The cultural frame

Refer to the artwork image, text and video above to learn about Lorraine Connelly-Northey and then complete the following activities.

Record your responses in a document to share with your teacher, including images of your artwork and any planning sketches or research material.

Critical and historical studies

• Paste a copy of the artwork image and citation into your document.

• Locate Wiradjuri country on the Map of Indigenous Australia. Use Google Maps satellite view to investigate the area. Find one of the three rivers Lorraine Connelly Northey has represented in her installation artwork. What do you notice about the surrounding area? How is that land being used today? Record a screenshot from both maps in your document.

• Watch the video of the artist discussing her practice. What kind of materials does she use? How does she use them? What connection do these materials have to the places and objects she represents in her artworks?

• Write a description of 'Three Rivers Country' that explains how Lorraine Connelly Northey has used found materials to represent ideas about place. Think about why she has used barbed wire, fencing mesh, and sheet metal, and what each material might symbolise about Wiradjuri country and how it has changed over time.

Artmaking

• Use Google Maps to locate your local area. Choose a specific place to focus on. This could be your street, your school, or a park, shopping centre or other area of interest that you regularly visit. Screenshot and save an image. Make a list of different surfaces you can see. This might include roads, roofs, concrete, water, grass and vegetation. Think about how you could represent these surfaces visually, using lines, shapes, colour and texture.

• Create your own map-like representation of the area. You could do this with physical materials like pencil and paper, or a digital tool like Paint or Photoshop. You should use an aerial perspective, but it doesn't have to be exact. Fill in your map artwork to represent the different surface textures you identified.

Photoshop is available for free to NSW school students via OnTheHub.

• Write a explanation of your artwork that tells audiences about this place and why it is important to you.

Refer to the artwork image and text above to learn about 'Still Life #30', and complete the following activities.

Record your responses in a document to share with your teacher, including images of your artwork and any planning sketches.

Critical and historical studies

• Paste a copy of the artwork image and citation into your document.

• Find examples of artworks about food by 3 other American Pop artists, and paste a copy of each artwork image and citation into your document.

Some options include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist. Make sure your citation for each artwork includes the artist, title, year, materials, size, and the website source URL. Try and use websites from art galleries or other artworld sources to avoid copies of famous artist's works.

• Make a list of all the food products you can identify in the 4 artworks. Do you notice more fresh food or processed food?

• What can we learn about the time and place these artworks were made? What do you think food trends were like in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s?

• Compare Tom Wellelmann's 'Still Life #30' with 'Still Life', made by Jacopo da Empoli in 1625. What kind of food is represented in this work? What does this tell us about how people's relationship with food has changed?

Artmaking

• Make a list of your top 5 favourite foods. Try and include a mix of whole meals, snacks, fresh and processed food. Where is each food item from? When and where would you normally eat them? What cultural or social meanings are associated with each food item? Are there particular activities, events or celebrations linked to these foods?

• Investigate your kitchen. Select 5-10 food items to arrange into a still life composition. This could include food still in its packaging like a cereal box or bread bag.

Create your still life artwork. Find a flat surface to arrange your food objects onto. You might also include objects like plates, cups or cutlery. Think about composition – are there any interesting shapes, colours or textures you want to highlight? How does each object relate to the objects around it?

Stage a photoshoot of your still life arrangement. Take lots of photos from different angles! How does your arrangement look from a low angle? From directly above? Include close-ups that highlight particular abstract shapes, colours or textures. You might re-arrange your objects during the shoot as you find stronger compositions.

Pick your top 5 photos to share with your teacher.