I Can Make Art Like: Kai Chan

I Can Make Art Like: Kai Chan is part of a six-volume series, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, in which students meet an artist or are introduced to his/her techniques, and then reproduce that particular style of art in the classroom. In this episode, viewers meet Chinese sculptor Kai Chan, who transforms simple materials into geometric shapes. Here, Chan guides a junior high class in making large abstract sculptures—out of bamboo strips, masking tape, glue, and tissue paper—using only three shapes (circles, squares, and triangles) to create surprisingly beautiful and complex 3-D forms (it's wonderful to hear ‘tweens expressing delight in their previously untapped ability to create art). Downloadable teaching materials, essential to this brief program, are available at www.nfb.ca/icanmakeart. An affordable addition to any hands-on art curriculum, other titles in the series feature the artists Marcelle Ferron, Andrew Qappik, Maud Lewis, Emily Carr, and Ron Noganosh. Recommended. Aud: I, J, H. (E. Gieschen)