Adjectives
Found, meaning, symbolic, consumerism, identity, tangible
Supporting materials :
Camera
Objects
The nice thing about found objects is that you don't need expensive materials to complete this project. Instead, you can use the materials and objects that you already have in your house or classroom.
Project 1:
This was the assigned project where I had to position objects that juxtaposed each other. I chose to bring in objects representing my Danish heritage on my other side and my Native American (Hoopa) heritage from my dad's side. These objects created a juxtaposition that informs my own identity.
Some of the objects that I chose to represent my danish heritage include a Danish version of Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale book, a fossilized sea urchin I found on the fjord in Denmark, a box with the paintings of a danish artist, some shammies my great danish grandmother created, and a statue of the little mermaid that's located in Copenhagen. Some of the objects that I chose to represent my native American heritage included some items from my dad's bead kit, including porcupine quills and wooden beads, a sea shell my cousin found on the reservation, animal fur, feathers, and a dream catcher.
Project 2:
For this project, I went to Michael's on Black Friday to look through their winter holiday decorations. I picked out every bird that I could find in this section and then rearranged them to create a cohesive image of all the different birds. Through this project, I wanted to explore what birds are associated with the winter holidays and how cooperate America utilizes and represents birds on its products for these holidays.
Overall, I found it interesting how cardinals, owls, and generic white birds were what has become the face of winter and Christmas. I think this is interesting because I could easily see blue jays also being a good winter or Christmas bird, but I didn't find a single one in the winter department. I did, however, find one flamingo, which I wasn't expecting.
Project ideas
What my objects say about me
For this project, instruct students to go home a pick out 6-10 objects that are important to them and say something about who they are. Then students will have to arrange these objects into interesting and engaging compositions to comment on their identity. An alternative assignment is to have students go to a space like a classroom, a bathroom, a store, etc., and collect objects from that space to take a picture of. This project would comment on what objects belong to certain spaces and why.
Accommodation possibilities
Students can use their phones to take pictures if they don't have access to a professional camera
Students can also share a couple of cameras among themselves to take photos
Objects can also be provided for students to use if they are unable to gather their own
Appropriate age group and behavioral expectations
Students of all ages should be able to engage in this material. One thing to be cautious of is allowing young children to handle expensive cameras or fragile objects because they might accidentally break them. While younger students should be able to explore this type of creation, I don't think I would introduce this project to very young kids because I think the concept behind this type of work might go over their heads. Instead, I would like to explore found objects with older students in relation to what it signified in art history at the time.
Artist resources
Guadalupe Maravilla
Guadalupe Maravilla is a transdisciplinary visual artist, choreographer, and healer. At the age of eight, Maravilla was part of the first wave of unaccompanied, undocumented children to arrive at the United States border in the 1980s as a result of the Salvadoran Civil War. In 2016, Maravilla became a U.S. citizen and adopted the name Guadalupe Maravilla in solidarity with his undocumented father, who uses Maravilla as his last name. As an acknowledgment to his past, Maravilla grounds his practice in the historical and contemporary contexts belonging to undocumented communities and the cancer community. Combining pre-colonial Central American ancestry, personal mythology, and collaborative performative acts, Maravilla’s performances, objects, and drawings trace the history of his own displacement and that of others. Culling the entangled fictional and autobiographical genealogies of border crossing accounts, Maravilla nurtures collective narratives of trauma into celebrations of perseverance and humanity. Across all media, Maravilla explores how the systemic abuse of immigrants physically manifests in the body, reflecting on his own battle with cancer, which began in his gut. Maravilla’s large-scale sculptures, titled Disease Throwers, function as headdresses, instruments, and shrines through the incorporation of materials collected from sites across Central America, anatomical models, and sonic instruments such as conch shells and gongs. These Disease Throwers ultimately serve as symbols of renewal, generating therapeutic, vibrational sound.
Guadalupe Maravilla, Ancestral Stomach 2, 2021. Dried gourd with mixed media, 26 × 24 3/4 × 13 in.
"Disease Thrower #3," by Guadalupe Maravilla, 2019. Mixed media sculpture, 96 × 57 × 63 in.
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials and which blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor, but he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance.
"Coca-Cola Plan," by Robert Rauschenberg, 1958. Found objects, 26 3/4 × 25 1/4 × 4 3/4 in.
"First Landing Jump," by Robert Rauschenberg, 1961. Found objects, 7' 5 1/8" x 6' x 8 7/8".