10 October 2013

Seeing is believing...


To do:
  1. Visit the FRAC exhibition with a friend (take your time looking at each photo, keep an open mind...).
  2. Choose a photo one of you likes and the other dislikes.
  3. Write down your description of the photograph.
  4. Write down what you think the "meaning" of the photo is.
  5. Carry out research on the photo and on the photographer and his work in general (use the computer terminals on the first floor of the FRAC).
  6. Summarise what the photographer and critics have said about the photograph you have chosen.
  7. What does the photo say about the way the photographer sees today's world do you think (write down your answer)?
  8. How much do you share his way of seeing things (write down your answer)?
  9. Record your conversation about the photo on your cell phone (make sure the recording is very clear), each saying clearly why he likes or dislikes the picture.
  10. We will listen to your recorded conversation in class (whilst looking at a copy of the photo).

09 October 2013

Face to the wall!


To do:
  1. Watch the BBC video (click on the link below the photo above) and do the exercise.
  2. List adjectives describing the artist's work.
  3. Imagine a title for the work of art above.
  4. You are a reporter; list five questions to put to Gregos about his work.
  5. Imagine you are Gregos and answer the journalist's questions!
  6. List expressions that use the word "face".
  7. Take a photo of yourself, eyes closed, smiling, and, using software such as Photoshop, create a colorful Gregos-like face!

25 September 2013

Dalimotion

The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Dali

Click HERE to listen to a description of the painting!
Description on WIKIPAINTINGS: click HERE!

To do/questions:
  1. Listen to the description and read the WIKIPAINTINGS analysis.
  2. Describe this painting in your own words.
  3. Think up questions to ask someone about this painting (such as: "What title would you have given this work?"; "Does the fly symbolize something?", etc.)
  4. Get someone to answer your questions!
  5. Why do you like or dislike this painting?
  6. In pairs, present the painting to a group of "tourists" (one person saying why he/she likes the painting and the other why he/she dislikes it).
  7. Describe a nightmare in which you lost the notion of time...
  8. Make a list of expressions that use the word "time" ("time to close", "time is money", "time's up", etc.), translate each expression and then make up a sentence in English that uses that expression.

01 May 2013

Cocky!

Another Fourth Plinth Cock-up?

In its fifteen year history as a site for temporary contemporary sculptures, the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square has been the cause of much fuss and bother. The empty plinth in front of the National Gallery has hosted, among others: the marble sculpture of a disabled woman, a mock equestrian sculpture, and the members of the public themselves who, for an hour each, were able to become living statues.

Katharina Fritsch's sculpture of a big blue cockerel has also ruffled feathers. Some have said it is nothing but a feeble distraction, totally inappropriate in a square which honours Britain's greatest naval victory of the Napoleonic wars (the cockerel is the national symbol of France!). The Düsseldorf-based artist’s unnerving sculptures seem indeed to arrive from another world. There is no logic about her elephants, outsized apples, mice, and men in bright suits; her creatures are fanciful and dramatic and unrelated to their contexts. But is art not also meant to disrupt?

In the end, though, it's just a weird, oversized, royal blue barnyard bird, and it's been cheering us all up!

Questions/to do:
  1. Translate the text above.
  2. Do you agree that art is "meant to disrupt"?
  3. What should the purpose of a public sculpture be?
  4. What do you think of Fritsch's art?
  5. Describe your favourite Fourth Plinth shortlisted sculpture, and say why you like it so much.
  6. Take part in the vote!
Assignement:
  1. Get the children from a Primary school to vote on their favourite Fourth Plinth shortlisted sculpture.
  2. Run a workshop for the Primary school children: they have to imagine their own sculpture for the Fourth Plinth (they have to draw it on an A3 piece of paper).

11 March 2013

[blanc]

PREVIEW 11 MARCH 18:00

EXHIBITION
12 MARCH to 4 APRIL 2013
10am to 7pm 
(not open on Saturday or Sunday)

Ecole Supérieure d'Art de Clemont Métropole
25 rue Kessler
Clermont-Ferrand