Guernica
The Guernica Project was our final PBL project for our 10th Grade year. The main event of the project was the mural we painted through collaboration and study of Picasso's Guernica. Guernica is a painting made by Picasso in the wake of the bombing of the fully civilian town of Guernica, Spain in the tensions leading up to World War I. This project spanned across all of the core classes, including Art, Chemistry, and Literature.
In Art, we took on the bulk of the work. I worked with my groupmates Miles, Judah, and Hannah to design and execute a portion of the grade-wide Guernica mural. We faced a few challenges in coming up with ideas to represent the conflict we focused on, namely gang violence in Haiti. Once we had our final design, many of my group members had outside commitments, leaving me alone to complete a majority of the painting work. In the end, we came together to perfect the look and design, leaving us with a piece we feel proud of.
Chemistry was nearly directly tied to Art, in that we studied paint pigments in order to produce the green paint used on our mural. We experimented with different ratios, both planned and improvised, and found that the pigments we improvised worked the best as a color for our portion of the mural.
Our studies in literature focused heavily on conflict and conflict resolution. In our launch event, we went to see the Bob Marley: One Love movie, which highlighted the gang and police violence that occurred in Jamaica, and how Bob Marley made the world aware of it. We researched and studied propaganda and how it is used in the context of world conflicts. I chose a very internal conflict to focus on for my propaganda poster, looking at the administration within Drew and the issues students face every day within the school building. Following this, we worked in groups and decided on a conflict which we wanted to highlight in the form of a public service announcement. I worked with my group members Axum, Taylor, Zylah, and Brayden to create a PSA based on the topic of reproductive rights and freedom. In the PSA, we included information pulled from CDC resources, as well as gave real-life examples of the struggles of women who face reproductive restriction.
Guernica Artist Statement
hannah alice judah miles.3gp
In my propaganda poster, I use imagery to display my stance against the enforcement of strict dress code rules (i.e. ties, shoe restrictions, no headwear). I utilized the mascot of Drew Charter School to reflect the enforcement of the uniform. My composition reflects the execution of Marie Antoinette with her famous final words, “Let them eat cake!”. This infuriated the poor French people who had no access to the luxuries Antoinette experienced in her time on the French throne. The saying seen in my poster– “Let them wear ties!” is a twist on the meaning and feeling behind the famous words, as not all Drew students have access to their own ties or the funds to purchase them.
The recent increase in the enforcement of minor rules (uniform and tardy sweeps) by the administration has angered many students as the glaring organizational and behavioral issues still stand. Students still have restricted restroom access as a form of mass punishment for the actions of a small group, cartons of milk are thrown at students on their way back from lunch while the perpetrators are left unpunished, and administration continues to push rules that have no bearing on the improvement of the Drew experience. The poster reflects a fragment of the sentiments towards administration and uniform policies.
