Stabiles and mobiles offer a great opportunity to experiment with balance and movement in art making. Third and fourth graders created paper sculptures with an interlocking technique using two pieces of tagboard and then used wire to balance a wire stabile on top. While the construction of the sculpture was fairly straightforward the stabile required finer manipulation. We discussed how the negative space exercise from our previous lesson now was being used as we arranged our shapes to hang from the stabile wires. Some students were taken back when I told them they could not use the glue gun to keep their wires balanced.
They agreed the solid form of the base sculpture complemented the open light feeling created by the suspended shapes. Positive and Negative space worked together to create a balanced stabile.
They agreed the solid form of the base sculpture complemented the open light feeling created by the suspended shapes. Positive and Negative space worked together to create a balanced stabile.