GROW at the Nasher: December 2019

Thursday, December 19, 2019

What's the Story? Tour, Part Three

We peeped through the windows at our last work of art.

Broken Square by Elmgreen & Dragset

Before our group discussion, we imagined what could have happened in this room. The second graders shared their ideas with a partner, while the third-fifth graders wrote their stories first and then read them aloud to a partner. Below are a few examples!

2nd grade

Grayson - 3rd

Noah - 3rd

3rd grade

Alessandra - 4th

Sidney - 4th

4th grade

Jacob - 5th

Lola - 5th

5th grade

Elgreen & Dragset named this sculpture Broken Square. These big, broken chunks of asphalt connect with the Nasher Sculpture Center's history - this area was once a big parking lot, before the Center was built. The title Broken Square might lead us to imagine a square parking lot that was broken into pieces at the beginning of construction for the Center.

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

The 2nd-graders also looked at this sculpture, which resembles a street sign with reflective surfaces instead of words and colors.

Adaptation, Fig. 12

Why are street signs important? Imagine a world without street signs. What would happen?

The students designed a new street sign for a space near them. Scroll down to see a few examples!

2nd grade

Alayna - 2nd

Morgan - 2nd

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

What's the Story? Tour, Part Two

At our second stop, we encountered these two sculptures:

What do you notice about these sculptures? How are they similar? How are they different?

What do you think they’re made of? Both sculptures are made of polished stainless steel, which creates a reflective surface.

The tall chair is one clue that tells us that the person we see is a lifeguard. What is a lifeguard’s job? What are some other clues? His bare feet, his swimsuit, and his binoculars.

A vulture sits on the other chair. Vultures are scavengers, which means they eat dead animals rather than hunting for their food. They also have great eyesight, so they don't need binoculars!

We looked at the sculptures with our own binoculars.

2nd grade

4th grade

5th grade

Elmgreen & Dragset titled one of these sculptures Watching and the other one Lifeguard. Students pointed to show their opinion on which was which. Scroll down to reveal the answer!

2nd grade

4th grade

5th grade

The sculpture on the left is titled Lifeguard, and the sculpture on the right is titled Watching!

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

What's the Story? Tour, Part One

We started this year with a tour exploring the idea of "What's the Story?" During our tour, we explored the work of artists Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen, who are featured in our current exhibition Elmgreen & Dragset: Sculptures. Together, Elmgreen & Dragset create sculptures that encourage us to imagine possible stories, or narratives.

Vocabulary:
narrative / la narrativa

scale / la escala

context / el contexto

reflective / brillante

interpretation / la interpretación

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

We explored the questions below at our first tour stop.

Couple by Elmgreen & Dragset

How would you describe this artwork? Are these two items identical? Why or why not?

Do you recognize these objects? They are diving boards. Could you tell these were diving boards right away or did it take a little while? That could be because they’re taken out of context. Context is the place or situation where something usually occurs. The normal context of a diving board is next to a pool, and horizontal instead of vertical.

This sculpture is called Couple, Fig. 21. What is a couple? The word couple usually refers to two people who are considered as a pair – married couple, a couple dancing, playing games, etc.

What sorts of things do you see in pairs? Name some examples of pairs in nature. What are manmade examples? 

What are some items that would work in a different version of Couple, Fig. 21?

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

Human Scale (Bent Pool) by Elmgreen & Dragset

How does this sculpture relate or connect to Couple, Fig. 21? What does it remind you of? Could you swim in this pool?

This sculpture is called Human Scale (Bent Pool). What does the word scale mean? The word scale describes when you compare the size of one thing to another.

Human scale is something made in a size that is useful to people. You could say that this sculpture is human scale (it is about our height) or it is not human scale (it is not a size that we could use).

The pool is also taken out of context! When was the last time you went swimming at an art museum? :)