PERFORMANCE ART Kinetic Reproductions - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Jan, 2001 by Cherie Kassin

Coming up with exciting and stimulating lesson plans that incorporate art production as well as aesthetics and art history can always be a challenge for any eighth-grade art instructor. We all want to expose our students to art in interesting ways that go beyond the typical and oftentimes boring lecture approach.

As educators, we all know that the best way for middle-school students to learn is by personal involvement and hands-on activities. Out of this realization came the creation of this performance-based art-history and art-production lesson.

The students' challenge was to choose a work of art that appealed to them and then re-create it in an interesting and interpretive manner that would also be informative. The students could work alone or in groups.

Once the decision was made, students were encouraged to talk about the elements of the painting and discuss what they believed might have been the motivation behind the work as well as what was actually happening in the painting. The discussion would then evolve into a dialogue between characters or even objects within the composition, or become a creative writing piece, story or poem.

Students researched their chosen artists, identifying the styles in which they worked and what types of images provided inspiration for them. Students were encouraged to include interesting and pertinent information about the artists in order to avoid a potentially dry and boring biography.

Re-creating the background of the artwork in an exaggerated format and then becoming part of the painting via characters or objects were the next steps of the project. Large pieces of cardboard, poster paper on rolls and even cotton bed sheets were available for creating backdrops. Students worked hard to re-create backgrounds large enough for them to actually become the characters or objects within the paintings.

Student performances could be executed in a variety of ways. A discussion between characters or objects in the painting was certainly a possibility. Students could incorporate music or sound effects, present a skit, write poems or create a dance to accompany their artwork.

Each presentation had to include some necessary information about the artist, the art style employed, a re-creation of a famous artwork and some sort of a reaction to or interpretation of the piece. How all of this was accomplished was up to the creativity of each individual or group of individuals.

Some of the choices ranged from Erte's Top Hats to Grant Wood's American Gothic. We also had renditions of van Gogh's Starry Night, Munch's Scream, Magritte's Golconde and Rousseau's The Lion and the Gypsy, to name a few.

Since we videotaped each group's presentation and took advantage of photo opportunities, the students were able to view the productions of their classmates in other classes, exposing them to the works of a wide variety of artists. I guarantee that the students will not forget those artists and their specific paintings.

One group chose the piece Top Hats by Erte. They created the city scene on a black bed sheet, dressed in costumes, created a dance and interspersed it with dialogue about Erte and his days with Harper's Bazaar and the Folies-Bergere. One of the boys dressed as the lady in the fur-collared red coat--make-up and all--and was a hit! The girls were decked out in black top hats to fit in with the painted gentlemen dressed in the same manner.

Yet another team of two girls did a wonderful dialogue to accompany Paul Klee's The Siblings. They stood behind an abstract cardboard reconstruction of the siblings and proceeded to talk about their creator, Mr. Klee, why he had depicted them as totally intertwined and how they felt about their shared lives. Certainly, the clever weaving of the facts and the fictional story made the presentation much more entertaining for us all.

Following all of the presentations, the students requested that they each be allowed to choose another work and create their own copy of it this time. Oil-paint sticks were the media of choice, and the students proceeded to do some phenomenal reproductions of "master" paintings. Students were exposed to a wide variety of artists and works in a relatively painless manner.

STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL "PERFORMANCE ART"

STEP 1: Choose a painting that appeals to you. Research the painting and the artist. What inspired the artist? What style of art did he/she work in? Find out about that style. What other artists were working in that same style? When did they live? Where?

STEP 2. Discuss the painting among your group. Discuss the action in the painting. If the characters in the work could speak, what would their conversations be? Is there a story to be told in this piece of art? What is it? Re-create that story.

STEP 3. Re-create the painting in whatever manner you choose. The presentation that you will make will entail re-creating the painting for the audience via background (scenery) and characters (costumes). You will need to tell us about the artist, the artwork and the style of painting. Then you will do a performance piece about your painting. It can be a play, a report or whatever you choose. Be creative. We have lots of materials for you to use. Just ask!