Sixth Grade
Youtube Video Links -
History - youtu.be/NPp9lDH2Uqg Demo -
History - youtu.be/NPp9lDH2Uqg Demo -
Oldenburg Sandwich
Claes Oldenburg (1929 - ) is an American sculptor known for both his oversized sculptures of everyday objects (like a clothespin or a spoon) and his soft sculptures, again featuring everyday things (like food, cars and toilets). Many of his works were made in collaboration with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. Because of his work with common and easily recognizable images, Oldenburg is associated with the Pop Art movement. Most of his soft sculptures are in museums around the world, but his large-scale sculptures are usually found outside, in public spaces such as parks, schools, and plazas. Oldenburg wanted to make art that could be accessed by everybody.
Like other Pop artists (such as Warhol, Lichtenstein, and even Jasper Johns), Oldenburg wanted to use art to get us to look at ordinary things in new ways. Oldenburg wanted to transform everyday objects into accessible, large-scale public works that gently challenge the way we are used to dealing with these objects by giving them alternate meanings. By making them super large or strangely soft, we as viewers are forced to confront these common, ordinary things as something else, as art.
His soft sculptures are hand-sewn from layers of painted canvas, so they are not soft like a furry animal, but soft as opposed to sculptures made out of wood or stone. Because of this relative softness of the sculptures, gravity, and the effects of gravity, are an integral component of the work. Notice how his "Two Cheeseburgers" sculpture kind of droops downward around the edges, especially the lettuce and top bun. Or even more, in something like his toilet or toaster, you can see how the sides sag and droop more than the object would in real life. This effect of gravity on otherwise stable objects gives us something new to think about. These are all objects we interact with on a daily basis. How would we see a toaster differently if we were trying to put bread into something droopy?
The other term we want to talk about with Oldenburg's art is SCALE. Making objects overly large is one of the most common ways Oldenburg likes to change things. He often takes a very small item, like a clothes pin, a button, a matchbook, or thumbtacks, and increases the scale of those objects until they are monumental (many times the size of a human being)! Consider again "Two Cheeseburgers." Can the students imagine trying to hold or bite into a sandwich that large? How does it make us look at hamburgers differently? What about a garden hose so large that it fills a lake? By increasing the scale of a common object, we are forced to interact with it in a new way.
Oldenburg's objects are so fun, bright and cheerful that they can't help but make us smile. It is this process of seeing familiar things in unexpected ways that makes his art so inviting.
His soft sculptures are hand-sewn from layers of painted canvas, so they are not soft like a furry animal, but soft as opposed to sculptures made out of wood or stone. Because of this relative softness of the sculptures, gravity, and the effects of gravity, are an integral component of the work. Notice how his "Two Cheeseburgers" sculpture kind of droops downward around the edges, especially the lettuce and top bun. Or even more, in something like his toilet or toaster, you can see how the sides sag and droop more than the object would in real life. This effect of gravity on otherwise stable objects gives us something new to think about. These are all objects we interact with on a daily basis. How would we see a toaster differently if we were trying to put bread into something droopy?
The other term we want to talk about with Oldenburg's art is SCALE. Making objects overly large is one of the most common ways Oldenburg likes to change things. He often takes a very small item, like a clothes pin, a button, a matchbook, or thumbtacks, and increases the scale of those objects until they are monumental (many times the size of a human being)! Consider again "Two Cheeseburgers." Can the students imagine trying to hold or bite into a sandwich that large? How does it make us look at hamburgers differently? What about a garden hose so large that it fills a lake? By increasing the scale of a common object, we are forced to interact with it in a new way.
Oldenburg's objects are so fun, bright and cheerful that they can't help but make us smile. It is this process of seeing familiar things in unexpected ways that makes his art so inviting.
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The Project
Prep - 45 min (includes time to make sample)
Print -
Materials
macaroni noodles
spaghetti noodles
yarn
green tissue paper
scrapbook paper
yellow scraps of construction paper
red scraps of construction paper
orange scraps of construction paper
cardboard (have students take covering off to get to corrugated part)
6 x 18 piece of blue (or other dark color) construction paper per student
glue bottles
scissors
Lesson
1. Talk to students about Oldenburg and the purpose behind his art. Talk about how he created his art (above in art history)
2. Show students your sample.
3. This is such a fun project! You can just give the students the supplies, there are plenty, and let them create! Just make sure you have enough for each student to get crazy creative with their giant sandwich!
Art Project
-pass out blue construction paper and scrapbook paper pieces
-have students put on the scrapbook paper that will be the table or tablecloth at the bottom of their blue paper
-have students create a plate out of scrapbook paper to glue on their tablecloth
-pass out glue bottles and scissors
-pass out all other supplies to create a giant sandwich (there are some tin pie pans to put supplies in for each table of students)
-give each student a piece of cardboard large enough to cut two sandwich buns out of
-show students how to pull off the smooth cardboard to reveal the corrugated cardboard underneath to use for buns
-when you pull off the smooth cardboard it will curl, I found that this looks like lunch meat in the sandwich
-encourage students to take their time and look at how they are alternating things in their sandwich before they glue them down
-collect all supplies and return to art room
Print -
Materials
macaroni noodles
spaghetti noodles
yarn
green tissue paper
scrapbook paper
yellow scraps of construction paper
red scraps of construction paper
orange scraps of construction paper
cardboard (have students take covering off to get to corrugated part)
6 x 18 piece of blue (or other dark color) construction paper per student
glue bottles
scissors
Lesson
1. Talk to students about Oldenburg and the purpose behind his art. Talk about how he created his art (above in art history)
2. Show students your sample.
3. This is such a fun project! You can just give the students the supplies, there are plenty, and let them create! Just make sure you have enough for each student to get crazy creative with their giant sandwich!
Art Project
-pass out blue construction paper and scrapbook paper pieces
-have students put on the scrapbook paper that will be the table or tablecloth at the bottom of their blue paper
-have students create a plate out of scrapbook paper to glue on their tablecloth
-pass out glue bottles and scissors
-pass out all other supplies to create a giant sandwich (there are some tin pie pans to put supplies in for each table of students)
-give each student a piece of cardboard large enough to cut two sandwich buns out of
-show students how to pull off the smooth cardboard to reveal the corrugated cardboard underneath to use for buns
-when you pull off the smooth cardboard it will curl, I found that this looks like lunch meat in the sandwich
-encourage students to take their time and look at how they are alternating things in their sandwich before they glue them down
-collect all supplies and return to art room