What is art? resources

We invited primary schools across the country to submit a 10 word response to the question ‘What is art?’. To help children answer this philosophical question, Artis worked with Korean visual artist Do Ho Suh to develop resources and activities for teachers to explore with their children. Resources are free to download and explore with your children.

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Resource 1: What is art…discovering materials and objects

Do Ho is very interested in familiar objects around the home. He has created a series of fabric sculptures of some of these objects including his fridge, his bath and his toilet.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Drama, Performing Arts, Music, Science

Resource 1: What is art…discovering materials and objects

Do Ho is very interested in familiar objects around the home. He has created a series of fabric sculptures of some of these objects including his fridge, his bath and his toilet.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Drama, Performing Arts, Music, Science

Resource 2: Who am we?…exploring the unique

This ‘wall paper’ is made from photographs of thousands of teenagers’ faces taken from the artist’s high school yearbooks. From a distance you cannot see that they are faces. Close up, you can see that each one is unique.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Drama, Literature, Music, Numeracy, Dance, Science

Resource 3: Cause and effect…investigating past influences

This piece looks, from a distance, like a powerful tornado. When you observe more closely you can see that it is made of thousands of tiny figures swirling round and down towards a single figure at the bottom. Do Ho was thinking about the influence of generations of family members that makes an individual the person they are.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Drama, Literature, Maths, Dance, Science

Resource 4 Reflection…learning about spaces

This piece is a copy of a gateway from Do Ho’s childhood home in South Korea. He has made it out of translucent fabric with a metal frame (like a tent). In fact he has made two gateways that look like reflections of one another. Do Ho is interested in transitional spaces (such as doorways, bridges, corridors and staircases), that link one space to another.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Maths, Music, Dance, Science

Resource 5: Net-work…exploring connections

This piece is created from lots of tiny figures fixed onto a fishing net. It is stretched and draped over a framework next to the sea that is arranged differently depending upon where it is being displayed. Net-Work resembles a fishing net.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Literature, Maths, Music, Dance, Science

Resource 6: Paratrooper I…discovering the individual

The figure of a paratrooper appears to be pulling his parachute towards himself. On closer inspection one can see that the ‘parachute’ is, in fact, made of thousands of signatures hand-stitched onto fabric with the trailing threads from each signature drawn together in the paratrooper’s hands.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Drama, Maths, Dance, Science

Resource 7: Home within home…examining moving

In this piece Do Ho has recreated two important homes: his childhood home in South Korea and the first place that he lived when he moved to the USA. Each one is a perfect reproduction that can be taken apart, like a tent, and the original idea was that it could be transported in a suitcase so that Do Ho could take his home with him wherever he goes. The South Korean home is suspended inside the American one.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Maths, Music, Dance

Resource 8: Uni-Form/s…discuss belonging

Do Ho has brought together uniforms from the different stages in his life to create this piece. He wore uniforms for 39 years of his life – from nursery school to his time in civil defence up to the age of 45.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Maths, Dance, Science

Resource 9: Public figures…exploring support

This plinth looks familiar enough. You might expect to see a famous, heroic figure standing on top of it. However, Do Ho has placed hundreds of tiny figures underneath it instead. The original idea was that after dark, the plinth is moved to a different spot so the next day it appears as though the people have moved it.

Key stage KS1, KS2

Topic Drama, Music

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