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12 November – 24 December 2016

Education Notes

When Happiness Ruled: Pip & Pop (12 November – 23 December) is a captivating, colour saturated installation within PICA’s vast central gallery space. Pip & Pop is obsessed with representations of paradise, illusions and wish-fulfillment described in folktales, mythologies and cinema. When Happiness Ruled includes the artist’s first time forays into kinetic sculpture – robotic elements that physically animate kaleidoscopic landscapes in which mountains move and objects become possessed.

The notes are provided online so that you may distribute them to other teachers and students with ease. You may photocopy sections of notes or ask students to print them out themselves. You can modify the text, questions and activities in these Education Notes as you see fit for your particular students, to best suit their needs.

When Happiness Rules has Education Links across the SCASA & WACE curricula: THE ARTS: Visual ArtsENGLISH: LiteratureHUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES: Intercultural Studies TECHNOLOGIES: Design & technologies

Remember to look at the classroom activities on Pages 7-11, which relate to these specific links.

If any of your students submit written answers and/or artwork of a high standard in response to the exhibition or the suggested questions and activities, please forward a copy to:

Minaxi MayEducation Programs CuratorPICAGPO Box P1221Perth, WA, 6844or [email protected]

We are always looking for outstanding examples of student work that has been sparked by our exhibition content.

PLEASE NOTE: All images used in the Education Notes are reproduced with the artists’ permission.

Education Tours

PICA offers interactive tours for school and community groups, designed to facilitate engagement with our exhibitions. Tours are crafted to be accessible to diverse audiences and are tailored to levels of education and prior knowledge.

Bookings are essential for all learning programs. To book, contact:Minaxi MayEducation Programs [email protected](08) 9228 630051 James St, Perth WA 6000

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Pip & Pop (Tanya Schultz)

THEMES / RESEARCH /INFLUENCES

Title

The title When Happiness Ruled implies utopian places from stories, folk tales and from our imaginations, but it also suggests that these moments and spaces are fleeting. There is a slight sadness to the idea of utopias because they come with the knowledge that they can at any moment end.

Utopias, Pleasure and Consumerism

Although literally translating from the ancient Greek as ‘no place’, utopias are places of paradise. They are often depicted in stories as places which are inaccessible, often far away on lost islands. They are places of ease, free from pain and full of pleasure. Pip & Pop is particularly interested in the medieval story of Cockaigne, a land of extreme luxury and ease often depicted as a place made from food. In the myth of Cockaigne the houses are made from barley sugar and cakes, the streets are paved with pastry and cheese falls from the sky. This story often served as a form of escapism from the harshness and poverty of peasant life during this time.

Pip & Pop is interested in this idea of escapism through pleasure and draws parallels between this and modern day consumerism. Advertising and product design often encourages us to consume through appealing directly to sensory desire through stunning visuals and bright colours. However, Pip & Pop doesn’t try and draw any moral lessons from this, rather she is more concerned with looking at consumerism as a way of understanding the aesthetics of pleasure, abundance and desire.

Folk Tales and Traditions

Different folk tales from around the world also influences Pip & Pop. Folk tales are traditional stories which often explain how or why things came to be or pose moral lessons. They often contain elements of trickery and magic. Pip & Pop doesn’t attempt to illustrate the narratives of any specific folk tales, however. Rather she sets the scene in which such stories could take place, leaving it to the viewer to imagine their own scenarios and stories within these backdrops.

Pip & Pop is particularly inspired by incidents of inanimate objects and foods coming to life in these stories. One such example of this from which she draws is the Japanese concept of Tsukumogami, an idea that common tools and objects acquire spirits after 100 years of servitude to their owner. When this happens these objects play tricks on their owners. Japanese stories and popular culture, including anime cartoons, in particular often feature such scenarios. Traditionally, the Japanese religion Shinto believes that trees, rocks and mountains possess spirits. Pip & Pop is interested in this idea and her work often features rocks and mountains, which possessed by spirits, take on magical personas. In When Happiness Ruled, she has extended this idea by employing kinetic (moving) elements in her work for the first time.

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Pip & Pop enjoys how colour can be used – and often is in advertising and commerce - to promise happiness and she is interested in the gap between this promise and reality. It’s not just the qualities of the colours themselves, but also the abundance of choice in colours that are available. For an installation like When Happiness Ruled she will often mix as many as 150 shades of coloured sugar to produce the artwork.

Whilst the colours in Pip & Pop’s work are often described as ‘childlike’, she points out that this association is often culturally based. In other cultures, bright colours are consumed, worn and enjoyed by people of all ages and in some cases more so by the elderly. Our association with soft pastel colours and pinks, for example, as childlike is likely something specific to certain cultures.

The Everyday / Found Objects

Much of Pip & Pop’s work is handmade, but also features collected found objects. She likes to collect and use. Previously in her work, when exhibiting in a foreign location, she will usually spend two or three days sourcing materials that are particular to that place. The objects are usually selected due to their surface or colour. However, for the exhibition here in Perth – her hometown – instead she is drawing upon her large existing collection of objects, which she sees as a series of souvenirs or tangible memories she has taken from other places.

Mountains and Landscapes

Mountains are a common feature depicted in Pip & Pop’s work. Because they are sights of awe and the sublime, in Western Art history they are strongly associated with romanticism, an artistic movement of the 19th century, which emphasised the individual spirit and emotional expressions. In many eastern traditions, including Buddhism, they are places of meditation and enlightenment. As mentioned, religions like Shinto believe that spirits can be embodied in mountains, but additionally there are Korean folktales about mountains, which contain spirits and can move. These stories of travelling mountains are used to traditionally explain how particular features in the landscape came into being. Pip & Pop is inspired by the idea of landscapes which have this potential to change and become more, often through supernatural means.

Pip & Pop states “… in this exhibition, mountains and objects are starting to have faces. Some are subtle and some are suggested, but there is this idea of the landscape coming to life.”

Colour

Colour is a visual element which is central to Pip & Pop’s practice. The colours used by Pip & Pop relate to advertising, and strategies used to capture people’s attention through hyper-stimulation. She says;

“The colours used are from the commercial world. They are hyped-up colours used to sell us stuff, particularly useless stuff. I also love the aesthetics of things like Japanese game shows, the over the top super-saturated intensity of colour they use. I also collect photos or things when I travel that are about advertising, I’m interested in the way colour is used here.”

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Food

Because of her use of sugar in her work and her interests in the story of Cockaigne and the aesthetics of pleasure, much of Pip & Pop’s work references food. Speaking about her work she says;

“My work originally comes from that idea of these imagined places made of food, as well as thinking about landscapes that are edible. I like that sense they give off of being edible but in fact there is nothing at all edible, actually it is completely toxic. I like that idea and that visceral body sensation of feeling like you want to eat something but actually you can’t. I also like animated food, such as anthropomorphic food ideas from Japan... These include sweet and cute Japanese animated foods… They are sweet and cute, but sometimes there is a slight undertone of something opposite or different, something creepy. There is a tension.”

Animation and Kinetics

This is the first time Pip & Pop have used kinetic, or moving, elements in her work. This seems a natural progression as much of her work is inspired by animation and inanimate things coming to life. For this exhibition, some of the mountain sculptures have been integrated with robotic components which allow them to rotate and to roam freely.

Artists

Artists that are influential to Pip & Pop include Katharina Grosse, Lily van der Stokker and Polly Apfelbaum. All these artists create immersive large-scale installations in which colour features as a strong visual element. These artists also often negotiate a distinction between sculpture and painting, as their works often bridge these two disciplines.

Ephemerality and Fragility

It is intrinsic to Pip & Pop’s work that it is ephemeral, meaning that it is temporary and lasts only for the duration of the exhibition. She likes that the work is not solid or able to be stored, bought or consumed. The work is fleeting much like the utopias or narratives which they describe or allude to. She states, “This work is not stable. I like that this creates a tension. When people see lots of sugar, it looks really fragile and then they know that they might be able to destroy it really easily. This idea makes some people uncomfortable and sometimes they walk more carefully around the work. I like how the artwork changes the way people move.”

TECHNIQUES & PROCESS

Planning

While researching before making new works Pip & Pop often collects items and reads stories and mythologies. Her work, like painting, combines a degree of both planning and improvisation. She says, “… my way with materials is quite organic. This is because I am really interested in an abundance of things like colour and surfaces. So for me the preparation is about finding materials and then playing with them when installing.”

Materiality & Consumerism

The materials Pip & Pop uses directly relates to both stories of paradise and the promises of happiness presented to us under consumerism. The materials also promise happiness, but Pip & Pop is also interested in the gap between this promise and what is actually delivered. She says, “I like useless things, things that have no kind of worth or food that does not have any nutrition value and the colour of sweets. They offer an empty promise – appealing but devoid of anything that is actually useful, nourishing or worthy of any long lasting positive effect. It is all about surface appearances.”

Scale

The curator Sarah Bond in a catalogue essay on Pip & Pop writes about the use of scale as an element in her work. She writes, “Pip & Pop’s playful use of scale is a tool to draw the audience further into this fantasy. The diminutive pathways and mountains shrink the audience to a size able to be absorbed into a rainbow candy coloured land akin to early 19th century fairytales.” Through the audience being able to view a zoomed out perspective of an expansive landscape, they are better able to image scenarios and narratives within them.

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Artist Assistants & Collaboration

Collaboration and working with others is essential in order for Pip & Pop to realise large-scale projects such as When Happiness Ruled. Studio assistants contribute to the production and installation of the work.

This means there is a balance to what is directed by Pip & Pop and the degree of freedom her studio assistants have in producing particular elements or sections. Sometimes this relationship leads to positive unplanned outcomes. Often Pip & Pop teaches her techniques and methods to studio assistants and then she will have them use these techniques to produce a section of the work which reflects a particular mood decided on by the artist.

Expanded Painting

Pip & Pop initially studied as a painter and still applies painterly techniques to produce her compositions. One way of looking at her work could be to think of it as an expanded painting process. While the work is still heavily based in objects and has a three dimensional spatial layout, it is still heavily invested in surface decoration, the composition techniques of painting and has a strong focus on the use of colour and pigment.

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PERTH INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS

I. Consider how the curriculum link: The ARTS are represented in the Visual Arts breaking down and analysing the components of this exhibition:

a. How has the artist created a cohesive body of work using the

design elements & principles?

b. What social and cultural purposes does the artist’s art play,

identify or relate to?

c. How would you describe your experience of the exhibition on-

site or seeing/remembering it off-site? Think about the kinetics,

space and installation.

d. What aspects of contemporary society is the artist

conceptualising & documenting?

e. What is the artists’ role as seen in this exhibition/art e.g. hero,

outsider, commentator or social critic? Think about why they are

using visual art as their medium.

f. What is the social function of Pip & Pop’s practice e.g. is it

ideological, political, expressionistic, satire, social description or

graphic communication? Think about what she is trying to say.

g. What is the relationship between form, function and meaning in

the artist’s art and this exhibition?

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

1. Critically Analyse When Happiness Ruled: Pip & Pop

YEARS 11/12: ATAR - Visual Arts, UNIT 3: Commentaries.

II. Write about a paragraph in response to a-g above.

III. Use these to write a one to two page analysis/commentary about When Happiness Ruled. Remember to include throughout your writing, the understanding you have of:a. How the artist is influenced by ideas, events and circumstances in their work?b. How visual art is used to re-contextualise – give new or different meanings and messages to our understanding ideas/themes in Pip & Pop’s work.

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2. Exploring the Makings of Paradise and Utopia (or dystopia)

YEARS 8-10: ACARA – English and year-level syllabuses for Humanities and Social Sciences, Technologies and The Arts

You may want to work as a class or in small groups for parts of this activity.

I. Research and brainstorm ideas around paradise and utopia.a. Define and research - What are the definitions and understandings of these words?b. What is your personal interpretation? Is it the same as Pip & Pop’s or different?c. Are there similarities/differences in the explanations/visual representations of paradise/utopia you have collected? List.d. Why is the artist so obsessed with these notions? Are you interested in these ideas?

II. Consider how these ideas relate to CURRICULUM LINKS:a. THE ARTS: Visual Arts – Which other artists work with these ideas/themes? How do they tackle these ideas e.g. materials, techniques etc.? Art/Artists such as The Land of Cockaigne (1567) by Pieter Bruegel, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1495–1505) by Hieronymus Bosch and contemporary artists who investigate ideas around paradise and utopia.b. ENGLISH: Literature – research children’s stories and other writings related to ideas of paradise/utopia. You could consider the Bible – Garden of Eden, Cockaigne – (medieval myth), Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl; Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore, The Peach Blssom Spring by Tao Yuanming, Works & Days by Greek poet Hesiod, in which he talks about the Golden Age or theorists/writers such as Karl Marx, George Orwell and Theodor Adorno.


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II. (continued)c. HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES: Intercultural Studies - What are the different ideas of paradise and utopia in varied cultures? Examples include Datong – Chinese Utopia and ideas around Nirvana. This may include ideas around spirits, our connection to or the formation of lands and anthropomorphic characteristics given to animals. Also other ideas around paradise/utopia such as Arcadia, Atlantis or ideas around “green politics” and environmentalism, polyculturalism or world peace.d. TECHNOLOGIES: Design & Technologies – Which other artists use materiality, design and kinetics in their work? How does the use of movement in art change your experience of the art? What technologies can you use to create ideas of paradise/utopia in your art? Consider other artists use of kinetics from Marcel Duchamp’s Rotoscopes, Alexander Calder’s mobiles to Jean Tinguely’s sculptures or contemporary Japanese artist duo Paramodel.

III. Use a. or d. as a basis for making, together with b. or c. as a basis for research and concept development. Create artwork(s) related to notions of paradise and utopia. You may want to use similar materials to Pip & Pop e.g. polystyrene, polyurethene foam, glitter, pom poms, artificial flowers, beads etc. or look to your research to help extract ideas fro materials. Remember your concept, the design and development process and to focus on materiality with a sense of spontaneity.

2. Exploring the Makings of Paradise and Utopia (or dystopia)

YEARS 8-10: ACARA – English and year-level syllabuses for Humanities and Social Sciences, Technologies and The Arts



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3. Mapping and Doodling with Maths and Design

YEARS 3-7: ACARA The aim is for the students to use the materials to “draw” an imagined, free-formed map.


I. Collect containers of objects in candy colours. You may want each child to bring a bag of something in. This can actually be e.g. lollies like musk sticks, marshmallows or inedible items like pom poms, small toys or collect vessels like empty Tic Tac containers that can be filled. NB: If using sweets be aware of allergies and maybe use latex free plastic glovesII. Sort objects with like objects e.g. all musk sticks together and place in clear plastic containers. Label each container with the name of the object and how many there are altogether e.g. 25III. Sort the containers into colours e.g. pinks, greens, blues etc. Lay out all these containers arranged in blocks of colours e.g. all pinks together.IV. Get the students to do a quick plan in pencil as a drawing e.g. musk sticks here, bananas there etc. You may want to show examples of maps, pretend places, and landforms such as mountains.V. Clear a large area on the floor or large table if working as an entire class or create small areas of tables for groups. Cover these areas in white paper or a plastic tablecloth.VI. Each student takes turns in using a handful of materials to “map” out areas. As they do this other students are to count out how many pieces are placed down. This number and name is written on the sketched plan done earlier e.g. 11 Musk sticks. Go through this process until the map(s) is complete. Add all the used materials together and talk a little about how materials, design and drawing were used to create a map, but more importantly how maths is important in “engineering” something.VII. At the end also count how many materials are left in each container and write this down. VIII. You could continue this by making a poem e.g. 11 Musk Sticks make a mountain, 5 Tic Tac containers form a lane etc.IX. Remember to photograph the finished piece(s) from above (aerial view) before taking the artworks apart. Print these large and place around the room. Print A3 size, laminate and turn into placemats. Or print and use as a backdrop for more drawing, collage, or cutting up as paper for origami or coverings on objects or map out a mobile.


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4. Sugar Sand Cutie

YEARS K-2: ACARA The aim is for the students to play whilst learning about layers, colours and imaginary characters.

Kids work individually following the teacher’s instructions and assistance.

I. Have available coloured sand or sugar in a range of rainbow/pastel colours – can buy already made or Google “How to make coloured sand/sugar”.II. Have a plastic/glass container for each child. III. As a class, using a colour one by one e.g. yellow then pink, instruct kids to place sand in their jar (could use plastic spoons). Continue until the jar is full.IV. Sticks some googly eyes on one side of the jar.V. Cover the top with the lid. Then stick on a large pom pom, coloured ball of wool or foam, or other material to be the “hair”.


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Principal Education PartnerGovernment Partners

Presenting Partners

Pip & Pop: When Happiness Ruled has been supported by the City of Perth and the Government of Western Australian through the Department of Culture and the Arts.

Education Partners

PICA’s ongoing programs are primarily supported by an investment from the State of Western Australia through the Department of Culture and the Arts in association with Lotterywest, assistance from the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. PICA is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. Pip & Pop, Journey in a Dream, 2016. Photo: Park Myungrae.

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