This activity was used with pupils in key stage 3, year 7.

Aim

• To promote pupils' understanding of themselves and their culture.
• To investigate the work of others from a range of historical, social and cultural contexts.

Activity objectives

• To learn more about how codes and conventions are used to represent ideas, beliefs and values in art and design.
• To understand the purpose of, and audience for, the work of Yinka Shonibare, a contemporary black artist dealing with issues of identity.

This activity relates to the scheme of work units 7a 'Self-image', 8c 'Shared view' and 9c 'Personal places, public spaces'. The following key stage 2 units can be adapted for this activity: 5a 'Objects and meanings', 6b 'What a performance', and 6c 'A sense of place'.

Activity description

The pupils had been working on the theme of 'self, culture and identity'.

They were asked to consider the idea of creating a capsule that would contain objects to represent themselves and their culture: a culture capsule.

The pupils began by collecting objects that represented themselves. These objects told a story about them, who they are and where they come from. Photocopied portraits of their families were also collected, along with pupils' personal possessions and ephemera.

The teacher found a set of old school lockers that was not used any more. This provided each pupil with an individual box within the culture capsule (see picture, right). They could use this three-dimensional space to represent themselves, their family, and their past and present experiences. They used the materials they had collected to create collage maps of their surroundings, considering their own cultural context. They then made casts of their feet, face and hands and these were hung in the space inside the box. To cover the external surfaces of the large locker, they used the same kind of fabric that Yinka Shonibare, a contemporary black artist, uses in his work.

Commentary

Yinka Shonibare incorporates recycled objects and materials and traditional fabric designs in his work. He looks at the relationships between costume, fashion, time, place and cultural identity. He uses lengths of printed fabrics patterned with traditional African designs, now manufactured in Britain and Holland (and also exported back to Africa). Young people wear these fabrics in different ways. The fabric holds different meanings for different groups: an expression of defiance, or a way of holding onto one's identity in a different culture. The artist raises questions about tradition, what it is and where it comes from, and the links between tradition and colonialism.

Through investigating Yinka Shonibare's work, the pupils reflected on their own dress, their own cultural backgrounds and valued traditions. The project helped them take a positive view of their differences and uniqueness as individuals. It gave them the opportunity to represent themselves and to reflect on the changes they had experienced in their own lives and how these had affected them as individuals. The locker symbolised the collective efforts of the pupils who collaborated on the project.