conflict.
• Students will explore the medium of the silhouette to describe and represent ideas including its history as an art form, the formal element of contrast, and the conceptual notion of symbolism.
materials & resources
Art:21 Web Site
• Projecting Fictions: Insurrection!... – Kara Walker interview & clip
• The Melodrama of Gone with the Wind – Kara Walker interview & clip
• Islam & Miniature Painting – Shahzia Sikander interview & clip
• Fleshy Weapons – Shahzia Sikander art work
• Printmaking & Natural History Artists – Walton Ford interview & clip
• Political Humor & Colonial Critique – Walton Ford interview & clip
Additional Web Sites
• http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/s/silhouette.html
Silhouette Art
• http://pages.prodigy.com/kate/silhist.htm
Silhouette Art
• http://ngeorgia.com/site/cyclorama.html
Atlanta Cyclorama depicting the Civil War Battle of Atlanta
• http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med-db/webdocs/webart/
Commentary about Thomas Eakins’ painting, the Gross Clinic
• http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/ampaintings.gross.htm
Commentary about Thomas Eakins’ painting, the Gross Clinic
Classroom Materials
• Magazines
• Glue
• Slide projector or overhead projector
• Roll of white paper
• Roll of black paper
• Pencils
• Chalk or white pencils
• Scissors
• Masking tape
critical questions
• How is conflict different from and/or similar to war?
• What is the difference between conflict in relation to our personal lives as compared to conflict on a national or international scale? What are examples of personal conflicts we have? What are the national or international conflicts we are aware of or perhaps involved in?
• How do the stories about conflicts or wars change with the storyteller? Consider the statement, “History is told by the winners.”
• How does the art of Kara Walker, Walton Ford, and Shahzia Sikander reflect ideas of conflict and opposition? What conflicts do their images describe and how does their work change the discourse concerning these conflicts?
• What is the history of silhouette art?
• How does the form and technique of the silhouette relate to ideas of conflict and opposition?
activities
Looking at Conflict
Have each student brainstorm a list of personal, local, national and international conflicts they are aware of. Ask them to consider their sources: newspapers, television, Internet, radio, etc. Compile a group list. Ask students to identify who is taking part in these conflicts. How are the opposing sides described or named? Who are the heroes or heroines in these events? Who are the villains or the anti-heroes and anti-heroines?
(Time: Half a 45 minute session)
Walton Ford and Colonial Legacies
View several of Walton Ford’s watercolors and prints and discuss how they represent particular attitudes or events in American history. Describe the conflicts he is commenting on as well as the conflicts he is creating. Using images from magazines, create a collage of humans and animals. Individually or as a group, brainstorm a list of possible grievances that animals might have against humans and how might they communicate these grievances? Choose a particular idea or issue that your collage addresses.
(Time: Two 45 minute sessions)
Contemporary Miniatures
Shahzia Sikander specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting. Raised as a Muslim, Sikander explores both Hindu and Muslim imagery, often combining them in a single painting. Sikander views the juxtaposition and mixing of Hindu and Muslim iconography as “parallel to the entanglement of histories of India and Pakistan.” Sikander is also conscious of the oppression for women in some Muslim cultures although she herself has not felt oppressed as a woman because of her background or her religion. Have students view the video segment on Sikander, view the image Fleshy Weapons and read portions of her interview discussing Islam and Miniature Painting. Have students describe the imagery and iconography they see and how it relates to the theme of conflict of opposition. How does Sikander’s work call into question the treatment of women? How are the different sides of the entanglement Sikander mentions represented visually? Are sides being taken in Sikander’s images? Have your students create a visual statement about an issue or concern that they see in the newspaper or are currently addressing in their own lives. Ask students to incorporate the use of symbolic imagery and text to describe the issue or concern they are addressing.
(Time: Two 45 minute sessions)
Kara Walker and the Antebellum South
View the video segment on Kara Walker and show students additional images from the Art:21 Web site. Have students discuss the particular method and content with which Walker represents the idea of conflict. What is she representing? How do you know? Are there sides being taken? Which ones?
Walker states, “The silhouette lends itself to avoidance of the subject, you know, not being able to look at it directly, yet there it is, all the time, staring you in the face.” How do Walker’s images both provoke and avoid the subjects they address? When Walton Ford calls himself a ‘maximalist,’ rather than a minimalist, how does this relate to Kara Walker’s avoidance of the subject?
Consider the stories that Walker’s images are portraying. Ask students to discuss how specific stories about conflicts or wars change with the storyteller. Consider the statement, “History is told by the winners.” How does this relate to history told in textbooks and the events and the narratives of those who did not have the opportunity to represent themselves, like slaves?
(Time: One 45 minute session)
Early Silhouettes
Show students images of early silhouettes and describe the process and history of making silhouette images. Compare and contrast the historical examples of silhouette images to the images that Kara Walker is producing. Compare and contrast the imagery of the silhouette to the imagery of Walton Ford and Shahzia Sikander.
• http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/s/silhouette.html
Silhouette Art
• http://pages.prodigy.com/kate/silhist.htm
Silhouette Art
(Time: Half a 45 minute session)
Beginning the Silhouette
Using a slide projector lamp or overhead project, have students create their own silhouettes in pairs on large white paper. As a class and depending on spatial limitations, decide whether to create full-body or traditional bust silhouettes. Ask students to decide on a particular pose or stance for their silhouette.
As an alternative to using projected light, have students draw profiles for each other or to trace student’s bodies while they are lying on top of the paper. The size of the original silhouette should depend on the final format that you would like to have students present their images.
(Time: One to Two 45 minute sessions, depending on size of class)
Brainstorming the Character
Have students brainstorm ideas for a real or fictional character they will create: a hero/heroine or anti-hero/anti-heroine or combination of both. Have students brainstorm the ways in which they can graphically and symbolically represent the characteristics of this character. What are the visual clues they can use to describe the particular time and place this person might live in? How do Walker, Ford and Sikander represent particular characteristics of the protagonists in their images? What are the graphic clues they provide so that the audience can identify who these characters are? To solicit ideas, have students write a story or make a list describing their character. Turn these characteristics into visual elements they can include in their real or fictional character.
(Time: One to Two 45 minute sessions)
Completing the Silhouette
Have students alter their original silhouette image to reflect the real or fictional character they have created by incorporating the new visual elements. Ask students to consider a possible time or place these characters will or once did exist. Have them consider additional costume and accessories that might reflect this time period. Once they have sketched the final silhouette outline for their character on the white paper, have students cut out their character and trace the shape onto black paper using chalk or a white pencil. Cut out the final silhouette from the black paper.
(Time: Two 45 minute sessions)
Making the Narrative
Create a narrative or story that includes each of the characters and create the necessary additional silhouette imagery that will tell the story. Install the silhouettes around a room, perhaps incorporating existing structural elements of the room. Have the class create a title for the installation and ask each student to write their own version of the story from the perspective of the character they have created. Invite other classes in to view the installation and describe their own version of the story being told. Photograph the characters individually as well as the complete installation and create a book that includes each student’s writings with the image of their character.
(Time: Three 45 minute sessions)
reflection & evaluation
• Have students articulated their ideas about conflict and opposition in relation to visual symbols and imagery?
• Have students reflected on the notion of conflict and its diverse meanings in personal, local, national and international contexts?
• Do student’s written narratives and visual images reflect the idea of the diverse narratives involved in representing conflict both historical and contemporary?
• Have students reflected on the featured artists work and their relationships to the idea of conflict and opposition, the hero/heroine and the anti-hero/anti-heroine?
• Have students created silhouettes that use symbolic elements to describe their ideas?
Find out if this lesson plan correlates to your state's education standards! On PBS TeacherSource do a search for "Art in the 21st Century" and click on the Standards Match icon.
going further
While this lesson uses the artists Do-Ho Suh, Eleanor Antin, and Collier Schorr and their relationships to wartime events as its starting point, this lesson could be modified for different artists and wars, forming a unit with other lessons such as:
War on Film
Wartime Voices
Looking at Likeness
Characters & Caricatures
Did you use this lesson or generate your own activities based on ideas inspired by the lesson? Submit student art work, new lesson plans, and your comments to Art:21 and have them posted on the site. Help the Online Lesson Library grow!
additional lesson plans on featured artists
Walton Ford
Cartoon Commentary
Landscape & Place
Shahzia Sikander
Migrating Viewpoints
Remaking Myths
Traditional Crafts, Contemporary Ideas
Kara Walker
Cartoon Commentary
Characters & Caricatures
Fact or Fiction: Describing the Real
Looking at Likeness
Migrating Viewpoints
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