Preparatory Studies
4-6 Program: Preparatory Studies
Final Project Description:
Each student will alter several foundl images in the same pattern to create a series inspired by Mark Antione K. Phaneuf’s Preparatory Studies.
Description:
In this workshop, students will explore the ideas of incorporating everyday objects into artwork that has come out of experimentation. In the Gallery, students will look at Mark Antione K Phaneuf’s Preparatory Studies to see an artist using these techniques and ideas. In the studio, students will emulate Phaneuf’s work and learn the importance of repetition and rhythm in design.
Curriculum Connections
Creation & Analysis:
Finish your gallery tour at Mark Antione K. Phaneuf’s Preparatory Studies and have some discussion about his practice.
What materials is Phaneuf using? Pencil Crayon, pictures from books
Are these materials what we expect to see when we go into an art gallery?
Do the materials decide whether something is or isn’t art?
Did you see any other artwork when you were looking around that uses materials that we don’t usually think of being in art galleries? (Sarah Gotowka, Emily Gove) What did they use?
So we can use any materials to make art? YES
Phaneuf’s art practice usually involves displaying collections of items from late 20th century pop culture.
“At the root of Phaneuf’s art is a genuine passion for the objects of popular culture. He is an artist of the ready-made. His modus operandi is to build collections of specific types of pre-existing objects and present them together, with varying degrees of transformation, as a finished work of art. Purchased at flea markets, garage sales and via websites like Kijiji, or even—though more rarely—found in the garbage, these common, everyday items are given a new lease of life by Phaneuf, who approaches them not as things unworthy of intellectual consideration, but as potent emblems that can reveal all of the absurdity, humour and poetry of North American popular culture.”
Zoë Tousignant “Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf: Pop Cultist”
Is what Phaneuf has put up here a collection?
How has he transformed them?
“[H]e also frequently introduces wordplay—whether in his titles or as a linguistic component of the works—that turns the experience of such familiar objects into one of remarkable strangeness.”
Zoë Tousignant “Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf: Pop Cultist”
What does the name Preparatory Studies mean?
What does preparatory mean? Prepare – to do something to get ready
What is he getting ready for? To blow up the buildings?
“The drawings are sketches for potential explosions, for actions that perhaps might take place”
M.K.P. English translation by Zoë Chan
Phaneuf’s previous work didn’t have any drawing in it so the title actually has a double meaning
“These were my first-ever series of drawings (I had only up to that point worked in installation and literature); it’s as if this series was a testing ground for all the drawings I would do in the future [...].
M.K.P. English translation by Zoë Chan
Phaneuf is experimenting in these drawings, he is trying out a new form of art and that is alright to do as an artist.
How do Phaneuf’s Preparatory Studies fit together visually?
What is the same in each one of them? Explosions, subject being blown up
What is different? Colours, subjects
How do the architecture ones and hockey ones still work together?
Repeating the same jagged shape to make a pattern
Are there any other works in this exhibit that do the same thing?
Settle the students into the studio. Have a brief talk about repetition and rhythm. Refer to the image with a bunch of Phaneuf’s Preparatory studies on the projector http://makpca.com/projects/etudes-preparatoires/
What is repetition? The same thing happening over and over.
Did Phaneuf’s work have repetition in it? Yes
There is also a design principle called rhythm. It’s when the same elements are used, but with variations between them.
Does Phaneuf’s work have rhythm? Yes, same shape.
What variations does he make? Colour, placement, size, number, etc.
We are going to find images that interest us in the same way that Phaneuf did, and change them in our own way.
Explain that they need to find 3-4 images from the magazines provided that have the same theme. Phaneuf chose architecture and hockey they can chose any subject just several images with the same subject.
Have some example images brainstorm how you could change it in several different ways. Write on ideas on the board. Change one of them as an example.
Have kids find 3-4 images that interest them.
Once they have them, make a sketch of how they are going to change the images on scrap paper. When they finish they can start drawing on them. Remind them that they want to try and have rhythm in their images – they don’t want it to be exactly the same.
If they finish early have them choose a new subject and start over, or find more images to go in their series and keep working on it.
Clean up and have them share what subject they chose and why and how they tried to change the images with the group.
Duration:
Gallery: 45 min tour, 15 min discussion at work; Studio: 10 minutes introduction and discussion, 10 min find images, 10 min sketch idea, 20 min create series, 10 min Clean up and Sharing.
Vocabulary:
Rhythm
Repetition
Preparatory Study
Series
Materials:
Magazines
Scissors
Pencil Crayons
Scrap Paper
Pencils
Look & Discuss:
Do materials determine whether or not something is art?
Can collections be art?
How do rhythm and repetition influence works done in series?
Does art have to be finished?
Can artists be like scientists who are experimenting?
Prep:
Organize Magazines on table
Collect example magazine subjects.
Bring Phaneuf Website image up for Rhythm and Repetition discussion in studio.
RESOURCES
Design in Art: Repetition Pattern and Rhythm
https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/design-in-art-repetition-pattern-and-rhythm
Mark Antoine K. Phaneuf: Pop Cultist
http://canadianart.ca/features/marc-antoine-k-phaneuf-pop-cultist/
Mark Antoine K. Phaneuf Website.
http://makpca.com/projects/etudes-preparatoires/
Pop Culture Collector Turns Archival Photos Into A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure App.
Video