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Alexander Calder, Standing Mobile, 1937 All Rights Reserved, DACS 2005

Alexander Calder, Standing Mobile, 1937
All Rights Reserved, DACS 2005

William Tucker, Beulah, © William Tucker

William Tucker, Beulah,
© William Tucker

Strike a Pose

April 2005, Tate Britain
These ‘Strike a Pose’ activities are inspired by two sculptures you can see at Tate Britain. We looked at Standing Mobile by Alexander Calder and Beulah by William Tucker. We used our bodies to become living sculptures: we needed to use our imaginations and be prepared to strike a pose. We also created some props to help us. We cut out coloured card to make our own shapes like the ones that Calder hung from his steel frames. We wiggled to the curves of Beulah by William Tucker. What wiggly things have you got that you could use to echo the shapes of this sculpture? (You could always pop into Tate Britain and have a go for yourself on the Art Trolley.)

Top tips!

  • Cut out coloured spots and other different coloured shapes and find different ways of balancing them on your body or gliding them through space. See how many you can carry all at once.
  • You could play a game based on Standing Mobile: first decide who will be the traffic light. When they call green, move around the room like the sculpture. Try swooping, whirling and rocking. When they call amber, balance on three points. Try not to fall over! When red is called, stay perfectly still.
  • Cut out different sorts of shapes and try hanging them off furniture in your house or trees in the garden to create a giant mobile.
  • Look at William Tucker’s Beulah. Imagine if it came to life! How would it move? Look at how it bends and twists in all directions.
  • Use wiggly and wriggly props to help and inspire you. You could try using rope, a hose pipe in the garden, or a scarf to make all sorts of curving lines through space.
  • Do a spaghetti dance. Bend low to the floor and swoop high to the ceiling. Get your family or friends to follow and copy you.