Download pdf - Barbican - Panic Attack Resource - 2007

Teaching Resource: Key Stage 3, 4 and A level/Art & Design

Credit: David Lamelas, From The Violent Tapes of 1975, 1975, Courtesy Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner GmbH, Berlin

Contents Introduction to the exhibition and this resource p 01

Student information and worksheets p 02

Further information and planning your visit p 08

do something different

Barbican EducationCredit: Credit: Robert Longo, Untitled (Joe), From Men in the Cities, 1981, © Tate, London 2007

© Barbican Education 2007

Teaching Resource01

Barbican Education

Inspired by the extraordinary diversity of the Barbican artsprogramme, Barbican Education offers pupils and teacherspowerful learning opportunities and the chance to discovermore about the arts and their own creativity. Acomprehensive education programme accompanies everyArt Gallery exhibition, including teachers' resources, CPDevents, and gallery tours. For more information, to downloadother resources or book events please visitwww.barbican.org.uk/education.

Introduction to the Exhibition

Panic Attack! Art in the Punk YearsThis exhibition contains work of an adult nature

Punk is most associated with music, fashion and graphics, but this exhibition demonstrates that the rebellious spirit ofpunk can also be found in art. Panic Attack! looks at art inBritain and America between 1974 and 1984, and featuressome 30 artists working with photography, film, video andother media.

The late 1970s and early 80s was a period of economicand social crisis in both Britain and America, and a timewhen art became increasingly politicised. One strand of theexhibition looks at artists who made work with direct politicalintent, who used their work to criticise society, and often usedthe imagery of the city as a symbol of social crisis. Anotherstrand looks at collage, trash, and the 'do-it-yourself' scene.Some artists created confrontational performances in whichthey tested the bounds of social acceptability, while othersmade works attacking society's depiction of women.

Introduction to this Resource

The artists featured in this resource reflect the different strandsof the exhibition. They were selected with teachers' needsand students' interests in mind. Keith Harings' work has astrong appeal to many students. The focus questions andinterpretation of his work is intended to get students to thinkbeyond the “cool factor” and see how this artist built up avisual vocabulary of symbols that helped him communicateto his audience. Linder talks about the process she used toconstruct her images, which could inspire a project oncreating visual shock through collage.

The exhibition contains work of an adult nature, and westrongly advise that you make a preliminary visit before youbring any students to the gallery to decide if the exhibition issuitable and to plan an appropriate route. BarbicanEducation accepts no responsibility for the content of anymedia, including websites, referred to in this resource, andrecommends that a responsible adult checks the suitability ofmedia before using with their students.

Main image: Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your comfort is my silence), 1982, Black andwhite photograph, 142 x 102 cm (56 x 40 inches), Courtesy DarosCollection, Switzerland, and Mary Boone Gallery, New York

Left hand image: John Stezaker, Eros VII, 1977–78, Postcard collage 15 x 19.5 cm (6 x 8 inches), Courtesy the Approach, London Photo credit: Peter White

Right hand image: Derek Jarman, Jordan’s Dance, 1977 Super-8 film, 12 mins., colour, Courtesy James Mackay, London

Artist: Keith HaringTitle: ‘Untitled’Date: 1983Size: 305 x 305 cm (121 x 121 inches)Materials: Vinyl paint on vinyl tarp

Questions:

•How does this work of art make you feel?•How do you think the artist felt when he made it?•What does it remind you of?•What is the oddest thing about this image?•What message do you think it communicates?•What sounds or music does it suggest to you?•Could you think of a title for this painting?•Do you like or dislike it? Why?

About this work:

Keith Haring created bold, dynamic paintings, full of energy,which communicate a direct message about the humancondition. The bold outlines, chunky fill-in of bright colourand even paint drips remind us of his graffiti art beginnings inthe art world. The figure looks like it is trapped for a moment,about to break-dance. Spiky ribs, breath held, fists clenched,jutting knees, skin electric and sweating. This figure has lit uplike neon on the dark dance floor. The symbol in the middlerepresents Venus, or the female sex (beauty, harmony,affection and relationships). Keith Haring uses symbols in hiswork to quickly and simply communicate complex ideas. He also created his own reoccurring motifs such as crawlingbabies (representing life, happiness and the positive side ofhumanity), barking dogs (aural vibrations are made visiblewith barking action lines) and flying saucers (with theirenergy rays zapping the unsuspecting).For more information check out www.haring.com/index.html


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Credit: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1983, Courtesy Max Lang, New York,©The Estate of Keith Haring


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Andrew Logan, Homage to the New Wave, 1977, Courtesy the artistand Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London

Artist: Andrew LoganTitle: Homage to the New Wave Date: 1977 Size: 124 x 22.8 x 16 cm (49 x 9 x 6 inches)Materials: Metal, resin, glass and stone

Questions:

•Look carefully at the surface of this sculpture. How do you think it was made?

•What does it remind you of?•What does it mean to you?•What ideas does it make you think of?•Do you like or dislike it? Why?

About this work:

Andrew Logan's London bank side studio was the hive ofLondon's punk culture activity. Derek Jarman created filmsand legendary parties here, such as the Valentine Ball(1976), at which the Sex Pistols played, which put AndrewLogan at the heart of the London punk movement. Look at the dazzling, twinkling mirror mosaic of this giantsafety pin. Think of how the artist must have carefully andpainstakingly assembled the sharp shards of mirror aroundthis 3-D form. Imagine looking into it and seeing your brokenface and a cubist-like room surrounding you in its surface.Would you think 'Everything is broken', 'Seven years badluck' or 'Wow, how wonderfully strange and glamorous Ilook!'.

The plinth it sits on looks like a marble block; but look at littlecloser and you can see the shattered mosaic pieces jumbledchaotically together. This work tells us a lot about the punk ethos.

• ‘Do it yourself and make it’, a creative energy and confidence in experimenting with unexpected materials and creating work.

•This piece reveals the links between art, fashion and music.

The humble safety pin came to represent so much about thepunk ethos. Holding together all that was falling apart, it wasa political and social metaphor as well as a fashionstatement for street culture punks and designers such asVivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes (for whom AndrewLogan created jewellery).

To find out more check out…www.andrewlogan.com


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Artist: Jamie ReidTitle: God Save The Queen Date: 1977 Size: 29.7x42 cm (12 x17 inches)Materials: Newsprint, photocopy, ink and paper collage

Questions:

•What is surprising about this picture?•How do you think it was made?•Why do you think the artist has used these materials and

methods to create this image?•What ideas, thoughts and feelings does this image

communicate?•Do you like or dislike it? Why?

About this work:

Can you think of punk without thinking of Jamie Reid's artwork for the Sex Pistols? This image, the cover of a single bythe Sex Pistols, has become an iconic image of the time, themusic and the art.

The Queen, symbol of British society, culture and politics hasbeen defaced. Her eyes and mouth have been obscured,removed. The message appears assembled from letters cutfrom newspaper headlines. Unemployment, Oil Crisis, Strikes,Power Cut, Celebrate…Queen…Jubilee; words from amongstthe headlines of 1977 that might have been cut up to createthis unsettling image, and set the tone of the record inside thesleeve. Like the artist Linder, Reid used collage in his work – it is made by hand not using a computer.

The different fonts and typefaces create a visual shock.Graphic designers spend a great amount of time thinkingabout the style of lettering and how this will make you feelwhen you read the words. Here Jamie Reid has broken therules and used several different typefaces together: they looklike they have been cut out of newspapers and simply stuckon. It looks like a ransom note, a poison pen letter, a threat.Reid created several key images for the Sex Pistols includingcovers for albums Never Mind the Bollocks, and Here's theSex Pistols and the singles Anarchy in the UK, God Save TheQueen, Pretty Vacant and Holidays in the Sun.

To find out more check out…www.jamiereid.uk.net

Barbican – Communicate: British Independent GraphicDesign since the Sixties.www.barbican.org.uk/communicate

Credit: Jamie Reid, God Save the Queen (Single Cover), 1977 Courtesythe artist, © Jamie Reid

Artist: LinderTitle: Red Dress xiiiDate: 1979Size: 23.4 x 19.3 cm (9 x 8 inches)Materials: Photomontage

Questions:

•What is the strangest thing about this image?• If she could speak what would she say?•What idea or message do you think this image

communicates?•How do you think this artwork was made?•Do you like or dislike it? Why?

About this work:

‘I remember the pure pleasure of photomontage. I had spentthree years working with pencil, paint and pen trying totranslate my lived experience into made marks. It was amoment of glorious liberation to work simply with a blade,glass and glue…I'd always loved magazines and I had twoseparate piles. One you might call women's magazines,fashion, romance, then a pile of men's mags: cars, DIY,pornography, which again was women but another side. Iwanted to mate the G-Plan kitchens with the pornography,see what strange breed came out.’ Linder

Strange the way she looks at you with her heavy 'naturallook eye shadow' eyes. She is so pale. Her background soblack; lonely. She stands so still, she is thinking, calm. Strangerstill; look at those lips! It is those lips that make you stop and think. We arebombarded by media imagery. Saturated with messages ofhow we should look, talk, act and think. The simple changeto this image makes us think about how women areportrayed in the media and question if we as a society arebeing manipulated to think and behave a certain way.There is something both scary and comic about this image.Her lips have been mutilated, botoxed to oblivion. Whatwould these lips say? ‘Pass my lipstick’, ‘Give me a kiss’, ‘I'ma man-eater’, or maybe they would read out the panel oftext (about beauty tips) at the bottom right of the page, likean autocue.Collage was popular with artists from Picasso's papier collés(literally pasted papers), to Dada's photomontages, andSurrealist juxtaposing of contrasting realities that createddream-inspired creations. There was a rich history of collagebefore Linder's work and yet it appears unique, fresh, andexciting. Montage enabled Linder to explore her ownsexuality as well as her ideas of Feminism and genderpolitics.

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Credit: Linder, Red Dress XIII, 1979, Courtesy Stuart Shave / Modern Art,London

Artist: Cindy ShermanTitle: Untitled film still no.24. Date:1977–1980Size: 19 x 24 cm (8 x 10 inches)Materials: Black and white photograph

Questions:

•What would it be like inside the picture frame? •What would you see, hear and feel?•This image is a frozen moment in time. Imagine a story

unfolding from this image.•What ideas, thoughts and feelings does this image

communicate?•Why has the artist chosen photography to communicate

her ideas?

About this work:

Step inside the frame. Imagine you are her: sitting, waiting,anticipating. The weak sun rays on your cheek, and gentlebreeze off the Hudson River. Behind you there is an industriallandscape, the docks, a part of New York City you don't seemuch of, unless in a film, when something untoward is aboutto happen. Your hair, make-up, clothes, and sunhat, like aheroine in an Alfred Hitchcock film. You may be there sometime. Are you waiting for your husband, lover, blackmailer, ormurderer? What are you thinking? Perhaps, “someone pressplay, I must know what happens next”?Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to go to the cinemaand dive into the screen and become one of the characters?The power you might feel being watched, large and glossy,a soundtrack moving with your every footstep. CindySherman makes this magic happen in her photographs. Shedidn't make films, but photographs that remind us of a film wemay have seen, B-movie thrillers and European art housefilms. You can imagine the rest of the film, the narrative andcharacter, and you bring this to your interpretation of theimage.Cindy Sherman was both the photographer and model inher work. She gathered costumes, wigs and props totransform herself and create another identity, anotherpersonality, another kind of woman. It is this exploration ofwomen's identity and the questioning of stereotyping womenthat links Cindy Sherman to Feminist ideas in art.

To find out more check out:www.cindysherman.com


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Credit: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #24, 1978, Courtesy the artistand Metro Pictures, New York

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Credit: Tony Cragg, Policeman, 1981, Courtesy the artist and LissonGallery, London

Artist: Tony CraggTitle: PolicemanDate: 1981Size: 400 x 120 cm (158 x 47 inches)Materials: Blue plastic

Questions:

•Look at this image from a distance and then close up. What different things can you see?

• Is there anything hidden or intriguing about this work?•How do you think this artwork was made?•What does it remind you of?•What message or ideas does this communicate?•Does the artist intend you to find a meaning or is there a

'right answer' to uncover?•Do you like or dislike it? Why?

About this work:

Is it just a load of old rubbish? A really big mess? That blueplastic shovel could help you bury that old squashed plasticbottle and broken lid. Look again, can you see our 'boy inblue'; a policeman complete with helmet and riot shield?A collage of found objects unified by colour and arrangednot randomly but as precisely as a jigsaw puzzle. Look atthe policeman's nose and top lip, the curve of his chin. Lookat the highlight on his steel capped boot and the way his riotshield ends with a dark blue full stop.

It may make you think of rubbish landfill sites, the mess ourcountry is in. It may make you think about fear, law andorder and the ills of our society. It may make you think of asugar-crazed child tipping out their toy box with a squeal ofdelight and effervescent energy. This mess is creative play.Most importantly, this will make you think.Cragg collected discarded household materials andfragments into colour categories ready to assemble on thewalls and floors of galleries. His work challenges what youmay consider to be art materials and how art should bemade and seen. Although Cragg has strong ideas before hestarts his artworks, they evolve as they are assembled. Thereis a sense of creative play or chance involved which give hiswork a sense of energy. Cragg won the Turner Prize in1988.

To find out more check out:www.tony-cragg.comwww.sculpture.org.uk/biography/TonyCraggwww.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=953&page=1

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Barbican Art GalleryLevel 3 Barbican CentreSilk StLondon EC2Y 8DS

For all group bookings and general enquiries please call theGroups Booking Line on 020 7382 7211, fax 020 73827270 or email [email protected]. The telephone booking line is open 10am–5pm, Monday toFriday.

Gallery opening times11am–8pm except Tuesday and Thursday, 11am–6pmAdmission £8 / £6 concessions£3 schools and full time student groups of 10 or more,Mon–Fri onlyTeachers / group leaders go free with groups of 10 or morestudentsDedicated group booking line 020 7382 7211

How to find usBarbican Art Gallery is on Level 3 of the Centre. Enter viathe main entrance on Silk St and cross the Foyer to the liftand stairs to reach Level 3.

Nearest tube stations: Barbican, Moorgate, St Paul’s, Liverpool Street

Nearest train stations: Liverpool St, Farringdon, CityThameslink, Barbican, Moorgate

Coach: there is a setting down and picking up point in SilkSt. Parking is limited to the metered bays in Silk St and ForeSt. For further information contact 020 7606 3030, asking forParking Services

Disabled visitorsBarbican Art Gallery is fully accessible for wheelchair users.For full Access information please visithttp://www.barbican.org.uk/visitor–information/disability–access. You can also call or email the Barbican AccessManager on [email protected] 020 7382 7389/7083.

CloakroomsThere is a free cloakroom on Level 3, directly outside the ArtGallery.

ToiletsThere are toilets on Level 3 directly outside Barbican ArtGallery, and in addition on Level –1 for when you are onyour way into and out of the Centre.

Cafes / Packed LunchesWaterside Café, just off the foyer on Level G, offers full mealsas well as sandwiches, drinks and also children’s meals.

If you have brought packed lunches you can eat in the stalls floorfoyer (Level –1) the main foyer (Level G) or outside on theLakeside where there are plenty of picnic benches and tables.

PhonesYou can find public telephones in the lift lobby just across theroad from the Level –1 exit and on Level 2.

Further informationThere is medical assistance available on site at all times.Full evacuation staff are available at all times.Barbican Education has a full CRB child protection policy. If you would like to see the full policy please contactBarbican Education on 020 7382 2333.

Please also contact Barbican Education if you would like riskassessment information.


Top tips for planning your visit BeforehandBook your visit via our dedicated groups booking line – 020 7382 7211. On 27 June and 5 July also book a freegallery tour. Subject to availability, please call the Groupsbooking line for times available. See www.barbican.org.uk/education for information aboutCPD and other Education events.

Preliminary visitMake a preliminary visit before bringing your group. This willenable you to make best use of your visit to achieve yourteaching and learning objectives. You should also refer tothe gallery floor plan, which is included in this resource, tohelp you plan your route. If you have any questions duringyour visit, please speak to a member of the Art Gallery staffwho will be happy to help.

Planning your visit Use your preliminary visit to plan how your students will usetheir time. Create your own worksheets – we have includedsome ideas in this resource, but are fully aware that one sizewill never fit all.

At the exhibitionWe suggest you visit the Gallery in groups of no more than30 students. Make sure your group have materials fordrawing and note taking. A4 clipboards and paper orsketchbooks would be ideal.

Contact We would welcome feedback this teachers’ resource andthe exhibition.

We would also love to see any resources you createyourself –and any work that your pupils do as a result. You and your students might like to compile a CD and sendit to us at the address below. It could contain:

• Images of students’ work in progress.• Images of completed work.•Short report on the ideas that underpinned their work.

CreditsPanic Attack! Art in the Punk YearsTeaching Resource

Written by: Vanessa LawrenceEdited by: Anna Dent, Barbican Education

Panic Attack! Art in the Punk Years curated by Mark Sladenand Ariella Yedgar.

Barbican EducationBarbican CentreSilk StLondon EC2Y 8DST: 020 7382 2333F: 020 7382 7037E: [email protected]

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The Barbican Centre is provided by the City ofLondon Corporation as part of its contribution tothe cultural life of London and the nation