You will need
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
Untitled (1976)
Tate
Your students don’t need to know anything about an artwork or artist to start exploring it.
Use these quick group activities to build their confidence and curiosity in sharing their first responses to the artwork. Some artworks they might like straight away, some they might not.
Discovering art can be new, exciting and sometimes confusing. There are no right or wrong ways to respond!
In pairs or as a group, take it in turns to imagine the artworks answering these questions and telling their story.
In pairs or as a group, use your body to respond to the artwork.
This untitled artwork from 1976 uses very simple shapes to create a complicated pattern that looks three-dimensional. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1922–2019) made precise shapes out of mirrors and steel, arranging them together to create an image of interlocking cubes, with other rhomboid and diamond shapes appearing within the pattern. Depending on where the artwork is displayed, what lighting is used, what else is in the space, as well as the people moving in front of it, the reflections that form in the mirrors change dramatically.
Artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was born in Iran. Her artwork is informed by craft and patterns found in Iran’s architectural monuments, such as mirror-mosaic work (aina-kari). Her use of geometric shapes is underpinned by her studies of Sufi cosmology, in which each shape has an intrinsic symbolic meaning. Farmanfarmaian also spent many years living and travelling, bringing global inspirations such as American minimalism to her artistic techniques.
Farmanfarmaian’s artwork prompts us to think about geometric shapes, light and form. In this activity, explore ways of understanding three-dimensional shapes through drawing.
Adapt
Play with the cubes to explore through touch and gesture. Trace the edges with your hands and arms.
You could pre-make more cubes using the net out of lots of different materials: card, tissue paper, fabrics. How does the sensory experience change your impression of the object?
Now try covering a cube with a reflective surface and passing it around the group, exploring the different colours and textures.
3. Use pencils and graphite sticks to draw what you’ve discovered. This is not about drawing it ‘perfectly’, but instead using drawing to share your interpretations of the shapes! Experiment with drawing the outlines of the shapes using straight lines. How do you connect them together? Or try shading in parts of your shapes, pressing harder with the pencil for a darker tone.
Can you change the way the shapes look by creating different shadows?
4. Once you’ve drawn a few representations of the cubes, cut them out and arrange them together into patterns. Can you create an interlocking pattern like Farmanfarmaian does? Working in small groups, examine all the geometric shapes you’ve made, looking together at how light and shade have affected the different forms.
How do the lines and shadows you’ve created change?
5. At the end of your lesson, find each other’s drawings and patterns and celebrate the artworks you’ve just made!
What have you learned by experimenting with drawing?
What else could you discover by drawing how objects feel?
Extend
Invite your students to repeat this process of exploring, drawing and arranging with different 3D objects. These could be geometric shapes (pyramids, prisms and more), or everyday objects from your classroom – be adventurous!
How do you represent the world around you through drawing?
The geometry of Farmanfarmaian’s artwork references both Sufi cosmologies and American minimalism. Research these different histories and traditions to discover why geometric shapes are important in both, for quite different reasons.
What do shapes mean in these different contexts? What shapes would you pick to convey meaning of your own?
Making art is a powerful way to learn new skills, explore ideas and express ourselves creatively. Encourage your students to discover new materials, techniques and methods inspired by great artists at Tate.
2. Explore (10 minutes)
3. Make (30 minutes)
