"unearthed" Visual Arts Workshops - Teacher Guide

Visual Arts School Programs 2024

Teacher Guide

Jamal Tabasinejad, Arg-é Bam, 2020, straw with acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Tevik Zadourian.

WELCOME TEACHERS

Our school workshops offer the opportunity to learn, explore, and create through art. Students will enjoy a tour of the exhibition unearthed: Mitra Mahmoodi & Jamal Tabasinejad and discuss what they see and feel while observing the artworks in the exhibition. Inspired by this conversation that is facilitated by our Arts Educators, students will experiment with a variety of clay or drawing techniques to make their own reflective artwork.

This program emphasizes visual literacy, critical thinking, and technical art skills that relate to BC Curriculum.

IN THE GALLERY

This exhibition features artwork that is hung on the walls and displayed on plinths. The artwork is made with processes and materials like painting, drawing, and clay. There is no sound installation in this exhibition. The gallery is well-lit, and bench seating is available just outside the gallery. Visitors are asked to please look with your eyes and do not touch the artwork or gallery features.

Installation view of unearthed, exhibition at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, Evergreen Cultural Centre, 2024. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Adobe buildings—uncommon in the wet, mild climate of British Columbia—are a fixture of Iranian desert architecture. This sophisticated and ancient architectural style uses sun-dried clay bricks to construct a diverse array of structures, from humble domes to vast citadels and intricate ziggurats. The magic of adobe construction has captivated the imagination of two Iranian Canadian artists based in British Columbia: the painter Jamal Tabasinejad and the ceramic artist Mitra Mahmoodi. Their joint exhibition delves into the artists’ shared fascination with adobe architecture, with a focus on representation in painting and abstraction in sculpture.

Tabasinejad crafts portraits of adobe structures with the intention of preserving these buildings for future generations. His art captures both the distinct individuality of each building and the recurring architectural motifs that define the places he has lived, explored and studied. Regrettably, a significant number of the buildings he has depicted over his four-decade career have disappeared, often succumbing to earthquakes. Working from preparatory drawings made in the desert on visits to Iran, Tabasinejad captures the spirit of these structures. He frequently uses a straw-textured canvas for his paintings, evoking the tactile sensation of mud-brick constructions. For the artist, these sites hold the essence of his connection to his homeland.

The rough texture of compressed mud, straw and sand, the earthy aroma of damp soil and the rich, reddish hues of clay also evoke a profound sense of home for Mahmoodi. She fondly remembers visiting her grandparents' village, where adobe houses were a prominent feature. Over time, these homes would naturally weather, requiring ongoing maintenance that brought the community together to restore the structures. The physical labor of caring for mud-brick buildings mirrors the intricate relationship between the human body and clay a fundamental aspect of creating ceramic art. Now residing in Vancouver, Mahmoodi draws from her memories and reference photographs to craft sculptures that rekindle the essence of these spaces through tactile forms and textures. Her abstracted ceramics connect the artist to a distant place, held near through memory and art.

EXHIBITION THEME: A SENSE OF HOME

We live in a reciprocal human-urban relationship: as we shape our surroundings, the built environment shapes us in return. This exhibition focuses on one style of architecture, but it also reflects the intimate connection between humans and place. This bond reveals the way the built environment informs our sense of self, family and community.

An underlying theme in unearthed is a quest for a sense of home an intrinsically human desire and need. The artists each use different techniques and approaches to show how we carry home within ourselves.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Mitra Mahmoodi is a Vancouver-based ceramic artist whose work is informed by an investigation of her Middle Eastern and Islamic heritage and an ongoing engagement with the landscape, architecture, languages and wisdom of that part of the world. Her journey with clay began in her late twenties, but it was only three years ago, following her graduation from Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Arts + Design in 2021, that she began a full-time artistic practice. During this transformative phase, she refined her style, blending traditional techniques with a contemporary aesthetic.

Mahmoodi received her Diploma in Ceramic Design from the University of Arts London, UK, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver. Her work has been exhibited at Centre A, Vancouver; Richmond Art Gallery; Medalta, the historic clay district in Medicine Hat, Alberta; Pangolin London; Ceramic Art London; Central Saint Martins, London; and Wedgwood Museum, UK.

Mitra Mahmoodi, Grandpa’s House 04, 2023, ceramic cone 6. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Tian Tian

Jamal Tabasinejad is a Vancouver-based visual artist from Tabas, Iran. He works with a wide range of materials to create his painting and mixed-media artworks. With an artistic career spanning more than four decades, Tabasinejad explores adobe constructions, traditional Persian motifs and ancient iconography, with a primary research focus on the desert architecture of Iran.

Tabasinejad studied art in the United States before returning to Iran, where he received an honorary doctorate recognizing his contribution to the field of Iranian architecture preservation through painting. He also authored the book Three Millennia of Art and Architecture in Iran. Tabasinejad is an expert restorer of ancient artworks and taught art for many years. In 2006, he immigrated to Canada, where he continues his art practice, travelling back to Iran to continue to document the country’s architecture. He has had many solo and group exhibitions, including in Tehran, Iran; Doha, Qatar; Belgrade, Serbia; and New York and Atlanta, US. The artist would like to acknowledge the BC Arts Council with support from the Province of British Columbia.

Jamal Tabasinejad, Pigeon House, 2014, straw with acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Tevik Zadourian.

EXPLORE

Mitra Mahmoodi Ceramics:

https://www.instagram.com/mitra_mahmoodi_ceramics/reels/

https://www.mitramahmoodi.com/meet-the-artist

Jamal Tabasinejad:

http://jamaltabasinejad.com/

Other Reading Materials

Art and Architecture of Iran:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo156862755.html

https://www.britannica.com/art/Iranian-architecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arg-e_Bam

Adobe:

https://craterre.hypotheses.org/files/2018/07/TERRA-2016_Th-4_Art-071_Michael_corr.pdf

WORKSHOPS

Classes can participate in two different workshops for unearthed: Mitra Mahmoodi & Jamal Tabasinejad. Details can be found below. All workshops are 2 hours and include a gallery tour and reflective artmaking workshop.

Clay Houses

Inspired by the artwork featured in unearthed, students will create tiny homes from clay. Explore basic clay techniques for shaping and adding texture using every day found objects.

Please allow up to 4 weeks for clay processing.

Drawing Playground

Explore drawing techniques inspired by the artwork and themes in unearthed. Through a variety of drawing activities, students will explore how to represent architectural forms and themes by going back to the basics of line, shape, shading, mark making, and more.

BEFORE YOU ARRIVE

We’ve included optional activities below to help prepare your students for their visit to the gallery.



Activity 1: Who are the artists?

Learning more about an artist and their work can help students interpret the exhibition and make connections to the artist, artwork, and their own lived experiences.

Discuss the following questions as a class or distribute the questions to smaller groups of students to explore and share their findings. This activity requires access to the internet.

Choose one of the artists featured in this exhibition. What information can you find about them?

Consider the following questions:

a. Where is the artist from and where do they live now?

b. Where did the artist learn their craft?

c. What mediums does the artist typically use for their work and is this the case for the current exhibition? How do the artists use these materials or materials like these in their artwork?

d. What common themes or concepts does the artist explore in their work?

e. What questions would you ask the artist if given the chance?

 Activity 2: What is a home? How do we capture the memory?

This exhibition explores two different artists from Iran and their connections to home. The artists use adobe architecture to express their ties to their family, culture and homeland. How do the artists reflect on their memories within their artwork with the connection to the adobe?

Reflecting on your own experiences, what makes your home? Is it the physical structure, a memory, a person, an event, the landscape? If you move, how will you remember the idea of home? A home can be represented using the materials you have available to you in the classroom (can be drawn, painted, collaged, etc.).

Think about the following questions while you build your home:

a) What is your home made of and why?

b) What does the material say about the land?

c) What memories can you fill in your home? Use words to build the structure.

WHEN YOU ARRIVE

 Activity: How to Look at Art in a Gallery

There are a few things we can do to help us look at art, even when we know nothing about the artist or artwork. You can practice these strategies with any artwork in your classroom or online.

a) View the art from different angles. What does it look like up close? Or 5-10 steps back from the artwork? How about viewing from the side or from a standing or seated position? Take your time to look at the art without comments or instructions first.

b) Use visual thinking strategies to engage your class with an artwork. The three main questions to ask your students when viewing artwork are: what is going on in this artwork? What do you see that makes you say that? Anything else? These questions provide a framework for students to observe and share their thoughts and interpretations of art.

c) Read the didactics to learn what the artist or curator says about the work, after you’ve had the chance to view it. Didactics can often be found on the wall next to the artwork or on a nearby plaque for public artwork. You can sometimes find titles, artist biographies or statements, the medium and dimensions of the artwork, and more.

CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS

Visual Arts:

 Describe and respond to works of art

 Observe and share how artists use processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, and techniques

 Create artistic works collaboratively and as an individual using ideas inspired by imagination, inquiry, experimentation, and purposeful play

 Explore personal experience, community, and culture through arts activities

 Reflect on works of art and creative processes to understand artists motivations and meanings

 Interpret works of art using knowledge and skills from various areas of learning

 Respond to works of art using one’s knowledge of the world

 Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of personal, social, cultural, historical, and environmental contexts in relation to the arts

English Language Arts

 Exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding

Social Studies

 Access information from audio, visual, material, or print sources.

 Collect information from personal experiences, oral sources, and visual representations

 Explore different perspectives on people, places, issues, or events in their lives

 Recognize that symbols are used to represent concrete and abstract ideas

COMPETENCIES

Social Awareness and Responsibility

The awareness, understanding, and appreciation of connections among people, including between people and the natural environment. Social Awareness and Responsibility focuses on interacting with others and the natural world in respectful and caring ways.

GLOSSARY

Adobe

Adobe is one of the world's oldest and most effective building materials because of its ability to flex under changing temperatures, and to keep interior environments cool in hot climates. An "adobe" or "adobe brick" is a dried-mud brick made of earth, water and usually some kind of organic binding material like straw or grass. The word "adobe" comes from the Egyptian language, which was adopted into Arabic, then into Spanish.

Architecture

The art and technique of designing and building, employed to fulfill both practical and expressive requirements.

Iran

Iran, also known as Persia and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Iraq to the west and Turkey to the northwest, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south.

Heritage Site

Heritage is our legacy from the past. World Heritage Sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.

Abstraction

representing an idea or feeling and not a material object. Or the process of taking away or removing characteristics from something.

Representational Art

Visual art for that depict the real-world, it can be realistic or less realistic.

Monochromatic: a colour scheme using a single colour and varying shades of that one colour.

Concave

Hollowed or rounded inward like the inside of a bowl.

Convex

Curved or rounded outward.

Value

Lightness or darkness of colour, which is used to create the illusion of depth, form, and volume

Installation view of Silas Ng: Music in My Eyes, exhibition at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, Evergreen Cultural Centre, 2024

Photo: Rachel Topham Photography