To Capture Appetites for Art: Giant Food Sculptures!

Andrew Swainson
2 days ago
2 min read

By: Andrew Swainson

Feltness

Whether you are a veteran art educator or you are still fresh faced and have more clothes in your closet free from paint and stains than me, I am certain we have encountered the same group of art-resistant students. You know the ones. Those who are uncurious, unconfident, and too willing to not engage in creative practice regardless of the project.

During my Masters’ research I have encountered the notion of feltness, coined by Stephanie Springgay, which champions intimacy, touch, and the inter-connected nature of relationships within the art room. Educators who are aware of these ideas encourage a community of care, reciprocity, and create a sense of accountability within all participants in the art room. Feltness helps young artists allow themselves to be changed by the qualities internal to the project, the materials, and other students in their creative communities.

What I have found is that tactile arts such as sculpting are pivotal for increased engagement and presence (Springgay, 2022). While working through needle felting projects I have witnessed students felting in different moods – anger, melancholy, apathy – and the emotion seems to weave itself into the felting and is left behind, which demonstrates a calmness after experiencing stress or anxiety. Springgay describes felting as a “material and embodied experience of being in the world” (2022, pp.8). I feel that many of my art-resistant students lack a thread of anything that connects them to the world. They seem to simply float through.

Connecting Feltness to FOOD

Engagement increases whenever food is brought into the equation. Engagement increases when I bring a sculpture project into rotation. Therefore, it made sense to combine both when faced with a particular group of art-resistant grade 9 art students. To up the hype, I tasked students with creating GIANT food sculptures of food items that have personal significance to them. Groups? Junk food? Sure, why not? (more fuel for rigorous side-discussions about healthy food, targeted advertising towards (pre)teenagers, culture, tradition, etc.)

Hype brought. They ate it up.

One of the guiding artists for this assignment is Claus Oldenberg, whose whimsical giant sculptures are awe-inspiring to see. The other source of inspiration is Alberta’s affinity for giant sculptures. Northeastern Alberta has a Route of the Giants, which is only one leg of the road-trip to see all of Alberta’s giant artworks. Having students create giant sculptures allows them to sit with themselves and evaluate their relationship to identity, objects, and place.

Post completion of the sculptures, we showcased them in the public library and in the central atrium at J.A. Williams. They were the talk of the school for many weeks, and had the desired effect of fostering community and bringing awareness to each artist’s relationality within the school. From the impressive Gummy Bear to the humble baked potato, each sculpture played an important role in engaging art-loving, art-curious, and art-resistant alike in the process.