THEME: SITE-SPECIFIC / MEMORY / SPACE
SUBJECT: VISUAL ART
ARTIST: KATHLEEN MONTGOMERY
GRADE: recommended 8th-12th grade

OBJECTIVES
Students think about their body in relation to the space around them.
Students think about site-specific artwork. 
Students create artwork in a media that makes sense for their content and project. 

KEY QUESTIONS
1. Can you think of some places that when you visit them, your body responds in a specific way?
2. What places cause your body to remember a time in the past?
3. How can your body remember sensations?
4. How do these memories that you associate with places, buildings, rooms or spaces feel?
5. How do some places have memories associated with them while others don’t? Or do all places create a bodily memory?
 
VISUAL REFERENCES
1. Body Memory Architecture, (2014) Kathleen Montgomery
 
ACTIVITY
Kathleen Montgomery titled her installation, Body Memory Architecture, in response to the idea that our bodies have a memory in how they respond to certain spaces. How do you respond when you visit your childhood home? Your first grade classroom? The dining room of your favorite restaurant? Your neighborhood park? What do these places make you think of? How do they make you feel? Does your body have a response about what it wants to do when in these places (i.e. play on the swing at the park or feel hunger at the restaurant)? Think of a place that your body has a specific memory of, or that you have a visceral response to when you visit or think of this place. Create a site-specific work for that space. You could create a story, a sound piece, a sculpture, a drawing anything – but think about the old place when you are working on the new place. Also think about where the piece belongs when you are done. Be sure to document the work in the place you created it for. 

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PENNSYLVANIA CORE STANDARDS
VISUAL ARTS
(9.1.8.A-9.1.12.A)
-know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities
 
(9.1.8.B-9.1.12.B)
-recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts
 
(9.1.8.C-9.1.12.C)
-recognize and use fundamental vocabulary within each of the arts forms
 
(9.1.8.D-9.1.12.D)
-use knowledge of varied styles within each art form through a performance or exhibition of unique work
 
(9.1.8.E-9.1.12.E)
-demonstrate the ability to define objects, express emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through creation of works in the arts