Educators around the Twin Cities piled in last night for a peek at all the resources on display for the 2005 Walker Art Center Educators’ Evening. Several themed tours were offered, a preview of the Animation Innovation student film series, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, ArtsConnectEd.org, and other representatives were also on hand. I was working the Art Lab Activity Take a Chance, inspired by the Walker exhibition, House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective.
The activity uses roulette wheels that visitors spin to get a list of materials and instructions with which to build a sculpture. It is based on the divination methods used by artists Huang Yong Ping in his own projects.
The House of Oracles (detail), 1989-1992. Collection, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris. Installation photo from House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective.
Huang also utilizes the I Ching text as well as divining rods and other methods in his projects, in addition to the wheels pictured above. Visitors to the Art Lab had all kinds of materials to build with and divination tools to inspire their work, like color wheels, weather reports, Chinese astrology, and more.
There is also a version of the activity for elementary students that uses the roulette wheels to construct imaginary animals. Cool!