Maud Sulter was an artist of dual heritage, born in Glasgow of Ghanain Parentage.  She was very concerned with the presence of Africa in Europe and used costume and theatre in order to challenge viewer's ideas and prejudices about race, gender and history.. 

 

Chila Burman’s work focuses on challenging stereotypes that are held with particular regard to Asian women. 

This photograph is a self portrait and depicts her in a variety of guises, both eastern and western.  Poster paints, felt tips and crayons have been used to create this piece which focuses on Burman’s dual cultural heritage.

 

In our increasingly culturally diverse classrooms these artists can help children to be proud of their dual cultural identity as well as identifying and challenging stereotypes and prejudices simultaneously.

 

When delivering this lesson the teacher should refer back to the trip to the museum where children learnt about identity and culture and how it is demonstrated in portraiture as well as other other forms, and build on this by focussing children's attention on the different ways in which Sulter and Burman have opted to address the same theme.    

 

I want children to depict their cultural identity through print making.  Children can create any shapes and colours they like, and incorporate symbols and motifs to represent their cultural heritage.  With print making children can overlap or create prints with overlays and rotate their shapes and just be free.  The aim is to help children move away from the more conventional art lessons and demonstrate in a practical way that children can choose a range of styles to express their thoughts and ideas. 

 

 

Key Questions:

 

1.Where in the world might the people in the images come from?  How do we know this – what clues are there?

2.Imagine you are sitting in one picture and your partner in the other, take turns to explain to one another what you are trying to show them through your picture.

3.Have both of the images been created in he same way? What materials, methods and colours have the artists used to foster cultural identity?

4.How would you like to portray your cultural identity?  What symbols/motifs could you use?

 

Art skills: print making, pattern, texture, aligning, symmetry, paint mixing, tone, layering, printing blocks,