Howick College

Years 9–10

Surreal bedroom sculptures

View student artwork

Context

This unit stimulates imaginative responses and lateral thinking from students when they apply the concept of surrealism to their personal environment. Through the study of domestic environmental sculpture and the work of Salvador Dali the students consider how to reflect their own personality through the juxtaposition of selected images onto a photograph of a previously constructed 3-dimensional bedroom space.

Learning sequence

In response to the question, "What is sculpture?" the students described sculptures that they had seen. They were asked what they knew about "domestic space" and shown examples of artists' "domestic sculpture".

Students then designed their dream bedroom on A4 paper, using coloured pencils. From this concept they assembled a 30 cm x 30 cm sculpture, using old folio board for the floor and the three walls. Students then furnished and decorated their rooms, making cardboard objects such as beds, stereos, etc. Some made ice cream stick floors.

Working in pairs with the digital camera they photographed both the plan and elevation views of their bedroom sculptures, and then photographed each other (full body shots) in a creative "action shot" pose. Photos were loaded onto a laptop and images then printed: A4-size of the bedroom and A5-size of the body shots.

Students were introduced to surrealism, shown images by Dali and asked to imagine and share a surreal circumstance (for example, "A swimming pool filled with spaghetti in our backyard.").

Students started their surreal image by gluing their A4 bedroom photo onto stiff card, and collecting images from their bedroom photograph to make a surreal composite image that also reflected their personality. They cut out the photograph of themselves and included it in their image. Once satisfied with the components and their placement, they glued the pictures down and mounted their final composite images for presentation.

All students enjoyed the unit and were very satisfied with their final results.

A software programme such as Photoshop could be used to construct the final image on screen.

Curriculum strands and objectives

For curriculum strand relationships and student learning objectives go to Curriculum strands and objectives.