Check out this course with Visiting Assistant Professor, Anthony Sonnenberg and the magical Joanna Powell at Oxbow School of Art
June 30 - July 13, 2019
Artists throughout time have constructed symbolic figures and avatars to represent idealized versions of our identities. In this course students will develop alter egos as a means to explore personal, social, and political power dynamics through artistic practice. Unfired clay will act as a material metaphor for identities in flux and anchor more expansive approaches to sculpture, performance, and installation art and act as a point of departure for considering performative and ephemeral approaches to character development and world building. Artists including Caravaggio, David Altmejd, and Walter McConnell will be referenced alongside contemporary drag performance, comics and mythological narratives to present students with a wide range of strategies for constructing characters and environments. No previous knowledge or working experience with clay is necessary for this course, although a willingness to get dirty and take chances will be, take chances and possibly make a fool of oneself will be. Students will create projects using hand-building techniques in combination with found objects and activated through performance and installation contexts.
