In this week's blog, our Learning team have got a fun craft activity for children to try:

We’re going on an art adventure to look at our latest exhibition ‘Is there still life in Still Life?’ This exhibition looks at lots of different artists who created still life artworks. Still life is an artwork that represents different objects, it can be fruit, bottles, flowers, anything! As long those objects don’t move.

Anthony Caro (1924-2013) Writing Piece - Hand, 1978 (c) The Estate of Anthony Caro

In the exhibition there is a sculpture called ‘Writing Piece – Hand’ by Anthony Caro. He was a British artist who made sculptures which didn’t look like anything else. He would join different pieces of metal together to create something really exciting and lively, almost like they are dancing.

Your turn!

Make your own Anthony Caro inspired ‘Funky Junk Sculpture’.

What you need:

• Coloured card and paper
• Pipe-cleaners
• Straws
• Any odds and ends you can find (egg boxes, kitchen roll tubes, bottles etc.)
• Tape
• Scissors

Remember!

This is really easy to do and there is no right or wrong! Simply experiment with your materials. Can you balance them on top of each other? What different shapes can you create?

Top Tips!

• You can fold, tear, scrunch or roll paper or card to create interesting parts for your sculpture.

• Why not cut little slits into two pieces of card and slot them into each other to create exciting shapes?

• Try inserting pipe-cleaners into straws to give your sculpture some interesting lines.

Why not come and visit The Lightbox and see Anthony Caro’s sculpture for yourself, maybe this could inspire your artwork. When you have finished send a photo to our social media!

‘Is there still life in Still Life?’ is open until 1^st October 2017.