Zanny Begg – Know Your Power

Intro

This activity asks students to experience and reflect upon their own power in a collaboration.

Zanny Begg often makes art with people who are not artists. Collaborating with other people can be exciting and powerful but it is also difficult. Mastering collaboration involves a delicate balance of compromising, encouraging, speaking out and listening.

In this activity, older students will be responsible for supporting younger students to create an artwork. We suggest two groups of students, one older, one younger - you may wish to use an existing buddy system in your school. 

 Stages 1 & 3

Process

 

  1. Ask the younger student to come up with an idea for a sculpture and draw it. It could be a character or object they are interested in from books, TV or film.
  2. The older student is then asked to plan construction of the sculpture with the younger student - what materials will they use, how big will it be, what role will the younger student have in the process?
  3. Over a double period the students team up to create the artwork.

 

You will need

  • Cardboard and scrap paper
  • Plasticine




 

Reflection

 

  • Were the younger students happy with the outcome? How about the older students?
  • Was it frustrating to work with someone younger or was it fun?
  • How much of the outcome was due to the younger student’s ideas or were there compromises made?
  • When artists work with non-artists to create artworks are there any ethical considerations that should be made?
  • As a class, can you think of other situations or relationships where one party has greater power then the other?