Gus, 3D Assemblage

Gus was not always Gus, he/she/they emerged through collaborative making and storytelling as the students worked to create something off of the creature framework, I built out of chicken wire and paper mache.

I wanted to students to have a project that they could work on collaboratively and to do so in 3D, so I made a basic creature form and provided them with a large assortment of materials to work with. The students had expressed a desire to have creative freedom when making their art, so I made sure it was a blank canvas and chose not to make suggestions. The result was the group of students collaboratively making creative decisions and creating an oral story and history for the creature that become Gus.

The story of Gus:

Gus lives in Potato Sack Land (inside of a potato sack). Gus is non-binary and can go by any pronoun. Gus was once a soldier, but now works at Mc. Donalds. Gus is a fashion icon with swooping false lashes and patchwork pants. Gus was voted (by the afterschool group) to be the afterschool mascot, and was last seen sitting in a chair in their community space.