Iain Baxter&, Bagged Day-Glo Oranges, 1967. — Iain Baxter&, *Bagged Day-Glo Oranges*, 1967.

Out of the BAG activities are a series of online art exercises for families, teachers and individuals to engage in creative art making projects. Varying in duration and complexity, they call upon the BAG’s Permanent Art Collection for inspiration. This sample module takes cues from Iain Baxter&’s artwork, encouraging participants to create their own bagged fruit artwork.

Artist Bio

Iain Baxter& is a longstanding Canadian artist who has been creating art for over 50 years. He worked as half of the North Vancouver-based conceptual team N.E.Thing Co. with Ingrid Baxter from 1966-1978. His work includes painting, sculpture, installation and photography. Baxter& has received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2004) and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada (2003). He teaches at the University of Windsor and continues to exhibit work internationally.

Queries

• Why do you think Baxter& chose this subject matter?
• Discuss the materials the artist has used. Why a real plastic bag?
• How does the title relate to the content of the work?
• How is this different than a bag of oranges from the grocery store?

Iain Baxter& used the idea of bagging objects for many years in his art practice. His Bagged Landscape works, many of which were done with Ingrid Baxter and N.E. Thing Co., showed typical landscape themes, like mountains and lakes, that were made of coloured vinyl encased in clear pouches. These represented a common art subject in a contemporary and unusual way. The materials responded to the widespread use of plastics in every-day life, and the idea of bagging, or a containing and separation of things.

Within this work are themes of ecological concerns and a playful commentary on traditional art subjects. For Bagged Day-Glo Oranges, the artist has chosen something fairly mundane — a bag of oranges — but has created it through a combination of colour on paper, a real plastic bag and a twist tie. For this activity, students will create their own bagged fruit artwork.

Art Activity

Materials:                              2 sheets white paper (11”x17” approx.)
                                                1 clear plastic bag
                                                Twist tie or bread clip
                                                Pencil
                                                Pencil crayons or markers
                                                Scissors
                                                Glue
                                                Fruit

Begin by thinking about what kind of fruit to use as a subject — oranges, apples and bananas can all be fun. Set the fruit up on a clean sheet of paper or plate at an art making surface such as a table.
With a sheet of white paper, begin drawing the shape of the fruit, leaving enough room to draw multiples. The size of the fruit drawn should be able to fit as multiples in a bunch inside the plastic bag.
Notice how Baxter& has used denser colour and more orange marks where there are shadows on the oranges. Likewise, he has used less colour in areas that have lighter highlights. Look at your fruit and notice which areas are darker and which are lighter. After drawing in the shape of the fruit, colour it in with coloured pencil or marker. Try using just one or two colours — for example two shades of yellow for a banana, or green or red for an apple.
As you finish colouring each fruit, cut it out and place it aside. Once there is a grouping of enough fruit, bunch them together so that the grouping will fit in the plastic bag. The amount of fruit and the arrangement will depend on the size of the bag. Play around with different arrangements or use Baxter&’s work as a guide — he created 17 small oranges.
Carefully glue all the fruit together and let it dry. If glue isn’t available, scotch tape can be used on the back side of the fruit to hold it together.
After the fruit is securely glued together, gently place it in the clear plastic bag and apply the twist tie to the top of the bag.
Before the next step, try placing the bagged fruit in different places, such as a fruit bowl, or on a shelf, to see how it looks.
Glue the back of the plastic bag and centre it on a sheet of white paper, leaving some white space around the bag. Tape folded back on itself can also be used to attach the bag to the paper. Notice how the act of putting the bagged fruit on a white background changes it from being a sculptural object, to a 2-dimensional artwork. Does this change your impression of the artwork?
Title the work (e.g. Bagged Bright Yellow Bananas) and sign your name!