GUARDIAN SPHINX

Far away, high in the mountains of Northern Australia, well-hidden from human eyes by the deep emeraldgreen density of the rainforest, lies a cave. Size wise its entrance is not so impressive and at first glance might appear as some big animals hole. Inside, however, if someone discovered the cave and managed to get inside, he would find the most stunning and intricate forest of stalactites and stalagmites richly coloured by the deposits of different chemicals and lightened with the rainbow reflections coming from the little waterfall that falls down the cave through the opening above. It is a magical cave indeed for deep inside it is hidden an ancient chest carved of limestone. Inside that chest lies a sword. It waits for your eighteenth birthday. It will bring you fulfilment of all your fondest dreams. It will help you to fight with evil, with sicknesses, with poverty, with cowardliness, with laziness, with indifference or with anything that stands in the way from you experiencing total happiness in your life. But your cave needs to be protected for a few years until the day of your eighteenth birthday. This is your task. You have to create a sphinx-like creature that will protect the cave and your personal sword. The sphinx has to reflect the features of your own character. The more closely that you can portray in the sphinx the likeness of your personality, the better you will equip it with magical ability. The perfect sphinx has to be able to protect your sword until the day of your eighteenth birthday by various magical means. The perfect sphinx must be reliable enough to recognise your location on the day of your eighteenth birthday and deliver you safely to the cave for the swords presentation and then take you back to the initial location, no matter wherever in the world you will be. It will all depend on how well you can match the sphinx with the features of your own personality. It is not about how you look, it is about how you would react yourself if you needed to protect the entrance of the cave. Will you put on a scary mask and bizarre cloth to scare the soul out of anyone who would come close to the cave? Would you pump your muscles and put on boxers gloves to fight the intruder? Would you grow fangs and long claws for a combat? Will you turn yourself and the entrance of the cave invisible? Will you try to outsmart an unwanted visitor? Would you use charm to confuse an unwelcome guest? What kind of an animal/s seems to you to possess the ability to succeed in your tactics? What kind of animal/s would you rely on?
page 1

Step 1
In your Theory Notebook, analyse the features of your personality. Are you strong? Are you big? Are you small? Are you skinny? Are you clever? Are you kind? Are you funny? Are you good at picking up other peoples moods or perhaps even thoughts? Do you usually have interesting dreams? Do you usually flare up easily? Do you like to scream? Do you like to hiss? Do you like to scare others? What is there that is very special about you? Ask yourself similar questions and create a brainstorming diagram examining your identity. What animals do you think are suited to these kind of characteristics? The sphinx is a hybridcreature. It is formed out of a human and an animal, or two or three animals, or has some different features from some other animals. So, your home work will be: to research three chosen animals and see in what ways they can match your guardian sphinx. Support your research with at least five visual images from the Internet. (10 marks) week 2 homework

Step 2
Read the information presented on the following pages of this hand-out. Complete task 1 and task 2 on page 6. (20 marks) week 3 4 homework

Step 3
In your Visual Diary, do ten thumbnails to demonstrate your thinking process in the development of the sphinx. (10 marks) week 2 3

Step 4
In your Visual Diary, do three observational drawing from the researched material that youve collected. You have to produce detailed and rendered sketching of some parts of the animals bodies. (10 marks) week 3 4 complete at home

Step 5
Draw the final concept for your guardian sphinx in colour. (15 marks) week 5

Step 6
Do some experimental 3-D exercises with plasticine. (5 marks) week 5 6

Step 7
Complete the final sculpture of the sphinx in plasticine in colour and full details. (20 marks) week 6 7 8

Step 8
Observe closely the photo-images on the pg 7. Answer the given questions in your Theory Notebook. (10 marks) week 8 homework

page 2

GUARDIAN SPHINX
A Sphinx is a zoomorphic mythological figure, usually depicted as a lion with a human head. It has its origins in Old Kingdom Egypt, and later became a cultural import in Greek and other cultures mythology.
NEW WORDS: Zoomorphic from the Greek
(zon), meaning animal, and (morph), meaning shape or form. It is defined as: the representation of deities as animals or the attributing of animal characteristics to them; the use of animal figures in art and design in literature; the viewing of human behavior in terms of the behavior of animals.

The sphinxes of Egypt are mythical creatures, seen as guardians in the Egyptian statuary. Sphinxes are depicted in one of these three forms as: body of lion with head of person; body of lion with head of ram; body of lion with head of falcon or hawk.

The largest and most famous is the Great Sphinx of Giza, sited on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, facing due east. The face Depict to represent by a picture; to paint; to portray. of the Great Sphinx is believed to be the head of the pharaoh Khafra or possibly that of his son, the Pharaoh Djedefra, which would date its construction from the fourth dynasty (2723 2563 BC). Other famous Egyptian sphinxes include one bearing the head of the pharaoh Hatshepsut, with her likeness carved in granite which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the alabaster sphinx of Memphis, currently l o c a t e d within the open-air museum at that site; and the ram-headed sphinxes representing the god Amon.
page 3

The Great Sphinx of Giza

In a depression to the south of Khafres pyramid at Giza near Cairo sits a huge creature with the head of a human and a lions body. This monumental statue, the first truly colossal royal sculpture in Egypt, known as the Great Sphinx, is a national symbol of Egypt, both ancient and modern. It has stirred the imagination of poets, scholars, adventurers and tourists for centuries and has also inspired a wealth of speculation about its age, its meaning, and the secrets that it might hold. The word sphinx, which means strangler, was first given by the Greeks to a fabulous creature which had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. In Egypt, there are numerous sphinxes, usually with the head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion. There are, however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with the god Amun. The Great Sphinx is believed to be the most immense stone sculpture in the world ever made by man. However, it must be noted that the Sphinx is not an isolated monument and that it must be examined in the context of its surroundings. Specifically, like many of Egypts monuments, it is a complex which consists not only of the great statue itself, but also of its old temple, a New Kingdom temple and some other small structures. It is also closely related to Khafres Valley Temple, which itself had four colossal sphinx statues each more than 26 feet long. The material of the Sphinx is the limestone bedrock, which originated fifty million years ago from sediments deposited at the bottom of sea waters that engulfed northeast Africa during the Middle Eocene period. There was a shoal and coral reef that grew over the southern slope of the embankment. Carbonate mud deposited in the lagoon petrified into the layers from which the ancient builders, some fifty million years later, carved out the Great Sphinx.

page 4

Sphinxes Around the World

From the earliest time, mythological creatures have captured the interest of humanity. Each culture claims its own folk tales of various beasts and beast-like creatures.
2

The revived Mannerist sphinx of the 16th century is sometimes thought of as the French sphinx. Her coiffed head is erect and she has the pretty bust of a young woman. Often she wears ear drops and pearls. Her body is naturalistically rendered as a lying or sitting lion. Sphinxes were included in the decoration of the loggia of the Vatican Palace by the workshop of Raphael (1515-20), which updated the vocabulary of the Roman grottesche.
4
page 5

THEORY TASK
PART 1 (20 marks)
Copy the following questions into your theory notebook and answer them. Support them with visual images from the Internet, hand drawn diagram and sketches. 1. What does the word sphinx mean and where did it come from? 2 marks 2. In what three ways can sphinxes be represented? 3 marks 3. What is the name of the largest and the most famous sphinx? 1 mark 4. Where is it situated? 1 mark 5. At what time was it approximately made? 1 mark 6. What material is it made of? 1 mark 7. Explain how it was made. 2 marks 8. What does the Great Sphinx of Giza seem to guard? 2 marks 9. Why do you think that a man/animal combination was used as a guardian? 3 marks 10. In your own words, describe the mystery lying behind the Great Sphinx of Giza?. Refer to the video watched in class (one paragraph, at least). 4 marks

page 6

CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE
Observe closely the photoimages displayed on this page. This sculptural composition is situated at the front of Giorgio restaurant in Malvern. It is made of metal. 1. Describe the subject matter of this sculptural composition. (4 Marks) 2. Describe the context of this sculptural composition. (2 Marks) 3. What do you think was the initial idea for creating this composition? Explain your point of view. (4 Marks) 4. What feelings and ideas do these sculptures convey? (3 Marks) 5. These sculptures are made from metal. How do you think they were made? Research metal sculpture techniques in encyclopedias and on the Internet to help answer this question. (4 Marks) 6. Give an evaluation of this composition. Do you think it successfully fits into its surrounding environment? (3 Marks)

page 7