What is Identity?

What do you think it is?

•  identity is a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations (such as national identity and cultural identity).

So it is….?

Who we are and the ideas that make up “me”

This can be who we like who we don’t like.

( an example is democrats and republicans)

It is also who we associate with.

I hang out with _____________?

When I am not in school I hang out with?

How I act when I hang out with them.

• Your PERSONAL Identity is that part of you that only you know about.

• You might have a secret love for something.

• Your favorite food, show, song, type of music. Things nobody really knows about.

How do you express your personal Identity?

What we are going to do?

We are going to make Identity boxes.

The outside will reflect what we show others about ourselves.

The inside will be how we see ourselves, or express a secret that you keep inside that you want to share.

In your sketch books answer the following.

1.Are some parts of your personal identity completely private?

2.What are some things about you that your friends or peers would be surprised to know?

3.How do you express your personal identity?  

Joseph Cornell (1903 - 1972)

Joseph Cornell was a rather solitary figure in both the Art World and the world-at-large. He lived his entire life in the same house in Queens, surviving his mother / housemate by mere months. Wonderfully untrained, his trinket-filled, nostalgic, whimsical boxes were a never-before-seen medium (which lacked the descriptive name "assemblages" until a MoMA show in 1961). Rightfully best known for his constructions, Cornell also wrote poetry and created quite a number of short, experimental films.

He started:

• Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects.

L'Egypte de Mlle Cleo de Merode Cours Elementaire d'Histoire Naturelle1940

‘Little Bear, etc.’

‘Andromeda: Grand Hotel de l’Observatoire’

‘Setting for a Fairytale’

‘Fortune Telling Parrot (Parrot Music Box)

‘Untitled (Grand Owl Habitat)’

‘Untitled (The Hotel Eden)’

‘Untitled (Cockatoos and Corks)’

‘A Parrot for Juan Gris’

‘Habitat for a Shooting Gallery’

‘Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)’

Medici Slot Machine

1. What is the central figure to Joseph Cornell’s Medici Slot Machine?

Answer:

A young boy dressed in costume of a renaissance prince or nobleman.

He included pieces associated with childhood games, such as jacks & marbles. (bingo game, compass, clock spring)

2. What kinds of found objects has Cornell included in this work?

Answer:

3. How does Dressing Room for Gille reflect Cornell’s fascination with the theater?

Answer:

The “sad clown” figure resembles a stock character in the Commedia Dell’ Arte, a 16th Century Italian entertainment.

4. What is the significance of boxes and caged birds in Joseph Cornell’s work?

Answer:

Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery, 1943

Cornell’s own life was very restricted and “boxed in.” Because of his family responsibilities, he had few opportunities to travel or socialize. Instead, he placed his dreams into his boxlike assemblages. (Maybe for safe keeping?)

5. How does Forgotten Game resemble a dovecote or birdhouse?

Answer:

6. What game, or toy-like element, has Cornell added to Forgotten Game?

Answer:

A dovecote is a large bird house designed for keeping domestic pigeons or doves. Forgotten Game is a wooden box with round holes, inside each hole is the image of a bird on a perch.

A ball can be made to roll down a ramp inside the box and strike a bell.

7. How has Cornell created a sense of escape in Toward the Blue Peninsula?

Answer:

The setting suggests an empty cage, or a recently vacated prison cell. The perch is empty, the framed area resembles an open window.

Toward the Blue Peninsula (for Emily Dickinson), 1953

8. In Habitat Group for a shooting Gallery, how as Cornell represented senseless cruelty and Violence?

Answer:The four images of tropical birds are numbered as though indicating how many points will be earned for killing them. The shattered glass suggests invasion by a bullet or a thrown rock. Spatters of red suggest blood. Bits of feathers are strewn on the bottom of the box.

9. What devices has Cornell used to give Pink Palace a festive, fairy-tale atmosphere?

Answer:

The elegant Renaissance palace has been placed in a nighttime setting, surrounded by a glittering frame resembling snow. Lights seem to shine from within the windows, while people and carriages line up in front.

10.What type of mood has Cornell created in Hotel du Nord? What kind of imagery has he used to create this mood?

Answer:

Cornell creates a sense of the isolation and alienation of being alone in a hotel room in an unfamiliar city.

11. In Penny Arcade Portrait how has Cornell depicted the remote nature of a film star who is admired by millions, but remains inaccessible to most?

Answer:Cornell makes Bacall’s portrait the focal point, but places it behind glass. It is visible but untouchable. He uses images most people have access to only through fan magazines.

-Plan out how you want to use identity in your own box -Sketch out ideas you might have for your identity box.-Make a list of small objects you want to use in your identity box.

-Start to cut out pictures and colors you want to use on and in your box.

-If you have a box at home you want to use bring it in!

DO NOW

Pete the crow.