In this Art and design scheme of work video, pupils create a mini installation space inside a box and explore effects inspired by the artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

The video introduces pupils to Cai Guo-Qiang’s dramatic artwork, created using gunpowder to fill entire rooms. Pupils then imagine their box as a room and experiment with throwing, sprinkling and flicking materials to create their own effects.

They begin by preparing the box. Next, they draw and cut out simple card shapes to use as stencils, attaching them inside the box to create positive and negative space. Materials like powder paint, charcoal, glitter, sand or rice are applied using dabs of glue. Pupils try techniques such as throwing crushed charcoal, dropping paint-soaked tea bags, or flicking paint for different effects. Once finished, the stencils are removed, and the box is opened ready to be photographed.

This video is part of Kapow Primary’s Year 5 Interactive installation unit.

See more of our Year 5 Art and design scheme of work.

Art and design, Year 5, Sculpture and 3D: Interactive installation, Lesson 2: Space and scale.