Looking for a creative way to engage the kids at home on these cold wintery days? As you await the first snow, try this simple collage activity using a tape transfer technique. Kids ages 3 and up can do this, and because they look so cool you might even be able to talk your teenager into trying it too.
PACKING TAPE TRANSFER-COLLAGE
What you need:
Clear packing tape (the wider the better)
Magazine or photocopied images
Stick the packing tape over the front of your image. If applying in strips to cover a larger image, put another strip over the join to reinforce the project. Apply pressure to the tape with your hand or the back of a spoon to get rid of any trapped air. Soak the image in warm water for approx 5 minutes. Remove from water. Remove the backing paper of the image by gently rubbing with your finger. The backing will come off in layers. Be gentle and patient.
You should have a semi-transparent replica of the original image transferred onto the packing tape. Now you can layer multiple images, and create a collage. Try combining images of different scale and opposite meanings (in one example below I placed a beach scene overtop a snowy mountaintop).
Most of us have made a collage at some point in time that has involved cutting and splicing together magazine clippings. This process of borrowing, reusing, editing, and exploiting existing images to create new meanings, images, or objects is called appropriation. Artist, Andy Warhol is one of the best-known appropriators of pop culture. His work often contains familiar images like Campbells’ soup cans, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis, which are taken directly from newspapers, advertisements, and mainstream media.
If you are brave enough to leave the house on one of these frigid week-ends, stop by the Walker and visit Gallery 3 to see Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Tomato Juice Box.
As you look at this artwork, think about how this sculpture is both a replica and an original.
- Has the artist changed the original? How? (Hint: look at how it was made and what materials the artist used)
- Where have you seen this item before?
- Does the meaning of this object change when seeing it in a gallery?
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