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South London Gallery
Teachers’ Pack
On Kawara
South London Gallery
65 Peckham Road
London
SE5 8UH
02077036120
Email: [email protected]
Supported by
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Welcome
The South London Gallery is committed to providing a resource for schools in Southwark.
We can provide specially tailored artist-led workshops for a limited number of local schools
and from June this year we will be able to welcome class visits on weekday mornings
(Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 11am), when the gallery is closed to the public. Teachers’ packs
like this one will be produced for each exhibition (6-7 per year), to be used either as a guide
or as a starting point for delivering lessons. Teachers can also book free use of the new
education space at the gallery which is equipped for practical workshops for up to 15 pupils.
Exhibition/Project
Artist: On Kawara
Type of work: An outdoors, off-site project by a conceptual artist
Brief description: The project is titled ‘Reading One Million Years’ (Past and Future) and
is a live reading which will take place in a glass structure in Trafalgar Square, 24 hours a day
for 7 days.
Project begins: 8am 29 March 2004 Ends: 8am 5 April 2004
Suitability: All ages and abilities
Dates
Teachers’ inset day: 18 March 2004 Time: 4-6pm
Location: Centenary Gallery, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Road
Introduction for teachers
This pack is intended to support the delivery of art lessons exploring the ideas behind the
work of Japanese Conceptual artist On Kawara. It contains suggestions for lessons that can
be adapted to suit children’s age, range and ability and could either be one off lessons or
spread over a whole term.
(Hot seat – Is a game that can be played in pairs or with the whole class. It can be started by the
teacher who takes the first turn to sit at the front of the classroom and pretend to be the artist (or
other appropriate person) the class then ask questions to the artist and the teacher or pupil must
answer in character.)
Contents
This teaching pack contains the following sections:
1.
A background focus on the Conceptual artist On Kawara including;
1a- Background information for teachers
1b-‘Setting the scene’ information about the artist for children with an activity
suggestion focussing on the artist
2. Focussing on On Kawara’s work
2a – I GOT UP contains information for the children, picture examples, question
and discussion guidance and practical activity suggestions.
2b – THE TODAY SERIES contains information for the children, picture examples,
question and discussion guidance and practical activity suggestions.
3. Focussing on On Kawara’s work ONE MILLION YEARS (PAST AND FUTURE) this
includes;
3a-Background information for teachers about the piece.
3b-Reading One Million Years (Past and Future) Information, images and
questions for children
3c-Guidelines for a visit to Trafalgar Square
4.
Further information
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Section 1
Background - On Kawara
1a Background information for teachers
On Kawara is seen as one of the most important, almost legendary, figures within
contemporary art. A reclusive figure, our understanding of him as a person as well as artist
is mediated by him through his artwork. For example, in a series of works, begun in 1969,
Kawara has sent literally thousands of postcards and telegrams to friends and
acquaintances bearing such messages, as “I am still alive”. He has produced many artist
books such as I Met, a day-by-day listing of all the people he has ever met. And has
produced literally thousands of Date paintings, meticulously painted works which vary in
scale and consist of the date on which the work was made, painted in white onto a subdued,
coloured background. He gives himself 24 hours to make his date paintings, if he hasn’t
finished by midnight the painting is destroyed. The paintings are sometimes boxed with a
page from the specific day’s newspaper.
A crucial event in On Kawara’s life provides us an insight into the direction his work has
taken and his obsession with recording the passage of time. For when On Kawara was a
teenager in Tokyo, American fighters dropped bombs on the Japanese towns, Nagasaki
and Hiroshima. After that he stopped in his words “being a diligent student” and embarked
upon making one of the most remarkable bodies of work, at the root of which is the artist’s
fundamental and on-going concern with the essence of human existence.
1b ‘Setting the scene’ Information about the artist for children
Information
On Kawara was born in Japan in 1933 he’s 71 years old now and he lives and works in New
York.
We can only guess precisely how old he is because he won’t tell anyone his date of birth,
instead he only tells us how many days he’s been alive, and on 1st September 2000 he was
25, 453 days old!
In the 1950’s he moved to Mexico City to go to art school.
There are no photographs or films of On Kawara at all, he doesn’t have a website he won’t
speak on the phone or email or text anyone, he wont even hand write letters and he won’t
talk about his work.
If you want to contact him, you can do it through his gallery or his wife, or leave a message on
his answer phone.
On Kawara regularly travels all over the world.
His friends describe him as having a good sense of humour, of being very interested in other
cultures and languages, of knowing a lot about science and maths and history, and being
very good at playing ping-pong.
Apparently he doesn’t look like an artist, but it has been said that he looks very intelligent.
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1b Activity suggestion
Here is an activity that could follow the discussion
1. Ask the children to make a storyboard about On Kawara ask them to consider the
following:
· What do you think On Kawara looks like – make a drawing.
· Where do you think On Kawara lives – draw his house.
· Where does On Kawara travel to and what does he like about travelling?
· Draw some places he has travelled to.
· What questions would you leave On Kawara on his answer phone?
Section 2
Focussing on On Kawara’s work
2a – I GOT UP
Information
Example Image
Questions you can ask
the children about the
work
For the last 40 years On Kawara has
been making the same piece of
work called ‘I got up’ this is a ‘work in
progress’ which means that the
artist is still making it.
For this piece of work, he sends
hundreds and hundreds of
postcards to people he knows or has
met, but he doesn’t write messages
about his holidays.
·
He doesn’t hand write his messages;
he prints them with a rubber stamp.
·
·
·
·
·
Sometimes he writes the time he got
up that morning, for example ‘I got
up at 8.23 am’
Why is this work taking
so long to make?
When will the work be
finished?
Why doesn’t he hand
write his messages?
Have you ever sent a
postcard?
Why did you send it?
What did you write?
Play the Game – Hot
seat On Kawara
He sends the postcards from many
different countries as he often
travels
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2a I GOT UP Activity suggestions
Here are four activities based on postcards that could follow the
discussion
1. Postcards – discuss with the children who they would like to send their postcards to, this
could be to each other, to another class, the gallery or to On Kawara.
Using a template postcard ask the children to draw a picture on one side and stencil a
message on the other- this can only be a short message (5words) so ask them to think
what important information they need to send, what do they want the person who
receives the postcard to know about them, how do they want to make them feel when
they receive it?
2. Using the images of some of On Kawara’s postcards ask the children to note where the
postcards were sent from and to whom, where the pictures on the postcards the same
country that it was sent from?
Give the children a map of the world and ask them to draw lines connecting where they
are sent from to where they are sent.
3. Using the images of some of On Kawara’s postcards the children could write a diary
listing the date and place it was written, what it says and where is it going. They could
write an imaginary diary entry about what they think On Kawara did for the rest of the
day; did he make a date painting, and did he finish or destroy it?
4. If you have a postcard collection that you could use (sometimes you can pick them up in
second hand shops) the children could compare more usual postcard messages to On
Kawara’s messages. What does On Kawara’s message tell us about who he is, what
does this other postcard tell us about who that person is?
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2b THE TODAY SERIES
Information
On Kawara has been
making date paintings
called the ‘Today’ series for
the last 40 years, this piece
is a work in process.
He only gives himself 24
hours to make his paintings
and if he doesn’t finish it in
time, he destroys it!
He has made over 2,000
paintings so far, sometimes
he shows them in schools, a
private exhibition for the
children and teachers.
The paintings are always of
the same thing – the date!
No pictures!
When he has finished the
painting he sometimes puts
it away in a box with a sheet
of newspaper from the day
he painted it
Example Image
Questions you can ask the
children about the work
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
What is today’s date?
Where do we see dates?
– newspapers,
calendars, diaries
Would you normally see
a date on a painting?
Where would this be?
Why do you think On
Kawara makes a
painting of the date?
When do you think he’ll
stop making these
paintings?
He’s made a lot of them,
where does he put them
all?
Play the Game – hot seat
On Kawara
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2b THE TODAY SERIES Activity suggestions
Here are four activities based on dates that could follow the
discussion
1. For KS2 Maths activity set the children the following questions:
·
·
·
·
·
How many days in a year?
How many days in 40 years?
How many days has On Kawara been alive?
Ask the children to make a graph to show how many days On Kawara has
been alive, how many paintings he has made, how long he has been making
the paintings?
Encourage the children to calculate how many days they have been alive
and add this information to the graph
2. Ask the children to Imagine that they were stranded on a desert island ask them to
consider the following:
· How would they know what day it was, how long they had had been there or
how old they are?
· Ask them to make a plan of how they would remember and keep track of
the days
· They could write a page from their imaginary diary.
3. Activity with newspapers – what’s in the news?
· Using a selection of cuttings from the day’s newspapers, and/or news web
resources, ask the class to read and discuss what is in the news today.
· If they were to make a time capsule, what information would they record to
describe today?
4. Make a date painting
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Section 3 Focusing on Reading One Million Years (Past and Future)
3a Background information for Teachers
Reading One Million Years (Past and F uture) , an epic work of conceptual art by the
acclaimed Japanese artist, On Kawara, is presented in the UK for the first time through a
continuous reading lasting seven days and nights in Trafalgar Square from 29 March to 5
April 2004.
The work has been presented in cities around the world, including Paris, New York, Kassel
and Kwangju. It will now be brought to the geographical and symbolic heart of London by
the South London Gallery in the lead-up to the re-opening of its building following
refurbishment.
In a glass structure at the foot of Nelson’s Column, a man and a woman will sit side by side at
small desks. As Londoners and tourists approach them, it will become clear that they are
not having a normal conversation but taking turns to read a single year from On Kawara’s
ten-volume work, One Million Years. For the period of a week, on one day the readings will
be from Past, the volumes which list every year from 998,031 BC to 1969 AD, and on the
next from Future which lists the years from 1980 AD to 1,001,980 AD.
One Million Years was first made in 1969, the year of the Woodstock music festival, major
civil protests against the Vietnam War and man’s first landing on the moon. In these books
the length of an average human life is equivalent to a few lines, the whole of human history
reduced to a few pages. Past is dedicated to ‘all those who have lived and died’ and Future is
‘for the last one’.
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3b ONE MILLION YEARS (PAST AND FUTURE)
Information
Example Images
Questions you can ask
the children about the
work
In 1969 On Kawara had the idea
to made a series of 10 books
called One Million Years (Past
and Future)
·
·
·
One half of the books are called
Past and they were made in
1969, they list the dates from
998,031BC to 1969AD, which
is 1million years in the past (from
when the book was made)
The other half of the books were
made in 1980 they are called
Future and they list the dates
from 1980 AD to 1,001,980 AD,
which is 1 million years into the
future
This piece of work is sometimes
displayed as a set of books, but
sometimes it is read out loud by
two performers, who sit side by
side and take it in turns to read
the dates.
For one week it will be read out
loud in Trafalgar Square by two
performers at a time who will sit
side by side in a big glass box.
Everyone can go and visit the
box and listen to the reading,
during the day or night.
·
·
·
·
·
What is a Year?
What year is it now?
How do we write the
year?
What does BC stand
for?
What does AD stand
for?
Why has On Kawara
made a piece of work
writing all those
years?
How long do you think
it took to write all
those years?
How long do you think
it would take to read
them?
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3b Activity suggestions
Here are two activities based on One Million Years (Past and
Future) that could follow the discussion
1. If the class is currently focussing on a particular period in history, you could use this
period to explore what the children know about the past.
· Ask them try to imagine a period into the future.
2. Using the hand out sheet of One Million Years (Past) ask the children if they can
read the numbers or teach them to read them (e.g., twenty-five thousand five
hundred and one AD and so on). They should practice taking it in turns to read out
loud to each other in pairs.
·
Set up a desk at the front of the class room and encourage the children to do
a mini version of the On Kawara performance, taking it in turns to read out
in pairs, the dates, each pair could read one or two lines. Encourage the
children to think about the rhythm they use to read the numbers and the
spaces in between. (It would probably help them to highlight the dates they
are going to read.
·
·
·
·
After the class performance, encourage the class to discuss:
How easy or hard was it?
How they felt reading in front of the class? And so on
Encourage them to imagine and discuss how the performers will feel in
Trafalgar Square doing it round the clock.
3c Guidelines for a visit to Trafalgar Square
To visit the reading of One Million Years (Past and Future ) the number12 bus goes from
Camberwell Green directly to Trafalgar Square. Your visit could be combined with a
schools workshop in the National Gallery led by the education department at the National
Gallery, who also have sandwich rooms which are available for schools to use. They are in
high demand so it’s important to book, contact the National Gallery on 020 77472424.
On your visit to Trafalgar Square to see the work prepare a work sheet for the class to use,
this could include challenges and questions for them to answer such as:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
What are the people in the box doing?
What year is being read when you arrive?
What year is being read when you leave? (Do a sum to calculate how many years you
spent in Trafalgar Square today!)
Can you see any dates written anywhere else in Trafalgar Square?
Can you see any clocks? How many and do they all say the same time?
Go to one side of the Square and write the year which is being read, than cross to the
other side of the square, and write the date which is being read, now do a sum to find
out how many years it took for you to walk across the square.
Look around, can you see numbers anywhere else? Write down the number and where
you saw it.
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Section 4
Further information
Websites
Creativity and learning:
www.southlondongallery.org
www.digitalpalette.org.uk
www.accessart.org.uk
www.capeuk.org
www.artscampaign.org.uk
www.thersa.org
http://www.ncaction.org.uk/creativity/index.htm.
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/arts.asp
www.creativitycentre.com
http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/creativitykillers.html
Books
On Kawara (Phaidon, £24.95) ISBN: 0714841048
Creativity in education and learning: a guide for teachers and educators, by AurthurJ
Cropley (RoutledgeFalmer, £18.99)
Out of our minds: learning to be creative, by Ken Robinson (Capstone Publishing, £15.99)
Ken Robinson’s 1999 report, all our futures: creativity, culture and education, can be seen
at www.artscampaign.org.uk/campaigns/education/summary.html.
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