In the Threes, we recently found artistic inspiration in the work of Louise Nevelson, an American sculptor known for her monumental monochromatic wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. She lived in New York City and would collect junk like old furniture and off cuts of wood which she would use to create her sculptures. She called her sculptures “assemblages”.
To begin our project, we collected recyclables and interesting ‘junk’ which included differently-sized boxes, cardboard tubes, plastic containers, corks, lids, wooden shapes, jig-saw pieces and even an old hairbrush!
Each child started their project with a cereal box. One side had been removed to create a container for their sculpture. The children carefully selected the “junk” pieces they wanted to use and began to position them within the box. We watched a short YouTube video which showed an artist putting together an ‘assemblage’ and then talked about how the artist had tried putting objects in different places until she found the layout she liked best. Once we decided on our final design, teachers helped the children secure their creations with a hot glue gun.
We learned that Louise Nevelson’s assemblages were monochromatic, or just one color, and we decided to mirror her style by painting ours entirely with black acrylic paint.
The final step was to group the children’s individual sculptures together to create a collaborative work of art, which is currently on display in the Threes classroom. Take a look!
