Coloured Wire Portraits

Year 10 students from Box Hill High School were asked to create a portrait in wire of either themselves or someone who inspires them.

Working with coloured anodised aluminium and plain wires they were asked to manipulate the wires with their hands and tools to indicate the shapes and forms to create the features of their subject matter for their portrait.

Their portraits were created by tracing over a photocopy of your image with your wire, similar to creating a continuous line drawing. (Continuous line drawings were explored in their Visual Diaries).
The students looked at examples of wire work sculpture and portraits by the American Artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976). He looked at creating sculpture in a new way, he incorporated movement in his work he was very much inspired by Surrealist artist Joan Miro and the Abstract paintings of Piet Mondrian.

Some quotes from Calder:

“I want to make things that are fun to look at”, 1957,

“I think best in wire”, 1925, and

“I seem to have a knack for drawing with a single line”, 1961.

Students had to consider these statements while adding notes on this artist for their Visual Diary explorations.
Artwork provided by
Donna Nevard