DESCRIPTION: Using Warhol as an example, students look at and discuss the impact of mass media and current events on our culture and lives.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this activity is to show students how media and repetition become effective tools for artists and reflect and aspect of 20th century society.

PROCEDURE: The way we use technology to recreate images has changed dramatically over the past 100 years. How does being able to see an event, as it happens, change our view the world? Do you think the number of times we see images, change our perception of an event or a product? Here are some questions that may help facilitate a discussion on the artists use of image repetition:

• When you watch the news on television, do you remember every story that they report the following morning?
• What if they were repeated on the news every night for the next week. Would you remember it?
• What are some events or products that the media has repeatedly shown on T.V., video, or on the radio Do you think more about them or ignore them?
• Does seeing or hearing something from the media numerous times, change the way you feel about a certain issue? How?
• What are some images that you have seen the most on T.V.?

Let's try an experiment. Everyone say, "It's gonna rain." Repeat the phrase again. Say it again, faster this time. (Ask them to repeat the phrase over and over again, each time saying it a little faster.) Notice how the phrase has become an indistinguishable slur of words without any meaning? This phenomena is similar to what happens with the repetition of images through the media.

Let's look at Andy Warhol's 16 Jackies (1965). This work is composed of four sets of photo-silkcreened images, a commercial technique often associated with mass commercial production. The sets of images depict Jacqueline Kennedy before and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The death of President Kennedy shocked the nation and both the print and the electronic media flooded our visual environment with images of the grief-stricken Jackie.

Why do you think that Warhol repeated the photo-images of Jacqueline Kennedy? (He is making reference to the public's repeated exposure to the image of Jackie's face just before and after the shooting. The composition is reminiscent of newspapers while they are still on the press.) Jacqueline's face became so well known to the American public of the 1960s that in a sense it became public property. America of the 1960s were so bombarded by her image that the meaning of that image became distorted. The image lost its emotional impact and instead became a symbol for the period. Can you think of recent events that have similarly been affected by the mass media?

MINNESOTA GRADUATION STANDARDS:
(1) Read, View, Listen
(2) Write and Speak
(3) Literature and the Arts
(7) People and Cultures

Age level: Appropriate for grades 5 and up.
Artworks used: Paintings or photographs that present a repetition of the subject matter.
Props needed: No props needed.
Related to Minneapolis Sculpture Garden: No
Notes: This activity was written for 16 Jackies, but it could be rewritten to be used with other artworks (i.e. photo and video works (Nam June Paik, Bruce Charlesworth), other Pop Art, temporary exhibits, etc.).


© 1998 WALKER ART CENTER