This course is an introduction to the six major practices that are essential to the study of Sculpture. These practices include an introduction to wood, digital imaging, plaster, performance, installation, and metal. Over the course of the year, students will be exposed to four week intensives designed to augment their major studio experience. The course begins with wood to expedite the speed of moving from ideation to physicality. From wood, the group moves to digital imaging where basic skills in video editing, photographic documentation, and projection within the built environment are explored. Plaster as a medium is paired with performance as an activity, both of which underscore the importance of the body within the field of Sculpture. Once students have produced objects, videos, and performances, the group moves into considering the fundamentals of installation and metal fabrication so that the architectures that house myriad artworks can be understood as part of the modality of Sculpture. Students can expect to learn proficiency and safety in all of these areas. Students can expect to expand these skills in advanced studio electives in the Junior and Senior years. This course is required for all Sophomore Sculpture majors.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

This course utilizes experiential learning and hands-on research to connect sophomore Sculpture majors to resources held in the collections the RISD Museum, the Nature Lab, and the holdings of the Fleet Library, including the Visual and Material Resource Center. Over the course of the semester, students will select, compare, research, and contextualize objects of study from these collections as part of the larger material and conceptual framework of their trajectory in Sculpture. In addition to supervised, hands-on study, students will deepen their relationship to the themes and discourses including the relationship between Modernism and Imperialism, politics and aesthetics, digital communication and global image distribution, museum collections and cultural appropriation, power and knowledge, economic superstructures and available material resources, among others.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Majors are pre-registered by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture