Recommended Age: All-Ages

As many of us have been working or learning from home these past few months, you have likely set up an office or workspace somewhere in your home – whether that is a proper office with a desk, or a different room such as the kitchen, dining room, bedroom, or basement.     

• What does your work or learn-at-home space look like? 
• Where in your home is it? 
• What kind of items do you like to have around you while you work?  
• Have you collected a mass of different objects, or do you keep your workspace clean and tidy?

Sarah Sze, “Images in Debris”, 2018. MOCA Toronto. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York and Los Angeles). Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Sarah Sze’s work Images in Debris consists of an L-shaped desk covered in hundreds of items that include art supplies, everyday objects, and home necessities. Image projections are cast onto the walls surrounding the desk, as well as within the work onto ripped paper and sheets of dried paint. This network of objects and images creates a sculptural representation of Sze’s editing process and artistic studio space.

Take a look at the photos below of Images in Debris – what do you see? Try to name as many objects and elements as you can.

Sarah Sze, “Images in Debris”, 2018. MOCA Toronto. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York and Los Angeles). Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Sarah Sze, “Images in Debris”, 2018. MOCA Toronto. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York and Los Angeles). Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Make a collage of your work-at-home space:

In this collage activity, consider your working or learning space in a new way, breaking down the individual elements and objects that you surround yourself with.

You will need:

• Paper scraps (magazine clippings, cardboard pieces, recycled newspaper – whatever you have at home or in your recycling bin!)
• Glue or tape

Step 1:

Take a look around your home workspace. What does it look like? What objects do you see? Choose the objects or shapes you want to recreate using paper.

Step 2: 

Start to create your paper shapes. 

You can try using paper that looks like or represents the object (e.g. newspaper text to represent a book), or choose any colours or textures that you like. You can also choose to represent your objects using large geometric shapes for a more abstract looking collage, or you can form them using more specific detail (I did a combination of the two).

Like in Sarah Sze’s work, try ripping the paper with your fingers for a more textured effect.   

Step 3:

Put everything together! Glue or tape your paper shapes down in your desired arrangement.  Here is my finished piece:

Some of the items in my work-at-home space:

• Kitchen table
• Laptop
• Notebook
• Headphone case
• House plant
• Table runner
• Candlesticks
• Lip balm
• Glass of water
• Snack

Can you guess which is which in my collage?

I hope you enjoy this activity! Share your workspace collage on social media and tag us @mocatoronto!

By: Alexandra Brickman, Learning Coordinator at MOCA Toronto