top of page
Art Supplies
Search

Lesson Plan Concepts - Paper shapes

  • Writer: Luke Kandiah
    Luke Kandiah
  • Oct 17, 2023
  • 5 min read

I am covering for another teacher as they are ill, as a part of ,my colleague's SoW the lesson I am covering will be on Cutting shapes of paper to create compositions. I have some time to prepare before I lead this lesson, so I thought I should reflect on how I would approach this brief to utilise artist research and produce the same lesson material, showing reasons for this process. The hope here is to practice lesson planning where you start with the idea for an activity and retroactively put together artist research to contextualise the activity and deepen depth of knowledge in the subject to teach a more informed lesson.

In this blog post I hope to show my research and thought process throughout formulating an appropriate lesson plan.



Peter Callesen

ree

This artist's work combines an outstanding level of composure and steady hand along with that delicate feminine touch. His excellent ‘paper-cut structures’ are taken to an entirely new level with the details captured perfectly; leaving the original sheet of paper left flat to show the elevated beauty of this design. Not only does Callesen cut the paper leaving the template shape behind, but he uses his obvious gain of architectural knowledge to regularly depict the outline of buildings behind his 3D creation.


Applying this to the classroom, we can discuss the use of flat nets to design 3D structures with paper. This allows students to engage with 3D design from a 2D approach. While this artist's work is certainly complex, we can certainly take inspiration from their focus on the materiality of paper and expressing oneself without needing to add colour or line. We could also look at basic origami and folding paper to achieve forms without using adhesives.


Jen Stark

ree

Pieces of coloured paper that are hand cut, shaped, re-shaped and formed onto a wood backing. The attention to detail in cutting shapes out of each layer to form a wholly consistent pattern is remarkable. Using foam along with the paper. The layers of paper revealed within the white blocks reveal a hidden history reminiscent of the rings inside a tree.

It also has remarkable visual similarity to the ritualistic work of Pierre Huyghe 'Timekeeper', where the artist will sand away at the painted interior of exhibition spaces, again revealing the hidden histories within the materiality of the wall which we assume from appearance to be unblemished, unchanging.

Timekeeper projects are innately site-specific..

ree

… and therefore challenge the aesthetic of the white cube which attempts to decontextualise artworks within a 'neutral' space. This is something I wrote about in detail for my Master's thesis and I love to use him as an example.


Applying this more directly to a classroom setting I would certainly love to create layered paint 'etchings', in which students layer paint and then carve into the paint to reveal layers and possibly reveal the 'hidden histories' of their lives.

Applying this more directly to this task however, students can look at Stark's example to show how depth and 3D form can be achieved through layering paper. We can discuss themes of composition, creating a balance through the foreground, midground and background.


Brian Dettmer

ree

Using antique books, Brian Dettmer reconstructs the pages of books in a way that uses the bound layers of paper present within a book, to show this layered approach to showing form and depth using paper.

Dettmer cuts sections away from each layer to eventually form acutely layered shapes and patterns. On a deeper level, though, the story and information within each book is restructured, forming a new, non-linear narrative and meaning out of the original information. In Dettmer’s own words ‘The age of information in physical form is waning. As intangible routes thrive with quicker fluidity, material and history are being lost, slipping and eroding into the ether… History is lost as formats change from physical stability to digital distress.’ Applying this to the classroom, it would be interesting to see how students create their own narrative with books that they could be asked to bring in. (Homework task to visit a charity shop and pick out an old book.) In addition to cutting away at the book. they could also glue in their own shapes, introducing new 'text' and images to support their own narratives. Simple shape designs like an explorer shining light into a cavern made by cutting into the book might be good inspiration/example for students to take inspiration from. - This could also tie into a rich history of hiding things in books. (Spyware, bibles, etc) This may encourage student engagement.


Henri Matisse

ree

More well-known and approachable within the classroom, we cannot forfeit to mention Matisse. It is often said that Matisse came to his paper cut-outs by necessity during the last years of his life, when illness prevented him from painting; but this explanation has become something of a cliché. For the artist it was not a question of scissors v. paint, with room for only one victor; nor was there a straightforward linear progression from one medium to the other. Matisse had worked with cut-outs as early as 1919, when designing the sets and costumes for a London ballet and really it was just another medium he used to express himself. 'Entering into a second childhood' Matisse paints with scissors in a way that may be well imitated by children. The notion that a child could do just as well a job as Matisse should be a great encouragement to teachers, and opens up a dialogue by which we can celebrate the youthfulness of this medium. We can also appreciate the fragility of this process, sticking thin sheets of paper to one another and we can understand how this informs the process of 'painting with paper'.


Yulia Brodskaya


ree

Approaching paper from another angle, Brodskaya turns the paper on its side and uses these as ways to show smooth lines, depth and fluid forms. The use of colour is equally as striking and her compositions are wonderfully immense in detail.

This could be used as a great example in a classroom for approaching paper cutting from a different perspective and encourages students to be more experimental in how they use paper.







Paul Morrison

ree

Morrison creates large-scale monochrome landscapes that have been described as "Disney without the characters." Not unlike Alice's psychedelic-tinged Wonderland, many of Morrison's hypnotic fantasy environments seem to pivot between innocence and malevolence in the blink of an eye.

Morrison uses the interchange between positive and negative space to create layered scenes of pattern and shape.


Students could create multi-media works which play with this bi-tonal interchange. Layering on top of their own works to create depth and detail. Students can use exact-o-knives on cutting boards to cut out shapes from nature (traced or observed) and layer them on top of ink-blot paintings and fine-liner drawings. The negatives from the cut-outs can be photocopied and students can play with them to experiment with forms further.

Students can be celebrated for experimentation and the ways that they experiment with using black and white paper can be shared with the class to create a productive social learning environment.


This layering process is a great way to create complex patterns through a simple process, perhaps it is something I can use for my projects on pattern as well.


Other Artists:





 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page