Moadsf decoding identity curriculum guide

Decoding Identity: I Do It For My People

Curriculum Resource Guide

BY DEMETRIE BROXTON - EDUCATION PROGRAM MANAGER AND ROULA SEIKALY - MoAD in the MIDDLE PROGRAM COORDINATOR

Museum of the African Diaspora - Education Department Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Notes for Teachers This interdisciplinary, standards-based curriculum is intended to engage students before, during and after their visit to the Decoding Identity exhibition. Our aim is to help make connections to the curriculum used in schools as well as the core exhibitions found at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco. The Fact Sheet and Lesson Plans in this bundle can be used to prepare for and visit the exhibition, Decoding Identity: I Do It For My People on view at MoAD until March 8, 2009.

Decoding Identity: I Do It For My People is timely given the political and cultural climate of our country. Only days before the exhibition’s opening, President Barack Obama was sworn into office as the first African American President of the United States.

Throughout the election, Obama’s ethnic and religious identities were continuously called into question. The September 11th terrorist attacks had a negative effect on our nation’s view of people from the Middle East, subsequently, Obama and his wife were portrayed as terrorist Muslims on the infamous July 2008 cover of The New Yorker. Furthermore, the recent Proposition 8 debates have caused major schisms between families, neighbors, and friends. It is clear that in the last eight years, our country has become increasingly more divided along the lines of race, religion, gender, and sexuality. Students’ views of themselves and others have been affected by our national and global climate rather they realize it or not. Decoding Identity seeks to encourage students to think about their concepts of identity and ultimately achieve a well-balanced understanding of how identities are created and constantly in flux.

MoAD’s exhibits and four themes: Origins, Movement, Adaptation, and Transformation are used as the foundation of each learning experience included in this guide. Students will further develop vocabulary, visual literacy, historical knowledge, writing skills, and a deeper understanding of the concept that the African Diaspora includes everyone.

Students should be encouraged to reflect on the sources of their own identity and the role they play in the continuing human journey.

Although the individual lesson plans included within this guide are written for specific grade levels, each lesson can be adapted for other grade levels.

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

How To Use This Guide When Visiting MoAD The Fact Sheet, Question Sheet and Lesson Plans should be used to prepare students for a focused museum visit. MoAD group tours can be used to introduce students to the exhibition and related MoAD core exhibitions.

The Fact Sheet can be used to prepare students to look more carefully at the photographs and artifacts found in the exhibition. The Student Fact Sheet introduces definitions of terms used throughout the exhibition text. Students can expand their understanding of identity and concepts introduced in this curriculum by interacting with the digital media in the 2nd floor core exhibitions, Music of the Diaspora and Adornments.

While visiting MoAD, give each of your students a copy of the Decoding Identity Questions To Use While At MoAD to further engage them in the context of the exhibition. Younger students can draw pictures in lieu of words. Be sure to have your students answer the Reflection Questions as soon as possible after your visit to the Museum. These are designed to further students understanding and awareness of what they have seen. You may also opt to choose either of the grade level specific projects to complete before (recommended) or after your Museum visit. Again, these can be used as they appear or modified to accommodate other age groups. Enjoy!

John Yoyogi Fortes Save MySpace on the Bandwagon, 2008

Copyright Š 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

About the Exhibition MoAD proudly presents Decoding Identity: I Do It For My People, organized by MoAD staff members Erica Agyeman and Demetrie Broxton. The exhibition examines how contemporary artists articulate issues unique to their groups: ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious. Issues specific to people of color serve as a starting point as we draw connections to concerns of other minority groups.

The four themes that define the purpose of MoAD are: origins, movement, adaptation, and transformation. Decoding Identity focuses on “transformation” as individuals and groups balance the need to retain individual identity and find voice, recognition, and success in the broader society. Many of the artworks in the exhibition draw attention to people living at the margins of our community, whose voices or perspectives are either not heard or are not adequately represented.

Through photography, painting, sculpture, video, and installation, three expanding perspectives address this complex topic: revealing internal and individual constructs of identity, exploring commonalities in external issues of stereotype, and finally, a challenging broad perspective of people and cultures in the world.

Decoding Identity exhibits works by contemporary artists to illustrate the struggle for equal rights and recognition in society as an ongoing progression; a struggle which has continuously changed forms, but has always held the same vision: equality, liberty, and fraternity for all people.

Contrary to what many people believe when entering MoAD for the first time, the Museum is not strictly an African or African American Museum. MoAD exists to connect ALL people through the art and culture of the African Diaspora. When visitors enter the Museum, they are all posed with the same question, “When Did You Discover You Were African?” This profound question is posed to every single person who enters the Museum’s doors, regardless of identity classifications. Decoding Identity seeks to expand upon the Original African Diaspora, the origin of all mankind, and reveal the commonalities between peoples of our nation and essentially the whole world. This ambitious mission is achieved by inviting a diverse array of artists from various ethnicities, age ranges, sexual identities, levels of artistic achievement and political viewpoints.

Ultimately, our hope is that visitors will recognize that we are not so different from each other.

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

What Art Do You Identify With?

Student Fact Sheet

Installation Art: Installation art uses sculptural materials and other mediums to alter the way a specific space is seen and experienced. It is not necessarily only gallery spaces; it can be any kind of material in everyday public or private spaces. Installation art includes almost any kind of media to create an experience in a particular environment. Some pieces are very site specific, which means they are created only for a particular designated space.

Materials used range from everyday, natural materials to new media such as; video, sound, performance, immersive virtual reality and the internet.

Mixed Media: Mixed media in visual art refers to artwork in which more than one material has been used to create the piece.

Mixed media refers to works of visual art that combine various types of materials, such as paint, ink, collage, etc. This is different from multimedia art which is the combination of visual art with non-visual elements (like recorded sound, literature drama, or more). When creating a mixed media piece, beginning with a sturdy foundation is important because then multiple layers can be complied. Often, many traditional medias, such as paints or graphite, are used in combination with more out of the ordinary

materials which then expresses the many different elements of art in a more creative way.

Sculpture: Sculpture is a three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard or plastic material, stone, metal, glass, wood, sound, text, and or light. Some sculptures are created by carving or others are assembled, built up, welded (melting the pieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint), molded, fired or cast. Many sculptures are also painted. Many sculptures involved the use of materials that can be molded or changed and thus it is considered one of the plastic arts. The majority of public art is sculptures and is common in parks or gardens. There are many types of sculpture, including; free-standing, sound, light, relief, statue, kinetic (involving physical motion), or stacked.

Photography: Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as film. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects activate a sensitive chemical or electronic sensor during a timed exposure, usually through a camera, which then also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically. Photography can create pictures or film in black and white, sepia,

Copyright Š 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

or color and is used for business, entertainment, art and sentimental value. There are many different ways to affect the outcome of the photography, depending on the levels of exposure and the techniques used. Photography is commonly used for taking portraits.

Identity: Identity is defined as the distinguishing characteristics and personality of an individual, in relation to the established psychological identifications created by society. The conditions of identity include being the same or relating to something previous described or enforced. It can also be described as the sameness of generic characteristics in different examples as they make up the objective reality of a thing. People often identify themselves by what categories they consider themselves included in; distinguishing factors like gender, education, age, economic level, race, sexuality, professions, nationality, etc.

Internal: Internal is defined as of, or relating to, or located within the limits or surface of an object. With human beings, it refers to, is located and is effective within the body. Internal examination often implies dealing or relating to the mental or spiritual nature within humans, residing in or dependent on intrinsic and essential nature.

External: External is defined as capable of being perceived outwardly, having merely the outward appearance of something or someone. It is not essential, but connected with the outside of an object. It is located or situated outside, apart or beyond the surface of the body and has existence independent of the mind.

Stereotypes: A stereotype is a generalized perception based on a first impression. It includes behaviors presumed by a group of people judging with the eyes or criticizing ones outer appearance or a population in general to be associated with another specific group. Therefore, they can instigate prejudices, false assumptions, or be conventional or oversimplified conceptions, opinions, or images based on the assumption that there are attributes that a member(s) has in common with a group. Stereotypes are forms of social consensus rather than individual judgments and although generally viewed as negative perceptions, they can be either positive or negative in tone.

Afro-Futurism: Afro-futurism is an intellectual and cultural movement whose thinkers and artists see science, technology and science fiction as a means of exploring the “black experience� and ties to Africa. It also refers to contemporary foresights for the future of long term cultural, social and political developments for black people or to a futurist who happens to be a black person.

Orientalism: Orientalism refers to the imitation of depiction of aspects of the Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists and can also refer to a sympathetic attitude towards the region by the person. New meanings were given to the word when the attitudes towards the different cultures became prejudice or one sided.

Copyright Š 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

THEME: Internal Concepts of Self

THEME: External Concepts of Self

THEME: Alternatives Perspectives on Identity

Lorraine Bonner Stephanie Ann Johnson John Yoyogi Fortes Blue Wade Danny Ramirez

Lalla Essaydi Chaz Guest Kelly Marshall Adrienne Pao Manuel Rios David Yun Ed & Cheryl Calhoun

Christopher Carter David Huffman Annette Lawrence Wardell Milan Ramekon O’Arwister Clint Imboden

How do you define yourself?

Who determines who the “real” you is? Artists working in this section examine how identity is constructed by individuals.

DISCUSSION: • Discuss how each student identifies themselves: race, gender, hometown, etc. Ask: Who are you? How do you define yourself?

• Are these the only factors that make up their identity? If not, what are other factors that define each student?

• What are issues with being “boxed” into one category?

How do other people define you? Do other people have the power to determine the genuine you? Artists in this section examine how society and members of groups determine the identity of an individual.

DISCUSSION: • Discuss how students might categorize someone else?

What is the first characteristic we identify someone with? Try to be honest with yourself.

• When we identify people by their physical traits, what aspects of them are we missing?

• How do you get to really know someone?

Are there other forms of identity besides the ones you check on an application? How do we arrive at a place where identity is based on seeing who each of us really is, rather than perceiving people as part of a homogenous group? Artists in this section reveal the contradictions of group identity.

DISCUSSION: • Why have so many people argued that race is a biological fact?

• Who might have benefited most from the idea of different races in our country’s past? What about today?

• Is it possible to view someone’s identity without considering their race?

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Questions to Use While At MoAD Decoding Identity Exhibition January 23 – March 8, 2009

Choose 4 or 5 questions to answer

Find Clint Imboden’s Globe Project on the stairs. What are the spheres surrounding the globes made from? What do you think this means?

In the 2nd Floor Salon, find John Yoyogi Fortes’ painting, Immaculate Rendition. What is going on in this painting? Why is the man in the center of the painting chained? Explain.

Find Blue Wade’s installation. Describe what happens in the artwork. Who has control over the woman in the video game? What do you think this means?

Watch David Yun’s video, The Pain With Being Thirsty. What two ethnic groups are represented? Why do you think the artist chose to use a letter from a person belonging to one group and video footage from a completely different group?

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Questions to Use While At MoAD (continued)

Find examples of art made from recycled materials. What materials are being used for new purposes and what objects have been made? Find and describe one that you like.

Find Kelly Marshall’s Unspokn T-shirt boutique. What is written on the T-shirts? Are there any shirts that you identify with? If so, which ones? If not, why do you not identify with the labels?

Find Lalla Essaydi’s Converging Territories #24, ABCD. Why is the woman’s face broken into 4 sections? What is the artist trying to say? Besides being broken up into 4 pieces, what is different about this woman from the women in the other two photos by Lalla Essaydi?

Find a photograph by Andrienne Pao. What is happening in the photo? What is the artist covered in, and why? What do you think this means?

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Reflection Questions

To use after your visit to Decoding Identity January 23 – March 8, 2009

After seeing this exhibition, do you have different thoughts about your own identity? If so, how is your view different than before? If your thoughts are not different, what is the same? Explain.

What was your favorite part of the exhibition? Why?

Thinking Further: Think about your own identity. What are stereotypes people

have of you based on how you look? Do these stereotypes bother you or do you like them? Discuss this.

Copyright Š 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Who W o Am m I, R lly?

Real ?

Exa aminin ng Sellf-Ima age Grrades 6 - 12 Lessson Plan n

O Objective es: SStudents willl analyze theeir own identity and the effects socieety has on thheir self-imaage. Throughh visual a languagee arts lessonss, students will and w explore and try to better b underrstand the diverse range of identities whhich compose who they really are.

O Overview w: In this lessonn, students will: w • Creatte a series of o self-portraaits • Conssider the pollitical and so ocial motivattions of artists when creating their art a • Conssider how an n individual may m reinventt him/herself to portray an idea • Deveelop further thinking abo out identity through t writting activities

B Backgrou und: T Time: 3-4 Class C perio ods (45 min nutes – 1 ho our each) M Materials: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Large flip chart paperr Markers, pens/pencilss Responsee journal 1 Small mirror m (at leaast 6” X 6”) per student Digital camera(s) Tripod(s) - optional 1 or moree lamps – sppotlight type A studio set s up: fabricc, table, chaiirs, props Drawing paper p - at leeast 8 ½” X 11” Sketchingg pencils (HB B, 2B, 4B) Masking tape t Computeer with imagee editing pro ogram (i.e. Photoshop) P B&W prin nter 1 Scratchboard per sttudent - 8” X 10”, plus a scratch too ol blade

Optional DV O VD’s: Race: the Power off an Illusion & What’s Racce Got To Doo With It? Botth titles avvailable thro ough Californnia Newsreeel: www.new wsreel.org.

Copyrigh ht © 2009 Muuseum of thee African Diiaspora. All rights reservved.

PART I – Vocabulary (45 minutes) Divide students into groups of 2-4 students and give them a large piece of blank paper. Have them divide the paper into 3 parts. Assign each group 3 words. For each word, have the group discuss and create a definition for each word using prior knowledge. Give the groups 15 minutes to complete this task.

• • • • • • •

Aesthetic Background Collaboration Context Composition Culture Ethnicity

• • • • • • •

Form Graphic Gray Scale Identity Line Metaphor Multicultural

• • • • • • •

Narrative Portrait Posterize Process Proportion Representational Stereotype

Next, give students 5-10 minutes to look up definitions in the dictionary. Tell them not to abandon their own definitions. Then, have each group present their definitions to the class. Students from other groups can add to each definition. At some point, have students add the words and definitions to their response journals. You may also opt to create a worksheet; however, keeping everything in one location may be more useful in helping students keep organized.

Part II – Self-Portraits (45 minutes) Day I Set up a photo area in your classroom where you can setup dramatic lighting and leave it for a while.

For dramatic effects, position the lights only on one side of the person posing, not both sides as displayed.

Use a background with neutral patterns/colors

Portrait studio set up

1. Have students sit one at a time and strike a pose that represents their attitude.

Other students can help you position the lighting. Note: the closer the light, the more dramatic the effect. Also, be sure the light is positioned at least 2 feet above or below the eye- level of the sitter.

2. Next, have students import their photos into an image editing program, such as Photoshop or Picasa. Be sure to save the picture file as the student’s name for ease of organization. Click on the image and open it as an 8” X 10”.

3. Click on the image again and open it as a gray scale image. You may want to save the color image as another name, or simply discard it.

Dramatic, side lit portrait

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

4. In the Image menu, click on Adjustments. Adjust the Brightness and Contrast both to at least 25. Click OK. 5. Go back to the Adjustments menu. Click on Posterize. Click the level to 3. If you don’t have enough details in the image, you may need to go back and readjust your Brightness and Contrast. Experiment until the image is high contrast, but with enough details for students to work from.

6. Print each student’s image out.

Posterized portrait

Day II – IV: Scratchboards Students will transfer their images onto a piece of scratchboard.

1. Tape the computer printout on top of the scratchboard. Tape all 4 edges so the paper does not move.

2. Trace the image using a sharp pencil.

3. Remove the printout, but keep it for reference.

4. Begin scratching with your scratchboard blades to reveal white areas.

NOTE: If students have never worked with scratchboard before, you may want to give them small squares (2”-3”) to experiment with different marks and line qualities.

Scratchboard Portrait.

Artwork by M.K.

Give students 2 or 3 more working periods to complete their projects. For specific techniques to obtain the best results with scratchboard, visit the Art Window website at: http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/page1a.html Day V: Reflections Now that students have thoroughly examined their physical features, they will have time to consider the parts of their identity that are not visible.

Pair students up with a partner and have them discuss the following questions. Have students bring their reflection journals with them and take notes about from their discussion. Be sure students are aware that there are no right or wrong answers to these questions: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

What aspects of your identity are visible to other people?

What aspects of your identity are invisible to other people?

Do you think people judge you by the way you look?

Do you ever feel confined or limited by what other people think about you?

How do you express your identity and why?

Do you feel a need to express your identity? Why or why not?

What are some historical events you know which may have created societies perception of an aspect of your racial, social, or religious identity? An example might be for African-American: slavery, Civil Rights, ghetto formation, etc.

8. What do you think you can do to change the way others perceive you? Should you even try to change people’s perception of you? Why or why not?

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Now that students have had time to brainstorm ideas with their partners, have assign them a 2-3 page essay summarizing what they have learned about their identity. Have them use their responses to the above questions as a structure to their essays.

Extensions •

•

• • •

Have students create a digital storytelling project about identity. Have them include their own voices as well as interview other people about their ideas about identity politics. For resources on digital storytelling visit the KQED Digital Storytelling Initiative site at: http://www.dsi.kqed.org/. Finally, hold a school film festival where students are allowed to show their completed projects and discuss their work with the larger school community and their families.

Have students write a history paper about a historical event which reinforced, challenged or created a stereotype related to the student’s ethnicity, religion, gender, or age group. An example might be 9/11 for a Muslim student. This can also be made into a digital storytelling project.

Students can create a mural addressing identity issues and provide visual solutions to inspire the rest of the school for years to come.

Students can build a website to show off their work and discoveries. See page 30 of the MoAD Curriculum Guide for the exhibition Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera for instructions on building a class website.

Students can create further identity art projects, such as an identity collage, sculpture, or performance. Thousands of ideas can be found online at: http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?keywords=identity&rating=3

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

OB BJECCTS:: WHAAT DO THEY T S ABO SAY OUT MEE? Grad des 4-6 Lesson n Plan

Objectives: o In thhis three-seession lesson, studennts will usee basic onee-point perrspective to makee a drawin ng of their own room m, or an imaginary room, contaaining objects that arre importannt to them m. Student’ss artwork will include a set oom’s occcupant. number of objeects that together arre a portraait of the ro erview: Ove In thhis lesson, students s w will: •Make perspective p e drawings of their ro oom, or ann imaginaryy room.

•Consider how obbjects are associated a with identtity.

•Consider how an individual determinees the valuue of object dentity. associaated with id •Develop further thinking t abbout objectts and idenntity through writing exercises.

Background:: me: 3 Classs periodss (45 minu utes each h) Tim Matterials: White paper Ruleer Penccils Colo ored pencils Markkers Oil Pastels P Imagges: Ram mekon Orw wisters Sateed above thhe salt – or – The Firstt Ladies’ Preesidential Tortuure Chair, 2007 2 / Kelly Marshall Unspokn Truth, T 20088 / Wardelll Milan Chrisstopher Columbus’ Disscovery of thhe New Woorld, 2007 / Lalla Essaaydi Convverging Terrritories #24 4 ABCD, 20003 Copyrightt © 2009 Muuseum of the African Diaaspora. All rights reserveed.

DAY I – Vocabulary (45 minutes to 1 hour) Give groups of students a large piece of blank paper. Have them divide the paper into four parts. Assign each group 4 words. For each word, have them write or draw what they know about the word. Have groups discuss and create a definition for each word using prior knowledge.

Horizon line – The horizon line in a perspective drawing is a horizontal line across the picture. It is used to separate the land from the sky.

Mixed media – A work of art for which more than one type of art material is used to create the finished piece.

Perspective – A system for representing three-dimensional objects viewed in spatial recession on a two-dimensional surface.

Portrait – A picture of a person, usually showing the face.

Scale – The size of objects in relation to one another. Scale is used to determine the size of objects within a work of art.

Self-portrait – A portrait of oneself made by oneself.

Vanishing point – The point in a perspective drawing at which something seems to disappear.

DAY II – Pre-Activity Questions (20-45 minutes) Teacher Preparation: Print the images included in this lesson onto overhead transparencies or use a digital projector.

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Procedure: • Begin a discussion with the students about how a person’s possessions can provide insight into who that person is. Use the items found on your desk as an example. What can students learn about you by the items found on or inside your desk?

• Show the students the transparency images. Use the following questions to guide the discussion: 1. Can these artworks be considered portraits even if they don’t show the person’s face?

2. What can we learn about the person or people in the portrait if we can’t see his/her/their face(s)?

3. Why do you think the artist chose to create a portrait in this manner?

4. What can we learn about the artist and his/her life by looking at this artwork?

Begin to introduce the idea of artists using perspective in drawings and paintings to give the illusion of space. Focus specifically on Wardell Milan’s Christopher Columbus’ Discovery of the New World (2007). The size of objects in relation to one another and overlapping shapes are both used to give the illusion of receding objects. Define these concepts for the students and have them identify the ways in which Milan used these two concepts to show perspective.

Have the students imagine a room that they will design that only has objects in it that tell about their personalities.

Writing Activity: Assign a short essay in which students write about what they have learned from this discussion. Ask them to address the following questions: 1. What are six things about themselves (likes, dislikes, interests, etc.) that they want to express in this project.

2. What objects would you choose to represent those ideas?

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

DAY Y III – Drrawing Acctivity (45 5 minutess) dents that they t will be b drawing a room annd placing objects Explain to stud ose will be that represent who they are in that room. Thhe objects they choo a self portrait, giving otheers clues to t their ideentity, but not showing their facess. oduce the idea of a vanishing v po oint. On thhe chalkbo oard, recreeate the Intro figurre below.

1. Draw a square. From the top right, topp left, and bottom leeft corners quare, draw w lines thaat meet at a single po oint (the vaanishing of the sq point).

2 To creatte a cube (or, 2. ( the ro oom that sttudents will eventually draw), draw ho orizontal annd vertical lines as shhown abovve. o how to Togeether as a class, lead the studennts througgh a demonnstration of draw wn an emptty room using basic one-point o perspectivve. At this point, all of o the students’ s empty e imagginary room ms will loo ok the sam me. It is up to the students to draaw the objjects and ‘ffurnish’ thee room, so o that the objects o tell v abo out the arttist. the viewer s ligghtly sketcch their obbjects into their Usinng a pencil, have the students empty room, being b intenntional withh regard to o scale and d overlappiing of ompleted their t penciil drawingss, have objects. Once the studennts have co m finish theeir self-porrtrait with markers. Students S m also ad may dd details them to finnish decorrating or fuurnishing thheir roomss.

Copyrightt © 2009 Muuseum of the African Diaaspora. All rights reserveed.

Writing Activity: Once the students have finished their self-portraits, have them complete one of the following writing assignments: 1. Compare your self-portrait with one of the other artists’ portraits.

(Example: Lalla Essaydi Converging Territories #24 ABCD, 2003). How are the two artworks similar? How are they different?

2. Pretend that your artwork was going to hang in a museum gallery. Write a museum label that includes a short biography about you and some information about your piece of artwork. The label should include the student’s name, the title of the artwork, the date the piece was completed, and information about the student and the artwork.

Sample museum label: Lalla Essaydi, American (b. Morocco, 1956) Converging Territories #22, ABC, 2003 Lalla Essaydi was born in Morocco and lived in Saudi Arabia for many years before moving to the United States. Essaydi’s work deals with issues of the repression that is prevalent in the lives of women in fundamentalist Islamic societies. In these photographs, she has painstakingly written Islamic script in henna on her subjects’ enveloping white burkas, bodies, and surroundings. The calligraphy becomes a cover in itself, veiling the women and preventing them from taking on individual identities.

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

STANDARDS: Objects as Identity Grade 4 through 6 English-language Arts Content Standards Reading 1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development Writing 1.0 Writing Strategies Visual Arts Content Standards 1.0 Artistic Perception - Processing, Analyzing, and Responding to Sensory Information Through the Language and Skills Unique to the Visual Arts Students perceive and respond to works of art, objects in nature, events, and the environment.

They also use the vocabulary of the visual arts to express their observations.

2.0 Creative Expression - Creating, Performing, and Participating in the Visual Arts Students apply artistic processes and skills, using a variety of media to communicate meaning and intent in original works of art.

2.1 Use shading (value) to transform a two-dimensional shape into what appears to be a threedimensional form (e.g., circle to sphere). Use one-point perspective to create the illusion of space.

2.5 Use accurate proportions to create an expressive portrait or a figure drawing or painting.

4.0 Aesthetic Valuing - Responding to, Analyzing, and Making Judgments About Works in the Visual Arts Students analyze, assess, and derive meaning from works of art, including their own, according to the elements of art, the principles of design, and aesthetic qualities.

4.1 Construct and describe plausible interpretations of what they perceive in works of art.

4.4 Assess their own works of art, using specific criteria, and describe what changes they would make for improvement.

5.0 Connections, Relationships, Applications Connecting and Applying What Is Learned in the Visual Arts to Other Art Forms and Subject Areas and to Careers 5.1 Use linear perspective to depict geometric objects in space.

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Lalla Essaydi Converging Territories #24 ABCD, 2003

Copyright Š 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Kelly Marshall Unspokn Truth, 2008

Copyright Š 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Wardell Milan Christopher Columbus’ Discovery of the New World, 2007

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.

Ramekon Orwisters Sated above the salt – or – The First Ladies’ Presidential Torture Chair, 2007

Copyright © 2009 Museum of the African Diaspora. All rights reserved.