In what ways have artistic traditions, cultural values, and social issues influenced and/or given rise to new traditions/artistic expressions?

Why do artists choose particular tools, techniques, and materials to express their ideas?

How might a work of art reflect an artist’s or a community’s lived experiences?

Take a moment to observe this artwork. What are some things you notice about it? How is it different from other artworks you’ve seen in the past? How is it similar?

How would you describe this sculpture?

Notice its form. In relation to art, the term “form” has two meanings: It can refer to the overall physical nature, or to the element of art concerned with three-dimensional shape. What types of forms are created? Do they remind you of anything you have seen before? There is a sense of motion and unfolding time in her pieces as if oil was dropping into water, penetrating the water but also creating spherical forms.

What might have inspired this artist? (Plants, the spiral shells of a snail, light through insect wings, and sunlight through droplets of water.)

What do you notice happening in or around the sculpture? Direct students to the use of negative space, transparency, suspension, layers, and shapes within shapes.

What is negative space? How does Asawa use negative space in this sculpture? Asawa’s work is dependent on space; it relies on the gaps that are created between objects. Her understanding of negative space as a shape led her to experiment with materials that allow for space.

What material has Asawa used to create her sculpture? What does this material remind you of?

Historians have linked Asawa’s use of wire to her experience in internment camps in Arkansas and California. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was a hysteria and fear that Japanese Americans were a danger to national security. Asawa was one of more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were forcibly removed from their homes and jobs and imprisoned in internment camps.

Asawa adapted methods she learned while teaching art in Mexico, where people make wire baskets for domestic use. She used similar techniques to create the looped wire sculptures she became known for.

How do history and lived experiences influence an artist’s work? Art history explains the work of artists belonging to marginalized communities through the lens of their identity and lived experiences. By doing this, histories of trauma are directly connected to these artists' practices. What are the consequences of that practice?

Grades 3–5

In small groups, students will create a list of words that describe the sculpture. For an added challenge, students can work together to categorize their words into two lists: a list of conceptual/abstract adjectives (symbolic, personal associations), and a list of concrete adjectives (physical, tangible, visual qualities). Then, students will choose words from their list to inspire their creation of a wire sculpture.

All Levels

Students will practice bending or twisting wire to create different shapes. Then they can connect the shapes together or use one continuous piece of wire, like Ruth Asawa did, to create an artwork.