Culture Connection
Lesson Overview
This series of activities will give students an introduction to the various design methods and practices used in Polynesia to decorate bark cloth. This is an important link in evidence to migration and early population of the islands in the vast Pacific Ocean. Design methods and practices from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and Hawai'i are highlights for study and art-making. Examples of traditional bark cloth designs from a diverse collection of reproductions with be viewed to inform students about this traditional cultural practice as a viable art form which communicates meaning through the principles of art and elements of design.
Big Idea
Methods of bark cloth production changed in ancient times by people migrating who shared their knowledge and skill.
Pacific Islanders voyaged across great distances of the Pacific region and maintained similarities in art and culture.
People from Europe and the Continental United States arrived in the Pacific region to impact the overall culture of the islands and affected the cultural status of bark cloth by introducing woven material and new cultural values.
Bark cloth, known generally as tapa throughout Polynesia and as kapa in Hawaiian, almost became extinct but now it is being revived.
Essential Questions
Why is it important to perpetuate cultural art forms?
How is this traditional art form surviving in the contemporary art world?
What kinds of designs and methods of tapa are being practiced today?
How is migration portrayed through this art form of bark cloth? How are stories conveyed?
Evidence of Understanding
Students will explain how art reflects life, culture, attitudes, and beliefs of the artist.
Students will examine design methods of Fiji, Tonga, Hawai'i, and Samoa.
Students will use the elements and principles of art and design, such as proportion, line, positive and negative space, and motif, to communicate an idea or mood.
Students will organize a portfolio to keep sketches, reflections, process work, and final designs.
Students will decorate their portfolio with designs created using methods of Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Hawai'i, and Samoa.
Students will use graphic organizers to record, analyze, and reflect on reproductions of this traditional art and cultural design methods.
Instructional Learning Experience Number One
Students will watch a power point slide show on symmetry and asymmetry. They will take notes on a two-column organizer to familiarize themselves with the concept.
Students will watch slide shows: Bark Cloth of the Pacific, Preserving A Traditional Art, Part I and Part II to stir thinking for a class discussion about bark cloth designs from various Polynesian island groups. They will use Venn diagrams to help them analyze and compare bark cloth samples from the various island nations and to determine template methods used to replicate patterns in designs. The four methods to study are: stencils, block prints, rubbings, and stamping, each can also receive a second treatment of overpainting.
Students will seek to identify how personal interpretations and meaning is communicated and received through the symbols they see. Concept of iconography,symbolism, and context of story can further associate meaning to these Polynesian designs. Students should also practice identifying symmetry and asymmetry, line, motif, and proportion as important elements to this study.
Instructional Learning Experience Number Two
Set up four centers in the classroom as stations for hands-on art experiences using the four template methods for creating motifs. Students can rotate through the different stations to practice the methods. In some cases they will practice by sketching in their visual arts journals and then create templates. Emphasis will be on creating a single symbol to create a motif. Students will personalize their portfolio covers with motifs, employing each of the four methods.
When all students have gone through each station, have an art walk to display the portfolios. Post it notes can be used for peers to write comments.
1. Create Stencils as in Fiji Islands:
In Fiji, recycled plastic and x-rays are used to cut out stencils.
But here, students can use cardboard, index cards, or manila folders to cut stencil templates. They can cut on a fold to create symmetrical templates, or they can cut any design they choose to draw. They can also do rubs using crayons or oil pastels with their stencils.
They will practice using the stencils on paper first, and then apply their design with paint and a stiff brush in a motif on the portfolio cover which they will construct using poster board.
2. Create Print Blocks as in Tonga and Samoan Islands:
Printing blocks and rubbings are the style of these island groups. Tonga is known for creating printing blocks out of leaf midribs sewn onto leafy pads. In Samoa, blocks of wood are carved with designs and the durable templates are used as printing blocks and for rubbing designs before over-painting.
Students will make their printing blocks they will use thick cardboard, glue, and heavy twine. They will sketch their first name in their visual arts journal in a simple style. They will transfer this in reverse to cardboard, glue twine over the inverted name and let it dry to hardness. This can now be used to print! They can use a brush to paint the raised surface of the twine and print onto their portfolio. They can also use this style of block for making rubbings using crayons or oil pastels and then do over-painting.
3. Use Relief Rubs and Transfer Printing as in Tahiti and the Society Islands:
Students will bring natural items such as leaves, ferns, and grasses, and any other textured items to use as design templates. Rubbings can be made using crayons or oil pastels. Apply paint to leaves with a brush and then practice stamping in their journals before stamping to portfolio covers. Encourage students to think about how they layout their patterns and the colors they use.
4. Create Stamping Tools as in the Hawaiian Islands:
In Hawai'i, traditional design on bark cloth most often used bamboo sticks with repetitive shapes carved into them. Natural dyes were applied to the sticks and then they were carefully placed onto the cloth in a creative motif.
In the classroom, students can employ wooden paint stirrers or popsicle sticks as a base in place of the bamboo, they can cut out geometric shapes from adhesive-backed foam and place them onto the sticks in a row. Paint the shapes with tempera or acrylic paint and carefully place the loaded template down onto paper. Repetitions of geometric shapes side by side creates equality between positive and negative space.
Assessment
Students will be able to talk about art using art vocabulary
Identify the Polynesian Triangle on a map
Recognize Polynesian bark cloth as a functional work of art
Describe the design techniques from different island groups
Trace Polynesian migration on a map from west to east
Explain how artifacts count as historical evidence
Produce a personalized art portfolio case
Understand the difference between symmetry and asymmetry
Use a single symbol to create a motif
Use materials such as paint, brushes, pencil, paper, twine and glue to create works of art
Discover a variety of printing methods
Interpret art work made by another person and respond to it
Write reflections about their own work and that of others using art vocabulary
These tasks will be evaluated using the following tools of assessment: informal assessment, self-evaluation/peer evaluation, rubrics, project reflections (in journals), Venn diagrams
Materials
Sketchbook journals
pencils
tempera or acrylic pain
crayons or oil pastelst
stiff and soft brushes
lots of cardboard cut to size for individual use in projects
Fiji Stencil Station
(process drawing required)
exacto knives and cutting mats (or cardboard for this purpose)
manila folders and/or index cards
cardboard
paint and brushes
Tonga/Samoa Block Print Station
(process drawing required)
cardboard
twine
glue
scissors
crayons
paint and brushes
Tahiti Leaf Prints Station
leaves, ferns or grasses
paint and brushes
crayons
Hawaiian Stamping Station
flat, wooden sticks: paint stirrers, tongue depressors, or popsicle sticks
foam sheets with adhesive backing, or pre-cut geometric shapes
scissors
paint and brushes
Power Point Slide Shows:
Bark Cloth of the Pacific, Preserving a Traditional Art, Part 1 Background, power point
Bark Cloth of the Pacific, Preserving a Traditional Art, Part 2 Process, power point
Symmetry art talk on power point
Venn Diagram
Two-column Organizer
s_y_m_m_e_t_r_y_art_talk_sheri.ppt | |
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sheri_tapa.research.background.info..pptx | |
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sheri_tapa.research.basic_process.pptx | |
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