Continuing our research on the intersection of empathy, art, and nature, we are exploring fiber and string-like material in Studio Red. A new installation by Sheila Pepe has us wondering: How might art be a catalyst for empathy? How does empathy shape our experience of art?
Leading up to the children's first encounter with Sheila Pepe's fiber sculptures, we are exploring the ways in which we teachers might support an empathic experience through multiple languages, the verbal and non-verbal. We explore materials similar to those the artist uses hoping to extend the children's perspective and understanding of Sheila Pepe's thinking and feeling as she envisioned, planned, and created her work.
What is it like to mess about with fiber?
What can I make wire/string/yarn do?
What challenges do these materials present?
How does my body feel? My hands?
And again, messing about, playing through materials, we answer these questions individually and in conversation with one another. Below, we capture Marky in his first encounter.
“How about we make something and don’t untie it and show it to the classmates.”
“I make an X. I sort of make another thing out of my untying. It’s sliding. I discovered something.”
“How do I make two knots. Oh, I know. It’s two knots, a double knot. It’s magic. I didn’t see it. I’m trying to make a ball.”
As children make sense of the material for themselves and share their discoveries with others, together we build a vocabulary of wire, a vocabulary of yarn, a vocabulary of fiber.
