Time, Texture, Pattern: Part One This is the start of a major, 8 week IWB & Studio unit which should lead to two or more significant, interrelated studio outcomes supported by a body of closely associated visual, critical and contextual investigation work. You will explore a combination of approaches including: photography, drawing, painting, digital image manipulation, writing, stencilling or block printing, sculpture, glazed ceramics, collage and critical dialogue with your peers. 12 or more A3 pages due in on 13th January (except digital photos – due in 3rd January) Digital version of this guidance (with hyperlinks to media) will be available on the main Art blog Part One: Investigation & Preparation Task 1: Brainstorming and Mind mapping: Explore, explain and expand upon diverse interpretations of the 3 words a double A3 page spread in your IWB. Include found images (magazines, internet etc) as well as your own written notes, photographs, symbols and sketches. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it should be packed full of ideas, images and possible directions for subsequent research. To start you off here are links to some possible definitions complied by http://www.thefreedictionary.com

Time Texture Pattern

Click these thumbnails to see examples of other students’ IWB brainstorms: Task 2: Critical & Contextual Research: TIME, TEXTURE AND PATTERN in Art History. Over 3 A3 pages in your IWB, compare and contrast 2 artworks from different times and cultures that powerfully express each of the three key words (6 artworks in total). Where possible try to use examples of artworks that you have encountered at first hand rather than in reproduction. Describe everything that you can see within the work through rich use of language – including metaphor and simile. Describe the artists’ use of materials, scale, colour, form and line with specific reference to evidence of Time, Texture & Pattern Discover and describe the social and historical context of the work: Who made it? For whom? When? Why? What for? Who paid for it? What does the work mean to you? What does/did it mean to the people who made it or who use(d) it? Describe and explain the differences, similarities between the works from diverse sources. Choose your visual media for these pages carefully. Sometimes a photograph or reproduction is perfectly adequate within an critical investigation. In other cases, specific media such as thick, impastoed brushstrokes, brittle ink and pen marks, or appliquéd fabric may help to extend your response beyond that which is possible in written language. These thumbnails link to examples of other IB Visual Artists’ IWB based critical/contextual comparisons:

Comparing Representations of ‘Time’ in Artworks from Diverse Times and Cultures

‘Dreamtime’ paintings, Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) , Australia These rock paintings describe elements of Australian Aboriginals’ ‘dreamtime’. This is believed to be the period when the ancestral spirits roamed the country:

The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, travelled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Anangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja.

(taken from Commonwealth Department of

Environment's Uluru webpage ) The paintings are built up in layers by generations of artists over hundreds of

years. This is a type of palimpsest.

Click on image or HERE to watch video

This VIDEO piece: ‘Still Life’ (2001) by Sam Taylor Wood (born 1967) records a bowl of fruit as is gradually decays:

This is not just a Still Life. It is a vanitas, a particular type of still life developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Flanders and Netherlands. Its specificity was the showing of the vanity of the worldly things through often subtle signs of elapsing time and decay. Some of the vanitas had obvious references like skulls, but others yet had simply a watch, or a slightly rotting fruit. Sam Taylor-Wood's work is another step in that direction: the image, beautiful as ever in Taylor-Wood's universe, decomposes itself. By the end, nothing is left but a grey amorphous mass.

(Source: new-art.blogspot.com ) Is it only possible to truly show the passage of time through ‘time based’ media such as sound and video recordings?

Comparing Representations of ‘Texture’ in Artworks from Diverse Times and Cultures

Bronze head and female figure by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). The roughly modelled, gouged and pitted surfaces of Giacometti’s bronze sculptures are described here by the Art critic David Sylvester:

‘Giacometti's standing figures suggest objects long buried underground and now unearthed to stand out in the light, fossils perhaps’ (1997 p3)

In this VIDEO (in German & French) you can watch Giacometti sculpting in his studio.

Altar Head of a Queen Mother Brass 18th/early 19th century. Edo; Benin Kingdom, Nigeria. Beninese artists and craftspeople perfected the technique of

Lost wax casting, This process allows highly detailed rendering of a range of surface textures including smooth or scarified skin, the neck rings and characteristic hair styles and coral beaded crowns of the queen mother.

Comparing Representations of ‘Pattern’ in Artworks from Diverse Times and Cultures

Architectural forms often contain a diverse array of patterns. This elaborately decorated building is Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. It was originally built as a church, then it became a mosque and is now a museum. The internal and external spaces overlay centuries of images, decoration and text within a series of geometrical constructions: Patterns within patterns. Further images and video of the interior of Hagia Sophia as it looks today here :

VIDEO

Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907) is enriched with elaborate patterns typical of the Viennese painter’s work at this time. Klimt (1862 – 1918) was the son of an engraver of precious metals. He studied byzantine mosaics in Ravenna Italy. Whilst the gilded swirls and symbols reflect ancient Egyptian and Mycenaean art, they also remind us of the wealth of the sitter. The decorative influences within another of Klimt’s works: ‘The Kiss’ is

discussed in this VIDEO

Divergence: Generating & exploring a wide range of ideas and images from which to develop experimental new IWB & Studio Work. Task 3: A two week diary (6 A3 pages) of TIME, TEXTURE AND PATTERN in your day to day life:

Draw, paint, collage, photograph, overwork, sew, print, sketch and write a visual/text based diary relating your life, travels and experiences during this period to those 3 key words.

Choose visual media, techniques and vocabulary that are particularly appropriate within the descriptions of your various encounters with Time, Texture & Pattern during this holiday period. Demonstrate your sensitivity and openness to diversity. Be inventive and imaginative. Take risks. Surprise yourself...

Clicking these thumbnails will open examples of other IB Visual Artists’ IWB based visual diaries:

Task 4: Visual research. Photographic Image gathering: Bring in on a USB stick first lesson after Christmas holidays)

Take a range of photographs (preferably digital) that suggest a range of possible interpretations of the three key words: Time, Texture & Pattern. For this project they must be your own original photographs, not ‘found’ images. These images will be combined and layered to create starting points for painting and drawing work. Therefore try to avoid taking shots that will dominate possible compositions. Seek out unusual perspectives, strong tonal contrasts, exciting surface details and dynamic colour combinations.

Arrive at a carefully considered selection of your 6 best images that in some way express each of the words: Time, Texture, Pattern. That means 18 original images in total. Be prepared to make, and subsequently justify, surprising or unusual choices, both in your written IWB notes and in your creative dialogue with your peers. 2 or more A3 pages will be used to show your chosen images and your explanations (and some of the rejected possibilities too)

The annotated example IWB pages of IB Visual Arts students’ Time, Texture, Pattern photography shown below are hyperlinked to larger versions:

Further Information, Links & Sources

Image sources

Hagia Sophia : http://www.flickr.com/photos/vasta/4316149138/sizes/l/ Gustav Klimt: Adele Bloch-Bauer http://www.flickr.com/photos/freeparking/4643777350/ Benin Bronze Head http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomathon/3483990787/ Giacometti http://media.photobucket.com/image/giacometti/hakandahlstrom/ Uploads%20via%20Pixelpipe/11220100316170742.jpg Uluru Rock Painting http://media.photobucket.com/image/uluru%20painting/24OCD/

Australia-New%20Zealand%20trip/cavepaintingatUluru.jpg?o=9

Still from Sam Taylor-Wood Video http://www.ubu.com/film/tw_still.html

Video

Hagia Sophia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usp6GLrzdws Klimt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pia6Awiv0Co Sam Taylor Wood http://www.ubu.com/film/tw_still.html Giacometti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcL98l3VdsY

Further information

Gustav Klimt [Austrian Art Nouveau Painter, 1862-1918] http://www.iklimt.com/ Sam Taylor Wood British Artist, born in 1967 http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/taylor-wood_sam.html Alberto Giacometti Swiss Painter and Sculptor, 1901-1966 http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/giacometti_alberto.html Beninese Sculpture http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/benin.html Scarification of the skin in Benin http://www.larskrutak.com/articles/Benin/index.html Lost wax Casting http://www.jepsculpture.com/bronze.shtml Commonwealth Department of Environment's Uluru webpage http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/culture-history/culture/creation.html Tate Gallery Art Glossary http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/default.htm Discussion of Sam Taylor-Woods ‘Still Life’ http://new-art.blogspot.com/2007/02/sam-taylor-woods-vanitas.html

References Sylvester, D. (1997) Looking at Giacometti London, Holt.

Top Markband Descriptors, Aims & Objectives for IB Visual Arts

Aims The aims of the visual arts course at HL and SL are to enable students to:

investigate past, present and emerging forms of visual arts and engage in producing, appreciating and evaluating these

develop an understanding of visual arts from a local, national and international perspective

build confidence in responding visually and creatively to personal and cultural experiences

develop skills in, and sensitivity to, the creation of works that reflect active and individual involvement

take responsibility for the direction of their learning through the acquisition of effective working practices.

Assessment objectives students will be expected to:

respond to and analyse critically and contextually the function, meaning and artistic qualities of past, present and emerging art, using the specialist vocabulary of visual arts

develop and present independent ideas and practice, and explain the connections between these and the work of others

explore and develop ideas and techniques for studio work through integrated contextual study and first-hand observations

develop and maintain a close relationship between investigation and a purposeful, creative process in studio work

produce personally relevant works of art that reveal evidence of exploration of ideas that reflect cultural and historical awareness

develop and demonstrate technical competence and artistic qualities that challenge and extend personal boundaries (option A) and technical competence and self-direction (option B).

TOP MARKBAND OPTION B DESCRIPTORS (INVESTIGATION)

Analyses and compares perceptively art from different cultures and times, and considers it thoughtfully for its function and significance.

Demonstrates the development of an appropriate range of effective skills, techniques and processes when making and analysing images and artifacts.

Demonstrates coherent, focused and individual investigative strategies into visual qualities, ideas and their contexts, an appropriate range of different approaches towards their study, and some fresh connections between them.

Demonstrates considerable depth and breadth through the successful development and synthesis of ideas and thoroughly explained connections between the work and that of others.

Demonstrates effective and accurate use of the specialist vocabulary of visual arts.

Uses an appropriate range of sources and acknowledges them properly.

Presents the work effectively and creatively and demonstrates effective critical observation, reflection and discrimination.

Presents a close relationship between investigation and studio.

TOP MARKBAND OPTION A DESCRIPTORS

(STUDIO)

Exhibits excellent understanding of the ideas and techniques that underpin artistic expression.

Consistently demonstrates the production of personally relevant artworks that show excellent exploration of ideas reflecting cultural and historical awareness and artistic qualities.

Shows thoughtful development of ideas and strategies for expression.

Displays sensitivity to materials and their use. The coherent body of work has been reviewed, modified and refined as it has progressed, resulting in an accomplished resolution of ideas and medium.

Displays excellent technical competence.

Demonstrates confidence and inventiveness.

Shows an informed, reflective judgment that challenges and extends personal boundaries