Canva

Art classes can get messy when teachers and students see the same assignment very differently.

One experienced artist designed a wooden phoenix that would later be burned with an old passport.

But the instructor kept questioning whether the piece counted as a real sculpture.

Let’s check out the breakdown.

AITA I made my sculpture “wrong” so I walked out of class.

I’m primarily a textile artist.

I’m technically getting a degree in sculpture, but only because my university merged the degree programs.

I already hold a degree in ceramic sculpture and have been teaching on and off for the past six years.

The first assignment didn’t have a lot of instructions.

My instructor for this class is a grad student, the class is teaching wood and metalworking. Hopefully this is enough context?

Our first assignment is to make a reliquary for an object out of wood.

That’s the entire prompt, no constraints given other than it must be made out of the provided (compressed sawdust) wood panel.

He really wants to make something nice.

Since this isn’t my first rodeo, I’m pushing myself to test the boundaries of sculpture and how I and the viewer interact with it.

My immediate thought was creating a sculpture with the intent on burning it and the object it holds. A phoenix works perfectly.

This sounds like a cool project.

I knew I couldn’t burn it in class, but I was given the okay to present it, then record the burning and upload it onto our class discussion board.

I created the prototype over the weekend out of cardboard.

He has really thought this through.

Because the wood could not be carved, I was going to layer pieces in a similar way to the cardboard and have the wings attached by hinges. The phoenix would hold my old passport in it’s beak.

Burning the sculpture represents me leaving my old life behind in multiple ways: through me being trans, attempting to move countries, and my artistic voice changing and developing.

All good so far.

I present my prototype, get good feedback, and get to work sketching onto the wooden panel.

My instructor then comes up and implies I am doing the assignment incorrectly and will get a lowered grade.

He questioned why it wasn’t 3D (it is, the wood is layered), why a passport instead of something from my childhood, and where the baby was?

Maybe the teacher just isn’t getting it?

Like how would I have a new one come out of the ashes… The phoenix is representative of my old self, I am the new.

I don’t understand how he couldn’t see this, we spent a good five minutes on just that point.

He finally leaves me so I can continue my work, but most of the class is over at that point.

He seems to be following the guidelines for the assignment.

Jump to today, I’m finalizing my sketch and marking cuts.

He comes back and starts questioning again why it’s a relief and not a sculpture (a relief IS a sculpture) and, at this point, I’m frustrated and done answering questions.

Again, we were not given any constraints or instructions other than “reliquary.”

Right or wrong, the teacher runs the class, so maybe he should adjust his project.

I defend my work again and then we just stare at each other.

He wouldn’t leave so I gathered my stuff and left the class, dropping it a few minutes after.

I’m probably in the wrong, but this isn’t my first time making a sculpture.

The grade is kind of the point of the project.

I know what I want to say and I don’t want to compromise that by changing things simply for a grade.

I’m planning on transferring to a weaving specific school anyways, so it’s not like this will ruin my degree, either.

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

Maybe it’s an autistic misunderstanding, but if you wanted me to make a specific sculpture, then tell me that or let me use different materials.

The project he wants to do sounds cool, but since it is clearly not what the teacher wants, he should adjust. He can do the other one on his own time.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit say about this.

The point of the class is to do what the teacher says.

He does come off as pretentious.

Yes, the student needs to comply with the instructions of the teacher.

This commenter explains it perfectly.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who calls on dozens of whirlygigs to combat the neighbor’s complaints about the fence.

This person says he should just do the assignment as instructed.

The instructor gave a vague assignment, approved the original idea, and then kept pushing rules that hadn’t been explained.

Still, the student could’ve asked for clearer feedback or spoken to someone else before walking out and dropping the class.

Everyone turned one wooden phoenix into a full-blown dumpster fire.

Add TwistedSifter to your Google News Add us as a preferred source on Google

Author

Chris Allen