BEYE Discovery: Week 2, Monday: Miniature Assemblages

We began the week with a fun, tiny little project that was inspired by a sculptural assemblage by Richard Linder that I came across in a book about Surrealism. In this work, a glass jar contained small symbolic items such as a ladder, a small wooden man, a die, a red heart, etc. For the student’s projects, each was given a small glass jar to create their own miniature assemblage. These are the things that we discussed:

1. Symbols & meaning: how the objects chosen by an artist can work together to tell a story. We asked several students to share their idea of what story Lindner may be telling. (The book I found this work in reveals that Lindner had difficulty with gambling: we obviously did NOT discuss this in class). We also explained that objects may or may not be related to each other to tell a story.

2. A mixed media approach: images and words maybe cut from magazines; objects may be sculpted with model magic; or students may draw symbols or add small found objects (re-use items, wooden craft sticks, string, sequins, pipe-cleaners, etc.)

3. Scale: how to display tiny works of art in contrast to much larger sculptural objects

Interesting notes:

1.Younger students were thrilled to mix model magic to create colorful marbled effects and to squish the product into the bottles. For them, it became more of an exercise on volume and mass.

2. Two students sculpted miniature objects to convey a personal interest, such as skateboarding

3. One student used a combination of model magic and a found image to create a new dimensional object within her assemblage

4. Another student created work in a series, with coiled/snake-like marbled forms that filled 3 separate jars.

5. Lastly, one student created an armature using a small wooden craft stick, a cut drinking straw and string. The model magic was placed on top of the armature to create a movable figure.

These are the miniature assemblages: