You will need:
- Printed out texts that feel relevant to your students: stories, poems, non-fiction texts, newspaper/magazine clippings. You could also choose texts that relate to topics in your curriculum
- Thick opaque markers
- Scissors
- Air-drying clay
Saloua Raouda Choucair
Be inspired by artist Saloua Raouda Choucair and make your own sculptures that explore poetry and form
Explore the artwork
Saloua Raouda Choucair
Poem of Nine Verses (1966–8)
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.
- What are you made from?
- When were you made?
- What has happened here?
- Do you want me to feel sad or joyful, or something else?
- What else would you like to say?
In pairs or as a group, use your body to respond to the artwork.
- Mirror movements or shapes in the artwork
- Imagine sounds the artwork might make
- Trace the artwork in the air with your hands
- Move like the artwork
- What else could you do?
About the artwork
"The way I organised my sculptural poems was inspired by Arabic poetry. I wanted rhythm like the poetic meter … and to have lines like meanings"
Poem of Nine Verses 1966–8 was made by artist Saloua Raouda Choucair (1916–2017). At first glance, the sculpture looks completely abstract. However, as you look closer, you’ll notice how the different forms fit together, their shapes complementing each other while leaving small gaps of negative space. The title of this artwork tells us that each individual form could be seen as verses of a poem!
Born in Lebanon, Choucair started making sculptural poems in the early 1960s, inspired by Islamic aesthetics and Arabic poetry, as well as Western abstract art. Her sculptures explore themes of rhythm, meaning and connection. The visual connections to minimalism and abstract art create a multi-layered artwork that we can draw many different interpretations from. Even if we don’t know the poetry that Choucair was originally inspired by, we can get a sense of how that poetry might have made her feel.
Make
Choucair prompts us to think about poetry and the shapes of words through sculpture. In this activity, explore blackout poetry, clay sculpture and three-dimensional forms.
- Pick one of the printed-out texts. Why did you choose it? What do you like about it?
- Take a thick marker and cross out any words that you’re not interested in. Keep going until you’ve created a brand-new poem out of the words that remain. This is called blackout poetry!
ADAPT
Explore sensory play with clay to create different shapes. What can you see around you or imagine to inspire your shapes? You could also do this with Play-Dough or plasticine if this is more available for your students.
When you have finished making all the shapes, you could arrange them together to make a sculptural poem as a class.
3. Have a look at the shapes you’ve created with the marker or in the spaces left behind. How do they connect together?
4. Take some air-drying clay and use your hands or any tools in your classroom to recreate the shapes from your blackout poem in 3D. The shapes might not be perfect but that’s okay!
5. Leave marks from your body or the tools you’re using in the clay, so a viewer can try to figure out how your sculpture was made.
6. Let your clay shapes dry – this might take a few days.
7. Once fully dry, stack your shapes on top of each other to create a sculptural poem, just like Saloua Raouda Choucair!
8. At the end of your lesson, find each other’s explorations of poetry through sculpture and celebrate the artwork you’ve just made!
What have you learned by experimenting with language and shape?
What do the forms you created represent to you?
Extend
Choose some of the words from your blackout poem and recreate them on your sculpture. You could do this with paint, pens or ink, crayons or pastels, collage, stencils or any other art technique that you choose!
What happens to the sculpture when a viewer can read the text? Try ‘reading’ one of your classmate’s sculptures – can you figure out what they’re trying to tell you?
Writing is used by many artists in lots of different ways. Find another artist that uses writing in their practice and compare their artwork to Choucair’s. What similarities and differences do you notice, and how does this affect the way you interpret both artists’ work?
How could you bring writing and poetry into your own artwork?
How to use art makes
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.
- Prepare
- Project the artwork in your classroom and/or print off copies for your students to have in front of them
2. Explore (10 minutes)
- Invite your students to respond to the artwork through the group activity
- Read the background information on the artwork and the artist
3. Make (30 minutes)
- Follow the step-by-step instructions
- Use the Adapt section for accessible alternatives to the activity
- Use the Extend activity within the same lesson or in a future session
