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Urban and public!

Creative project Factory

Key data

Techniques: Digital, Drawing
I can do alone: Yes
Required time: < 45 minutes
Locations: Outside, Home

Description

In the 1980s, Keith Haring painted his pictures on unused billboards in New York subway shafts, and countless passers-by stopped in front of them. What distinguishes art from advertising? How important is the environment for art? What place do you choose to draw attention to your issues? Follow the step-by-step guide and find a way to showcase your subject!

Instructions for making it yourself

You will need

  • pens
  • paper or sketchbook
  • smartphone
  • printer

Alternatively:

  • PC / tablet
  • image editing program or app
  • painting, crafting or collage materials
  • found objects
"A PLACE IS NEVER JUST ITS MATERIAL CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT ALWAYS COMES WITH A HISTORY, WITH CONDITIONS, POWER STRUCTURES THAT ARE NOT SEPARABLE FROM IT."

Maria VMier

Step 1

What issues do you want to bring to the attention of the public?

 

Create an analog or digital object that expresses your message. This can be lettering, a drawing or a poster.

Step 2

Where do you want to place your artwork? Look for an appropriate place.

 

Possibility 1:

Search the internet for an image of a place in public space that you would like to use as a surface for your political artwork.

 

Possibility 2:

Search outside in the neighborhood for suitable places for your artwork. Document them with your smartphone.

STEP 3

Insert your object into the chosen environment.

 

Possibility 1:

Print the chosen image and paste your cut-out artwork.

 

Possibility 2:

Photograph your artwork and digitally work it into your chosen location, such as with a green screen or image editing program.

DISCUSS

What is the potential of making art publicly accessible, of showing it outside of museums and galleries?

"There is no difference for me between a drawing I do in the subway and a piece to be sold for thousands of dollars. There are obvious differences in context and medium, but the intention remains the same."

Keith Haring

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Reflect and discuss

Do you agree with Keith Haring?

TIP!

How can your message take up even more space?

 

Think about how you can make a theme three-dimensional, for example, as lettering or an object.

Explained briefly

Keith Haring uses his art to draw attention to grievances such as war and violence, or to the suffering caused by AIDS. There is almost always an activist message in his works.

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Creative project Factory

Creative project Your green screen experiment

Place people and objects virtually in any location.

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Artist Factory

Artist Keith Haring

was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1958 and died in New York in 1990.

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Artwork Factory

Artwork Keith Haring, Untitled (Subway Drawing), 1983

For his “Subway Drawings,” Keith Haring used empty advertising spaces, on whose dark background he drew the outlines of his main motifs in one go with white chalk. On the right side of the image are the outlines of two human figures in comic pose and a frieze of crawling babies. Next to the drawing is the poster that was originally pasted beside it: a promotional poster for a 3-D movie entitled “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”

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