UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 9, Page 1
October 26, 1995
Wearable art combines function, message, design

     Wonderful, wild, wearable art has been created by the students in
"Foundations of 3-D Design" classes taught by Anne Graham and Vera
Kaminski. Graham, who specializes in metalwork and jewelry, and
Kaminski, whose genre is fibers, teach three sections of the newly
designed basic course.
     One assignment was to create, from papier-mache on a chicken-wire
frame, a sculptured piece that could be worn and that also delivered a
message through its form and through words printed on the covering
layer of the piece.
     Not only did the students have to create their art pieces, they
had to wear them, and assume appropriate poses before a camera
connected to a computer while explaining their works to their
classmates who then critiqued them. The resulting freeze-frame
digitalizations helped them to visualize the overall effect of their
creations.
     One student did an abstraction called "Butterflies in my
Stomach." representing the ups and downs of a freshman adjusting to
college. Fitting over her body, the sculpture had a hole in front
surrounded by papier-mache butterflies. When she posed, she was bent
over, clutching her stomach as if it were fluttery.
     Another piece was a sombrero, a la Carmen Miranda, topped by a
pineapple and other fruit, symbolically giving birth to new fruit.
     An arm piece of a hawk catching a fish was a metaphor for
survival. Another was a wavy necktie that slid over the head of a lazy
man.
     The beginning art students are involved with drawing and color in
other classes, Kaminski said. The goal of this course is to get them
to work dimensionally without color or drawing and to think through
ideas, using materials and physical manipulation.
     "Another goal is to get them to express themselves and explain
their art through oral presentations. Art students frequently need
that opportunity to prepare for the art world," Graham said.
     One of the first assignments was for students to bring in a
variety of meaningful objects on a cloth-a kind of personal island-to
explain to their classmates. This set the tone for the course and
acted as an icebreaker, Kaminski said. Graham had taken part in a
similar exercise during a summer Center for Teaching Effectiveness
workshop and found it effective.
     Further into the semester, students will make small, 3-D designs
using corrugated cardboard. Another project is wrapping similar
objects with different materials to show how they can be transformed
by their "skins." Using an old pair of shoes, students will wrap one
shoe and transform the other shoe into a sculpture.
     Later on, students will be assigned a project of taking an
everyday object and transforming it into a sculpture by using
different materials and a different scale, in homage to Claus
Oldenberg, who sculpted the giant clothespin in Philadelphia,
symbolizing a city joining together. For example, Kaminski said, last
year a student constructed a huge telephone as a connection to home,
and another made a small lacrosse stick resembling a torch to signify
being burned out by competition.
     "Many of our students have some art training from high school,
but we are trying to dimensionally expand their imaginations, concepts
of art and their creativity. Their work is original and ingenious, and
we wish we could share their art work outside of the classroom,"
Graham said.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure