Rights, respect and responsibilities at Year 7 Suggested teaching ideas and supporting resources: visual art

Compiled for HIAS by Dylan Theodore

Ideas and stimuli for expressing responses to rights issues using art with a public message

Art with a public message: how do they do that?

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Have you seen TV programmes, photographs, pictures or films that make you think about an important issue?

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Do you know of any images, adverts or films that try to persuade you that there is something wrong in the world that needs putting right?

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What did the artist do to make you stop and think like that? How did he or she make sure their work gave out a strong message that you could not ignore?

Art with a message: how do they do that?

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Take a look at the following images and ask yourself: are they just for fun, or is the artist trying to say something important too?

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What media, materials and techniques is the artist using?

Darling

Wim Delvoye

Mel Calman

“That’s not my political opinion. That’s just stuff I heard on the radio.”

The New Yorker

Shooting stars

Teun Hocks

(Untitled)

Teun Hocks

Hoovering

Teun Hocks

How dare you not be me?

Barbara Kruger

Art with a message: how do they do that?

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So, the artists are using jokes, humour and ridiculous situations.

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They also seem to be using contrast. They take something ordinary and then put something unexpected alongside. There is a twist or surprise that makes you look twice, or think again.

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What is the twist or surprise in each image ?

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They are also using line drawing (cartoon), photography, people as models and digital manipulation.

Art with a message: how do they do that?

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Some images use a surprising contrast to catch people’s attention and make them think about what they are seeing, and what the message is.

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However, the aim is not always to make you laugh. Some images use a more disturbing or unpleasant twist.

Wall Street banquet

and

Our bread

Diego Rivera

Land of plenty

Lucienne Bloch

Advertisement by Burger King, USA

Healthy eating campaign

British Heart Foundation

Healthy eating campaign

British Heart Foundation

Fetish

The Chapman Brothers

Bombs away

Rockwell Kent

Requiem for Biafra

Ralph Steadman

The price of meat

Ralph Steadman

If you are beaten … GET OUT (mock helpline)

Barbara Kruger

Mother and child at Christmas

Ralph Steadman

Art with a message: how do they do that?

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Sometimes artists use devices such as masks, puppets, overheard conversations, captions and speech bubbles.

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Often these tell us what is really going on in an ordinary situation, and what effect it is having on someone. We are not just given the straight message – the device helps us think about the importance of the message .

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What difference do the masks make to the next image?

Doubles

Olaf Breuning

Art with a message: how do they do that?

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Some artists just say it straight: “This is terrible, it should not happen. Why does it have to happen?”

No life

Sydney Holo

Art with a message: how do they do that?

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Other artists want to say that people can make things better:

“People can have their rights upheld – having a peaceful life and enough food for the family is possible for everyone!”

Harriet Tubman

Aaron Douglas

Post-war monument

Pnomh Penh city centre, Cambodia

Sometimes, things don’t go, after all, from bad to worse.

Some years, muscadet faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail Sometimes a man aims high and all goes well.

From Sometimes, by Sheenagh Pugh

“These streets are full of heroes.” Benjamin Zephaniah