Altars are a rudimentary form of art making that simply involves selecting objects that are special to you and organizing them in a particular way that makes sense to you.
You will make it at home. Take time with it- thinking and feeling...
You will make the arrangement at least a day before class so you can really feel it out!
Then pack it up the day of class- carefully! You will then rearrange it in class and we will look at all of them together.
Please also read: Mesa-Bains and Elisa Scott (attached to the email you received)
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| Fabric, beads, toilet paper (?) a nest for anime characters, spiral shell, wool nest, wood carved bird, rock, basket, cotton to make a cloud |
You can include anything that:
gives you inspiration
you don't want to forget (family? grandparents? early friend? a pet?)
you think is beautiful
you think gives you or represents power
that represents or symbolizes something important to you (a toy sailboat could stand in for sailing)
that is literally something you care about - money?
that has the color of something important for you
It can be pictures of other things, not only people..
jewelry, a statue, a pair of baby shoes..
an item of clothing you love
comes from the natural world
whatever you want to
favorite foods,
or a bowl of food for "spirits"
lights, candles
something that smells nice
symbols (astrological symbols for yourself for example
symbolic foods (corns have lots of kernels) or foods that relate to your ancestry (a potato?)
toys, maps, a toy airplane (travel?) etc!
have fun with it!
For the next project you will figure out a way to document the altar!
This page about cosmologies might give you some other ideas for thinking symbolically.
This page has a couple of Afro-Brazilian altars.
Look at the altars in the pictures from Amalia Mesa-Bains and read about what she says about the altars she makes as art projects. I will also keep posting more on this page so look here again.
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