"When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."

Louise Nevelson

Assemblage Art: Transforming Trash into Treasure

By Marie Max

For students grade levels 9-12

Objectives • Select recycled items to produce a theme or

narration. • Design a sculpture and base.

• Construct and assemble sculpture and base. • Create a narrative assemblage sculpture.

Motivation• Re-invent functions of trash• Social, cultural, and environmental

awareness• three-dimensional format• curiosity for investigating an

explanation.

Louis Nevelson

Isaiah Zagar

Phoebe Washburn

Essential Questions

• How can the term 'trash' be reinvented to define 'treasure' when it is recycled into an art piece?

• Can assemblage art successfully be an aesthetic narrative of society, personality, or culture?

• How?

Transforming Trash in to TreasureGather discarded objects.

What might they have been used for? What were the objects were symbolic of? Design a layout and base support: think about layers, or relief surfaces. Assemble: glue, found wire, etc. Attach sculpture to base.

Evaluation•Group critique•Written responses:

•What was the benefit of using discarded materials?

•How did the objects transform?

•How do the individual objects function as a whole?

•What Art Elements were incorporated?

•Do you feel successful in your transformation?

•Why?