Art - Year 2 Week One 

Homework Part One: 

Intrigued, Lila started to read up on the piece she had chosen, Artist's Breath. She had gone to the library, trying to find a book on it. When she hadn't she went back to her sleeping cave. They had installed laptops for the students recently, and she looked it up online. It confused her what she saw, the image that popped up. It looked like a deflated balloon, on a string. Clicking on a link, she realized that was exactly what it was! “How is this even art?” She muttered, confused. Wasn’t art painting or drawing? Why was this in an art display? But as she read more, it became even more interesting. Apparently, the balloon had been originally filled with the artist’s breath, hence the name. It had slowly deflated over time, but it was still amazing to have anything remaining. Next she decided to look up the artist, Piero Manzoni, to learn more about him. Were all of his works conceptualism? She saw that he was from Italy, which she didn’t recall the name of. It was some far off place, she supposed. He was born a long time ago, in 1933. That was like, 90 years ago! Another amazing thing was that he taught himself art! Without any help. “That’s amazing!” Lila said aloud, not even noticing she spoke. He was one of the first artists to explore beyond traditional art, starting to craft conceptual art. He had made many simple art pieces like artists breath, featuring ordinary things. He had even made copies of artist’s breath, with different balloon colors. The most famous was his red one, although some have claimed there could be up to eleven, or even more samples! She also saw the sad way he died. A heart attack, in 1969. It was sad that the world was deprived of such a great artist. Finding all the research a good amount, she decided to move onto the next part, a more interesting one; making some conceptual art!

Part Two: 

Lila has decided what she wanted to create. She wasn't sure if it qualified as conceptual art, but she realized that parameters weren't very strict. Digging through her box of her favorite items, she found what she was looking for. It was the fossil of a fish, immortalized in stone. It was cool to look at, and it was about to become more cool! Lila had found it when she was younger, about 7, in her home. It had been the first things like it she had seen, and the bones were clearly defined. It was honestly an amazing specimen, and it reminded her of home. She was going to paint on it! She picked a few shades of blue, and painted over it in a swirling pattern, like waves. Finally, she had to explain on a paper the dramatic connection, and what it reosrents. She wrote:

It shows the connection between the old and the modern. The fish is an example of something very ancient, while the paint blends it with the modern, showing they can merge. It dramatically connects life and death, and even after your time is over, you can still cause an impact on the world.
 

sources: 
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/manzoni-artists-breath-t0758
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/Piero-Manzoni