Week 3: Art 21 Lesson Plan

Cindy Sherman    http://www.pbs.org/art21/watch-now/episode-transformation

Cindy Sherman is a film and photographic artist from New York.  Featured in Art 21's episode on "Transformation", she also works heavily in the themes of identity and narrative, using herself almost exclusively as the subject, assuming the roles of a fabulously diverse cast of characters.

Objective:  After considering the relationship between identity and perception, students will create works that express a part of their own identity as well as an imagined identity or alter-ego and reflect on the ways in which the two relate.

Guiding Questions

1. Consider your own personal identity or image.  How do you define it to yourself and express it to others?

2. Does your image or identity change over time or in certain circumstances?  How? Why?

3. Have you ever put on a costume or an outfit that you wouldn't normally wear and noticed that you feel, and perhaps even behave differently?  Consider the relationship between the way we feel or perceive ourselves internally and the image we express on the outside.  How do they impact one another?

4. Consider how the perceptions of others may impact your identity or image.  Do you think that the way others perceive you is consistent with the way you view yourself?  To what extent do we transform ourselves to meet the expectations of others?

5. What other factors may impact the way we express our personal identity?  Media? Culture? Values? Ambitions?

6. When looking at the work of Cindy Sherman,what assumptions do we make about these characters?  What do they remind us of? People we know?  Images we've seen?  Even though each of these images is original and unique, what makes them familiar to us?  What cues and clues allow us to define the identity of these characters?  How do our own experiences and perceptions impact our assumptions?

These questions will guide class discussion during and after viewing Sherman's work and will facilitate reflection in their journals.

Art Making

Students will work with a partner to create two photographic portraits. Using props, costumes, and make-up, students will "characterize" some aspect of their own identity as honestly as possible as well as portray an alter-ego, or a character they perceive as being very different from themselves.  Each student will choose which image will be executed alone and which will be facilitated and directed by someone else.  Students will record the identity and back-story of their alter-ego character in their journals as well as reflections on the process experience and the ways in which the two characters relate.

Post Exercise Reflection and Discussion

Which part of the process was more comfortable, working with a partner or working alone?  Which do you believe produced the most honest or engaging image?

How did you choose which part of your identity or ego to explore?  Did you choose an aspect of yourself that is already well known or did you expose something that is normally more hidden?

How did it feel to transform into the alter-ego?  How did you relate to this character?  Were there any surprises?

Which portrait was more difficult? Portraying yourself as honestly as possible, or transforming into someone completely different?  Why?