Surrealism

This year, students are working on projects that relate to a big idea.  The final year of elementary school is a big one, especially when you've been in the same building for 7 years.  We are embracing this year of transformation in 6th grade and making that our big idea.

Transformation.  How do dreams transform reality?  How are dreams similar to and different from reality?  6th graders are exploring dreams and reality with Surrealism.  Surrealism is a period of art history in which artists tried to access the creativity of the unconscious mind.  Artists including Rene Magritte, Kay Sage, Hannah Höch, and Salvador Dali created many works that blurred the line between dreams and reality.

"usually, dreams are from your lives"

"Dreams look like real life but with weird or unusual things happening.
Sometimes people you know are in the dream."

The first game students played was the surrealist game, exquisite corpse, in which a creature is drawn collaboratively.  This went so fast I forgot to get photos!   It's a great game to play with the family, look it up or ask them about it!

Students then investigated the Surrealist technique of "seeing into" or "Paranoiac Critical Method" if you want to be fancy.  This exercise was coined by Salvador Dali and is all about looking at things in a new way.  Have you ever seen a bunny in the clouds?  Or a shape in a stain?  You've used this method!  6th graders began by staining a paper with tea, then used materials of their choosing to find images in the stains.


                                       ^Two students joining their papers together to make a map.


Students delved next into the surrealist technique of collage.  We looked at many examples, including work by Hannah Höch.  

Students began with a magazine background and had the challenge of adding new images to change the meaning.  I'd say they succeeded!

This studnet's work takes place
underwater.