The Interior/Exterior Self

Exploring race, identity, and community through making a collaborative work of art

One of the staples of Windward’s Middle School Division is its robust Seminar program, where throughout the year students and faculty members examine the overlap between identity and learning. During Seminar, students develop their understanding of others and strengthen their social emotional vocabulary in an effort to explore and understand their own selves and those around them. For the 2021-22 school year, Windward’s 7th Grade Seminar Program, which offers a DEI component led by Middle School Counselor Tammy Clem, collaborated with Windward’s 7th Grade Introduction to Studio and Media Arts Course, on a special unit exploring the intersections of race, identity, and community.

The team kicked off the project understanding the definition of “identity” by challenging the students to consider the parts of their identity that is given to them as well as the parts that they choose:

• How do you see yourself? • How do you see others? • How do you think others might see you? • What does your skin color say about you? What does it not say?

They then introduced the Big 8 Social identifiers helping shape one’s identity: • Race • Ethnicity • Sexual orientation • Gender identity • Ability • Socioeconomic status • Religion/spirituality • Age

Reflecting on these social identifiers, Tammy and the VMA Department had the students think about the ways in which their identity has been shaped by the groups they belong to. They then asked students to think about which of the socially constructed identities have shaped them the most.

After exploring these identifiers, the 7th Graders and VMA faculty Christina Hendershaw and Katie Thoma collaborated to create a collective work of art representing their community and each individual’s exterior and interior selves.

The students began the project by taking a close-up photo of their skin. They then created an Identity Mind Map using colors, lines, and shapes to represent themselves using the following prompts: If you were a color…If you were a shape…If you were a line… The students’ skin photos were then printed and mounted onto a 6x6 inch square of board and created a small collage or drawing, using parts of their mind map. Once their collage was completed, it was affixed to their skin photo and grouped together to form a singular, collective piece of artwork from the class. This project was inspired by Byron Kim’s Synecdoche (1991–present), an ongoing project of minimalist painting portraiture that now comprises more than 400 panels each a single hue ranging from light tan or pink to dark brown. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole, or vice versa. Understanding and celebrating the diversity of skin colors and being able to own who we are was an important aspect of this group project.

“The end result was a stunning piece, and it was great to partner with Christina, Katie, and Colleen,” said Tammy.

The collaborative work of art is currently on display in the Middle School Division Office.