An art appreciation lesson was provided where junior high school students enjoyed touching and stroking real sculptures softly. In the lesson, the students appreciated, thought, and discussed the artworks in their own words, exchanged their opinions in discussions as part of group activities, and summarized what they felt and thought in the form of messages to the author.
- Sculptures: Balls of 1·0·∞ by Kenichi Ushikubo
Sculptures consisting of six dented balls were borrowed, courtesy of the author’s family, and placed at the center of a workspace at a junior high school.
- Note: The instructor is a citizen curator who participated in a citizen curator workshop at the Utsunomiya Museum of Art (December 2011–June 2012) and works as a visiting junior high school teacher. The art appreciation lesson was provided for first-grade students at Motegi Junior High School in Tochigi Prefecture.
2. There were 24 students in each class, divided into six groups.
3. Preparatory meeting:
An art teacher, an art museum curator, and the citizen curator held a preparatory meeting at the art museum to discuss the form the lesson would take.
4. Worksheet: An encounter with balls
Lesson Flow:
＊Through a performance featuring gestures, students are informed that not all sculptures can be appreciated by being touched. Subsequently, with permission of the art teacher, the visiting teacher appreciates the artworks by touching and stroking them softly. (5 minutes)
●Step 1: Let’s touch them! Freely express what you feel! (15 minutes)
– Enjoy coming into contact with elements of art. Exchange opinions with group members and report these opinions to the class.
– What was touching the balls like?
Contact with the balls: Students in each group touch the balls one by one.
- First student: The student in each group whose birthday will come soonest touches the balls and tells the other members of the group what it felt like.
- Second student: The student who wins in rock-paper-scissors against the remaining two members of each group touches the balls and tells the other members of the group what it felt like.
- Third student: The remaining two students in each group discuss and decide (with kindness) who goes next.
- Fourth student: The last student in each group touches the balls, summarizes the opinions of the group, and reports them to the class.(The visiting teacher stands next to the speakers and provides necessary support.)
＊ Before proceeding to Step 2, the visiting teacher talks to one of the balls. Next, the teacher appoints a student who will respond in place of the ball and perform a role-play with the teacher.
●Step 2: Let’s talk with the balls! (15 minutes)
- This is a group activity. Decide who talks to a ball and who responds in place of the ball. Now, let’s talk.
- What did you talk about with the ball? Did you imagine the feelings of the ball? Why is the ball dented? Imagine that you are the ball and try to find similarities between you and it.
Next, the fourth student in each group plays the role of the ball. The other three ask the ball questions. Ensure that all the students play the role of the ball in turn: the third student tries next, then the second student, and then the first student.
●Presentation: About Kenichi Ushikubo and his balls (5 minutes)
(A three-minute PowerPoint slideshow excerpted from Kenichi Ushikubo Exhibition, an art catalog from the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, 2004.)
Before proceeding to Step 3, a quiet environment is created to allow the students to calmly face the artworks, the author, and themselves. After the slideshow, the students are asked to close their eyes in the dimly lit space. The themes of Steps 1 and 2 are repeated and the lesson proceeds to Step 3.
●Step 3: Let’s write a message to the author! (10 minutes)
(A message to the author’s wife is also an option.)
For example, write about the feel of the balls, the qualities of the balls that moved you, your feeling of gratitude, or how you were comforted by the balls, and what the balls made you think about yourselves.
Several students are encouraged to read out their messages if time permits.
■Short messages written by the students on the worksheets (samples)
Student A:
“I was moved to see Ushikubo’s artwork. Wood is hard and heavy, but his balls looked soft, light, and fluffy. They’re great. The dents of the balls were so gentle and reassuring. I want to think of these balls when I feel low…”
Student B:
“When I first saw the balls, I wondered, ‘What do the dents mean?’ After touching them and watching the slideshow, I thought that they might represent individual people. The balls were all different in form, just as each human being and animal is different from others. Through the lesson, I learned to be who I am and no one else. Thank you very much.”
Student C:
“The balls were very heavy. I was very glad to have had the chance to touch such valuable balls. To me, the balls seemed to represent the shape of what people have deep in their hearts. The shapes of people’s hearts are not perfect spheres at all; they inevitably include darkness and loneliness. However, the balls were struggling to regain their original shape, or so they seemed to me. The shapes of the balls looked so beautiful to me.”
Student D:
“At a glance, they simply looked like balls that had been dented. However, when I touched them, I found that they had a very smooth, woody texture without any roughness. They provide great comfort to those who touch them. All of the balls had different dents and were of different sizes. In particular, the parts of the balls where they were folded really looked like the beginning of dents. I was surprised to know that it was possible to produce such a smooth texture with wood. My previous ideas about wood were transformed.”
Student E:
“The balls reminded me of my feelings when I’m down. It felt as if my heart, feeling low but struggling not to show it, took a shape of a ball, all shiny but with a dent. I think it’s great that a human being can create balls with such smooth dents. The lesson was very exciting.”