2025/05/30 4th Grader by Fran

LAST TOUR OF THE YEAR!!

Today, I toured with six wonderful elementary school girls. They were 9-10 years old (4th graders). Before they arrived at PAM, they had walked from their school in Old Town Pasadena to a neighboring school, participated in a fun run, and walked over to the museum. So they had had quite the adventure before arriving. There was only one tour as it was a single classroom of 23 students. There was one boy who was a special ed student, accompanied by his aide, who stayed for a while and then decided he needed to go. The aide had informed me at the beginning of the tour of the situation.

After introducing the artists and talking about the purpose of their visit, we explored Room 5. The girls were very interested in the work and made copious notes. We gathered and shared observations and questions. Each student had something to say about her particular favorite; one was particularly interested in Ascending Dragon, so we proceeded to take a closer look. I talked about Cai’s interest in the bridge between Western and Eastern art. I explained the importance of the dragon in Asian cultures. One Vietnamese girl confirmed that the dragon is a significant symbol in her culture. We watched the Fetus Movement video and talked about the scientific questions Cai may have been asking when he created this event. We then examined the charts recording his heart rate and discussed how one’s heart rate can be affected by events such as sitting in the middle of an explosion.

In Room 6, we looked at Human Abode: Project for ET #1, which was Cai’s first major explosion event. I found a picture of the actual “abode” so that they could compare the photo to his drawn rendition. Again, they were fascinated by the writing on his work.

Our final stop was Room 11, Palmyra, and Return to Darkness. They were very engaged with the See, Hear, Smell, and Feel activity and were quite imaginative in their offerings. We discussed the significance of Palmyra in the context of ancient civilizations, its destruction, and the irony that Cai employed a material like gunpowder to depict the destruction in a work of art. Then we watched the video of the making of Return to Darkness. This was the first time I started with the artwork before the video. The artwork intrigued them, and they recognized the fuse point from previous works. Finally, we discussed whether the works were the same. One student said “yes,” another said “no.” The “yes” student reasoned that the materials were all the same, differing only in form. The “no” student noted that the final product looked nothing like the original. 

This was a perfect tour to end the year with. The girls were lively, serious students with imaginative ideas and confidence.

Comments & Suggestions:
In the timeline of Cai’s work, the girls located some of the works that we had previously examined. One girl found the Ascending Dragon entry and said she could see the dragon on the mountain in that small photo better than she could on one we had previously looked at.