Hanoch Piven portraits

Work by Hanoch Piven

First grade enjoyed studying the Israeli artist Hanoch Piven. Piven is an amazing mixed media artist who arranges common found objects and materials into portraits. One thing we discussed is how important photography is in documenting Piven's work because he uses his objects over and over again and never glues them down.

First graders got a chance to dig through bins of everyday objects and create a Piven portrait. After every portrait was made they became photographers and took a photo of their work. It was a hard thing to see their portraits disassembled at the end of every class period but we reminded ourselves that in the end our photographs would become the art, even more so than the physical objects.

This was such a fun project because it felt more like play. Check out these first grader's amazing imaginations!