Wəkwan̓ əs tə syaqwəm Elementary

What can clouds teach us about change? What do clouds have to tell us about being, ambiguity, and transformation? Clouds are not only fascinating scientific phenomena and the objects of our imaginative and transformative gaze, but also complex and multidimensional metaphors and symbols. The simple topic of clouds is a doorway into explorations of uncertainty, indeterminacy, fluidity, and possibility. This year, each of my cohorts approached clouds as image, material, metaphor, and inspiration.

One cohort created collaboratively-made paper mache cloud sculptures, shared and completed across three divisions, which were then filled with illustrated icons of the things that occupy the students’ personal “cloud storage”. Another cohort made watercolor ink raindrop paintings, which were then combined into group rain puppets, and brought to life through an improvised storm shadow puppet performance. Another cohort animated crumpled paper as cloud puppets, exploring the material’s transformative and gravity-defying properties through movement, before joining these papers together into sculptural cloud forms–which were transformed once more through paper mache. We sketched clouds in chalk, let our hands dance across paper as if moved by wind, and made watercolor crayon drawings that were then turned into paintings with the help of the rain.

Look up at the sky. What gifts can we receive from and offer to the clouds? What can we learn from clouds as our teachers?

This workshop invited students to explore the long artistic tradition of self-portraiture, from classical painting to contemporary art and social media. Through experimentation with photography, costume, hairstyles and performance, students learned how artists throughout history have used self-representation as a tool for storytelling, identity exploration, social commentary, and creative expression. Drawing inspiration from a range of artists, including Frida Kahlo, Ana Mendieta, Shelley Niro and Cindy Sherman, we explored how costume, pose, hair, makeup, and photographic techniques can transform the way we see ourselves and communicate who we are. Throughout the residency, we discussed the social performance of identity, navigating and subverting mainstream beauty standards, and the many possibilities of transformation.

The first three weeks were dedicated to playing with photography, poses, costumes and hairstyling. Students worked with mirrors, angles, perspectives, and reflections to understand the fundamentals of photographic self-portraiture. We explored a whole range of costumes, and recreated historical outfits and poses using our contemporary garments. Finally, we researched the role of hairstyling, changing trends over the last 100 years, and what our hairstyles can communicate about identity and cultural context.

In the final two classes, students reflected on a part of themselves they would like to communicate, or a character they would like to portray, and developed a costume, pose, hairstyle and photographic approach to capture their image. The workshop culminated in a mini exhibition where students shared their work and reflected on their creative process as a whole.