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Journey to Nowhere, 2017, acrylic, gouache on 90 canvas boards, no. 98522 - 98611, 226 x 353.5 cm
This is an artwork by Imants Tillers. It is made up of individual boards which are then puzzled together to make a whole image.
About Imants Tillers
About Imants Tillers
Imants Tillers is an Australian born to parents who fled from Latvia. He reflected a lot on his identity as a person in a land that was not his own. This comes through in his art: he uses images of Australia and Latvia but also looks at the history of Australia and links in ideas of Aboriginal mark-making (the use of their patterns in his art). He wanted to make art that represented the land he was in, the history the land had, as well as his own identity in this place.
What can we see in the artwork?
What can we see in the artwork?
A cityscape- a scene made of mostly buildings with water in the foreground
A lot of words- poetry?
The phrase "La citta di Riga" which basically means a vision of Riga, a city where many Jews were massacred
The phrase "Flee no matter where" makes sense in this context... why?
How does this painting reflect his identity?
How does it express his connection to a land?
Our Collaborative Artwork
Our Collaborative Artwork
We are going to reflect on our connection to Mairehau, the land here, its history and our identity together as a class. Everything that we incorporate will link to our Canterbury area.
Included are some images as exemplars on how this could be approached, the photo is divided into many more pieces. Note that the class one will look a lot better than the example because the there will be more tiles and this was made in a rush!
Step One
Step One
Each student will need a section of this photo. This has been done for you in the Google Doc. On the back of each photo is the number for where the image will be placed.
Print this doc double sided (it has numbers on the back of pictures to help track where they go)
You may want to note what student gets what square/tile.
There are only 20 squares but in my experience due to absences etc some students do not finish so you can double up some between students.
Some students can work on elements that go overtop of the finished artwork (see Step Three)
Step Two
Step Two
Each student can trace their section off the photo onto quality paper. These pieces can be pre-cut by the teacher. For this part they can use coloured pencils, collage, felts, pens, pastels, etc.
Students could incorporate a map of Chch in their art and draw over top of it (see top right) This works if it is torn roughly or could be done on full A5 size. Stick this down before drawing.
Step Three
Step Three
Overlay and incorporate patterns, local wild life, what the area may have looked like in the past on translucent paper... Ideally students work together at this point so that the overlaid pieces can go over numerous tiles.
Below are some examples of Māori patterns students could incorporate- these could also be printed and collaged on.
Step Four
Step Four
Imants Tillers used a lot of text in his art. As an option, students can incorporate historic facts, te reo (river/swamp/animal names), whakataukī (what is our school/waka whakataukī?) etc.
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