Education programs at the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, engage with current thinking in contemporary art practice to promote and stimulate a deeper understanding of biennials and the work of artists. Our exhibition programs for Primary and Secondary students cater for all ages and abilities.
See our Workshop offerings for your students at the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
Maximum capacity of 30 students per tour.
Bookings for paid workshops and Educator-led tours close seven days prior to the commencement of the event.
Worldbuilding and Character Design inspired by the works of Serwah Attafuah
Join a Biennale Educator in our program space for a workshop for up to 30 students based on the work of 24th Biennale of Sydney Exhibiting artist Serwah Attafuah. Drawing on the vivid speculative worlds created in Attafuah’s digital works, students are invited to consider narrative and worldbuilding in art, the connection between visual art and science-fiction, and character design and creation. Students will then be asked to apply the principles of worldbuilding to their own art creation, asking themselves what their speculative worlds could look and feel like; what characters live therein, and what messages would such a world communicate and how.
Curriculum Links
Students can discuss and analyse the work of Serwah Attafuah as an Australian digital artist who creates cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands, populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and contemporary themes.
Frames:
- Cultural Frame
- Structural Frame
- Subjective Frame
Students will:
- Discuss, explore and analyse the themes and processes behind Attafuah’s work
- What can you interpret about her world through her art and the way in which the ideas are represented?
- Respond to a series of prompts for their own speculative world for an artwork
- What would it look like? Why?
- Who are the characters?
- What are their histories?
- What are their values?
- What would they like to do?
- How can these be communicated through a visual language?
Kite Making inspired by the works of Orquideas Barrileteras
Join a Biennale Educator in our program space for a workshop for up to 30 students based on the work of 24th Biennale of Sydney Exhibiting artists Orquideas Barrileteras, the all-female collective whose giant kites are created for the Festival de Barriletes Gigantes in Sumpango, Sacatepequez. Students will discuss the Mayan cultural context from which the kites originate, their connection to Latin American Day of The Dead/All Saints Day traditions, folkloric history as a method to rid the area of evil spirits interfering with the rest of departed loved ones’ souls, and modern reinterpretation as an artform through which to communicate social and political messages.
In small groups of 3 or 4 students will be asked to consider the evil spirits and social ills currently plaguing their local and national context, and together create their own paper kite to aid in their expulsion.
Curriculum Links
Students can explore the kites created by the Orquideas Barrileteras for the Festival de Barriletes Gigantes as part of a Guatemalan/Mayan cultural tradition and analyse the way the kites have evolved into the present day. They can identify symbols and visual languages in the kites modern political messages, and apply those principles to their own Australian and local contexts.
Frames:
- Cultural Frame
- Structural Frame
- Postmodern Frame
In small groups, students will:
- Discuss and interpret the world in which the kites on exhibition are made
- Reimagine this history using their own cultural and personal contexts, asking what evil forces could be driven out
- Respond to the themes and principles of this exercise to collaborate in making their own kite together
- Employ practical and creative skills to create paper kites
