The Power of Collaboration

On of the popular units of grade 8 Art involves students working together on a large-scale projects. The size of the collaboration can take many forms, from maybe a small group of four through to our full contingent of grade 8’s, which is around ninety-four students. Projects often require a high degree of teamwork and organization, but the adage of ‘many hands make light work’ is certainly the case here, with the result being some impressive large-scale pieces. This was the case with a work that was based on Jeff Koons famous ‘Puppy’ Sculpture and while his piece was completed three dimensionally we decided to produce a two dimensional version made from a collage of coloured pieces of paper attached to cardboard panels. When completed these were ‘planted’ to the ground by wooded skewers in our outside courtyard. With every student completing one or two panels the size was quite enormous with the full effect best viewed from three stories high. Another piece saw each student working on a long horizontal strip of paper to create a section of an enormous tree. In the background small coloured squares were decorated in pastel, each with its own distinctive pattern (much like the pixels of a modern day Chuck Close portrait). With different classes working with alternate colour schemes for the background, the final pieces, when joined together, formed an intriguing and elegant piece of collaborative art.