# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The AGSA Art School in a box is the 'one-stop-shop' for teaching students about art elements, art principles, art terms and art history. This resource will support you in delivering authentic art lessons that use artists and their stories as a starting point.

About the cards

Works of art

A selection of sixty works of art from the Gallery's collection. These cards include an image and basic contextual information. A larger image of the work of art can be found in our online collection.

Art elements

Definitions of line, colour, shape, form, texture, space and value, with corresponding activities. Elements are some of the visual tools artists use to make works of art.

Art principles

Definitions of balance, contrast, emphasis, harmony, pattern, proportion, scale, rhythm, movement and repetition, with corresponding activities. Principles underpin how an artist uses visual tools (elements) to make works of art.

Art terms

These words are commonly used when we talk about artists and works of art. These cards include definitions and activities and will extend your art vocabulary.

Art history

These words are used to describe works of art or the movements they belong to. These cards include definitions and activities and will extend your art history knowledge.

Wild cards

Wild cards are our Curiosity Cards, which can be paired with any work of art in the Gallery or in the classroom. They are ideal prompts for engaging with works of art and practising critical and creative thinking.

How to use the cards

The AGSA Art Cards are versatile and can be used in the Gallery, classroom or at home. Of course, the entire set of cards can be explored by children independently or in groups; however, with over 100 cards to choose from, this might be a little overwhelming and unmanageable in a classroom setting.

A card dealing with a single work of art can be paired with multiple elements, principles, terms, genre and or wild cards. This may mean that potentially you could have twenty activities to choose from, for just one work of art. Let's use Absence Embodied by Chiharu Shiota as an example. This work presents a great opportunity for students to learn about line, pattern, colour, contemporary art or installation. In addition, you could even throw in a wild card as an icebreaker to start the lesson.

Planning a Lesson

Use our template to design a unit of work incorporating the AGSA Art Cards and a visit the Gallery.

Suggested example when using Chiharu Shiota's Absence Embodied as a starting point

# data[].attributes.body
Free Professional Learning online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learn strategies for engaging your students with works of art while in the Gallery and ways to extend this experience back in your classroom with post visit activity suggestions.

This workshop is suitable for those teachers in need of some alternative ideas for facilitating self-guided sessions or for TRT teachers needing some quick go-to activities to deliver with minimal materials and preparation. Linked to the Australian Curriculum, this session and the AGSA Art School in a Box resource is the ideal companion for any visual art class across the country.

Using the new resource AGSA Art School in a Box as a framework, you will be shown different ways to structure a visit to AGSA or an art lesson in the classroom. The resource includes over 200 making and responding activities that can be used in response to any work of art. With a focus on art elements and principles, art history and art terms the resource is your one stop shop for embedding visual arts and design into any classroom.

Below you will find the pre-recorded workshop, presentation, works of art referenced in the presentation, links to relevant resources and a professional development certificate.

You will need:

A copy of AGSA Art School in a Box

Cardboard (210gsm or cardboard from a shoe or cereal box)

Scissors

Pre-event reading

Look for unusual or irregular shapes in the negative spaces in a work of art. Draw these shapes in your sketchbook.

Using these shapes as inspiration, create a new sculpture from coloured cardboard.

Without looking at the dates, arrange these works of art from oldest to newest (most contemporary).

How did you come to this decision?

Are these works all made by Australian artists?

What can you see that suggests they are made by an Australian artist - or not?

In a classroom, you would not provide students with the dates - only the images for them to make their decision.

Shape Up Space Out Sculpture examples created by workshop participants

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Curiosity Cards promote critical and creative thinking and encourage 'long looking', resulting in students actively engaging with works of art, with ideas and with each other. The questions provide students with an alternative 'way in' to a work of art, sparking their curiosity and developing their confidence in responding to visual information. Some questions require a quick response, and so are great icebreakers for all students to have an opportunity to share, while other questions are designed to stimulate extended activities and could be completed in pairs or small groups.

A self-guided visit can often be a daunting experience with students seeing works of art in situ, sometimes for the first time. The Curiosity Cards assist you to plan a visit to a gallery, without the pressure of disseminating content in the exhibition space. Rather, slow down the gallery experience by providing opportunities for students to make connections and respond, emphasising that every student's opinion is acknowledged and valid.

Outcomes

Provide alternative ways in to a work of art.

Experience long looking to develop visual literacy.

Improve critical and creative thinking skills.

Increase confidence when talking about works of art and suggesting ideas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
52 prompts to spark curiosity about art, ideas and the world

# data[].attributes.body
Drawing, writing, collage and painting

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
German-French artist Hans Arp was a key contributor in the development of Dada and Surrealism in the early twentieth century. Alongside other artists, Arp employed antirational strategies and the use of chance to make art. He made collages from torn paper and let them fall - adhering the paper to the surface where they fell, handing control over to gravity.

- Cut or tear up a variety of paper, for example coloured card, magazines or even some of the results from the activities listed in this resource. Place a sheet of paper on the floor, from standing position grab a handful of paper scraps and let the scraps fall onto the surface. Stick these down exactly where they fell.

Losing Collage Control

Collage is a really simple and accessible activity for students of all ages, particularly those who think that they can't draw. At the end of this resource, we hope that students have gained confidence in art making regardless of their ability and found some techniques that piqued their interest. Letting go can be the hardest part, but here are some collage ideas to stimulate spontaneity.

With a glue stick or paint brush and PVA randomly make marks onto a piece of paper. Sprinkle sand or even 100s and 1000s over the glue. This can be left to dry or manipulated further using the edge of a small piece thick cardboard (like a scraper).

Froissage- Scrunch up a piece of paper. Unfold the paper. Use the lines created by the creases to create a drawing. Before unfolding and drawing, you might also like to try submerging the scrunched paper into diluted ink, allowing the creases to soak up the ink. Let the paper dry then unfold and draw or leave it as it is.

Select an image from a magazine or newspaper. Cut up the image. You might choose to cut random shapes or into even squares. Re-create a new image from these pieces.

Frottage - Place a sheet of paper over an object or surface that has a texture. Rub the paper with the side of a crayon or oil pastel. Combine or overlap textures from different surfaces, cut up your frottage and create a new image.

Using a selection of found images create a bizarre or dream-like collage. Images might be sources from magazines or stock images printed from the internet - this might include a selection of limbs, wings, eyes and tails. Students may even choose to reverse this collage idea and cut sections of an image away to create a new one.

# data[].attributes.body
Upcoming exhibition at AGSA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Browse our online galleries of student work created in response to works of art, exhibitions and education resources.

If you have student work you would like to submit for our online galleries see our submission guidelines.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Works of art created by children and young people

# data[].attributes.body
Includes Timelapse video of the installation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chiharu Shiota, born in 1972 in Osaka Japan, is a performance and installation artist who uses wool, blood, metal and earth to make her works. She is well renowned for her large-scale installations that have been made using string, sometimes connected to everyday objects such as keys, windows, dresses and boats. These installations have been exhibited around the world including Melbourne, Tokyo, Venice, Madrid and now Adelaide. Shiota's work explores themes of motherhood, lifecycles and geographical displacement. These are deeply connected to her personal experience as a woman, an artist and an immigrant.

Absence Embodied is a site-specific installation in Gallery 14 in the Melrose Wing at the Art Gallery of South Australia. In addition to the dense mass of red wool which forms a three-dimensional labyrinth, the installation also includes a cluster of bronze and plaster casts of the artist's and family members' hands and feet.

In making the work, sometimes the string gets tangled, or loses tension, or is cut, much like human relationships. Relationships can become tangled, lost or severed. Red string symbolises the body, blood or relationships between humans. There is an expression in Japanese, akai-ito de musu bareru, which means 'two people whose lives are bound together with a red string', it describes human connection
Chiharu Shiota

This section of the resource has been written through a Mathematics lens. To undertake some mathematical investigations suggested below you may need to know some specific information:

■ Chiharu Shiota used 1,800 balls of wool, each 133 metres in length, to create Absence Embodied.

■ Gallery 14 dimensions are 13.72 metres x 9.91 metres

■ Gallery 14 wall height is 4.5 metre

Choose an item in your classroom and cover it using your favourite coloured string or wool (eg. pencil, ball or ruler). How many times did you wind the wool around your object until it was covered? Compare your results to other students who selected the same item. If you ended up with different numbers brainstorm some reasons why this may have been. Were there some areas of the surface that remained exposed, or did you wind your wool more tightly than your classmate? As a class, arrange your objects in order of those which needed the most wool through to the objects which needed the least.

Discuss how heavy the wool used to create Absence Embodied would weigh if it were to be collected into one giant ball. Make a list of other objects which would be heavier or lighter than the wool used in Absence Embodied.

After looking closely at Absence Embodied what shapes can you see that have been created by the red wool? How many different combinations of common shapes can you create using wool or string?

Calculate the amount of string Shiota has used in Absence Embodied and then estimate the percentage of space the wool is occupying in Gallery 14. You may need to take reference photographs of the work. This may be useful when estimating the space and or volume of the room. Dimensions available above.

Shiota has used 239.4km of string to create Absence Embodied. How many balls of string does this equate to? Now measure your height. How many lengths of your body would be required to create Absence Embodied?

Let's imagine taking Shiota's string (239.4km) for a walk. What destination would you arrive at if you travelled, north, south, east or west from where you are currently located?

Photograph sections of Absence Embodied including the shadows cast on the Gallery walls. Within Shiota's overlapping lines, identify 6 different triangles (Scalene, Isosceles, Equilateral, Acute, Right and Obtuse). What other shapes can you see within the installation? Establish the formulas to determine the areas of these shapes.

Shiota is familiar with migration, having left her home country as a young adult and residing in Berlin since 1996. Look at different examples of public transport networks or airline flightpaths from around the world. Document your movements over a week and plot these on a map using pins (also known as nodes) and link each point to track your journey. Use coloured string to represent the different mode of transport you took. Remove the map from beneath your design so that only your string network diagram remains. Calculate the distances you travelled on foot versus in a car or on public transport. What was your total distance for the week?

Take it further

What else could you make a network diagram about?

Divergent thinking test! Make a list of all the things string can be used for. Consider all the places you have encountered it. What are the possibilities and limitations of string?

Some of Shiota's previous work has combined simple everyday objects, which are often collected or hold sentimental value. Sometimes these objects can signify special moments or events. Consider an object at home which is important to you as an individual or collectively as a family. It might be an item of clothing, handwritten letters or a book. If this object could talk, what story would it tell. Use this object as the prompt to write the story of this object.

Investigate the history of the colour red and its use in artists' work. Research other artists throughout time who have predominately used red, or another singular colour, in their works. How does their choice to use a single colour differ to Shiota? TIP Louise Bourgeois, Lindy Lee, Anish Kapoor, Yves Klein or Mark Rothko. Compare the work of Shiota to Louise Bourgeois and discuss the role the body plays in their work.

Shiota loves to sketch and takes her drawings everywhere she travels. Using a viewfinder select a section of Absence Embodied to create a series of observational drawings. Select sections of the installation that vary in mass. For a week, take a sketchbook with you everywhere you go and sketch interesting patterns you find in your everyday environment.

Wool or thread has become a signature characteristic of Shiota's work since the early 1990s. Challenge yourself to create a work of art using a single material and of one colour. Experiment with everyday materials such as paper, toothpicks, wool or fabric. Test its limits - tear, cut, bend, stretch, twist or layer your chosen material.

Shiota is ever-present within Absence Embodied, physically mapping the random coordinates with thousands of staples which result in a rhythmic overlapping pattern of red wool. Focus on one of the coordinates and follow this line until it meets another, and so on. Using paper and pencil, document the pattern you have observed.

Rhythmic movements have interested artists throughout time including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.Create your own drawing using rhythmic pattern by repeating and overlapping your pattern to create a sense of dynamic movement. TIP You might like to listen to music to identify different rhythms as a starting point for your mark making.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chiharu Shiota, born in 1972 in Osaka Japan, is a performance and installation artist who uses wool, blood, metal and earth to make her works. She is well renowned for her large-scale installations that have been made using string, sometimes connected to everyday objects such as keys, windows, dresses and boats.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How art can help you analyze - Amy E. Herman