Because of the 700-word count on this blog spot, I need to publish this next installment over two blogs… so please read both…
The first teaching tool that I produced was a copy of “Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles” for an installation project that I was teaching whilst training as a teacher in Cambridge – the idea being that Year 9 pupils would create their own installations in boxes. I need to be very specific here and state that this is not an exemplar in my opinion, it is a copy, a version that I produced to instruct my pupils, not inspire them!
The school was in the middle of a council estate surrounded by tower blocks that the majority of the pupils originated from. I was very fortunate with the mentor I had, who encouraged me to teach my own schemes of work and allowed me to make numerous mistakes whilst encouraging me to continually learn from them, and use that new knowledge to enrich my teaching.
The image had several purposes; primarily to show the pupils that I was capable of doing what I asked them to do – essential to getting young people on board, but also to act as a teaching tool for drawing in perspective and a deconstruction instrument in the search for the original maker… a history of art/ist implement.
Through a question and answer process the pupils worked out that; –
5 pictures on the wall indicated the person who lived in the room had an interest in art.
The lack of belongings indicates that the person was relatively poor.
The predominant colour of the room being purple, an indication that the person could have suffered depression – purple symbolizes the search for spiritual enlightenment, suicide and despair amongst others, combined with the small window in the room that doesn’t let much light in.
The mirror on the wall might mean that the person liked looking at himself or herself, leading to the idea of self-portraits and the story of the missing ear.
The chairs and table being indicators of objects the artist may have painted.
And finally the lack of possessions indicating that the person may not have been very wealthy and the notion that the artist sold only three paintings in his lifetime, yet today his work sells for millions – ultimately revealing the artist as Van Gogh.
