Perspective by Jack Lynch
From Head of Visual Arts, Ms Natalie Oates
The Visual Arts HSC major work showcase is a collection of Year 12 major works from the students of 2020. The virtual gallery explores a range of expressive forms and provides an insight into students creativity and critical thinking. Each work reflects selected material processes explored by the student as a way for them to comment on issues or ideas that are relevant to them.
Congratulations to these exhibiting students on their achievements this year, particularly under these unique circumstances.
Visual Arts Student Major Works Gallery
Riley James Cebokli
Artwork title: Abstractions of The Last Supper
Expressive form: Collection of works
Artist statement: “… every cultural period creates art of its own, which can never be repeated again. An effort to revive art-principles of the past, at best, can only result in works of art resembling a still-born child” – Wassily Kandinsky.
My artwork is an abstraction of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” following the principles of neoplasticism, using the most basic visual language being colour and line to create a composition reminiscent of Da Vinci’s “The last supper”. These principals enforce the work to rely solely on such elements as colour, line, composition and thus such elements are most crucial. The work makes use of traditional and modern materials and practices. The main depiction of the last supper is painted on a wood panel sealed with multiple layers of gesso (similar to the practices of Da Vinci), which is comparable to the more traditional materials of other religious artworks at the time. The other layers of the last supper use printed ink on clear acetate which is then layered to create the composition of the main last supper work, such practices is more akin to the processes of 2D animation pioneered by Disney wherein layers of frames were painted on a transparent surface and compiled to create a dynamic affect.
Abstractions of The Last Supper
Jonathan Chen
Artwork title: Keys to life
Expressive form: Printmaking
Artist statement: ‘Keys to life’ calls upon traditional methods, to emphasise the essence of music and how it is relevant today. Music is a verbal tapestry of human history, referenced through the detailed etchings. It enhances human connection as music binds the similar tastes of different people together. I intend to spread my knowledge and appreciation of music to other people when I play music, I feel I am devoid of reality and can relax in my own personal world. The piano, as a focal point of my artwork, creates a relationship between myself and the audience as I play the piano and share this state of calm.
Keys to life
Lucas Giordano
Artwork title: Lost In Anonymity
Expressive form: Time Based Form
Artist statement: My body of work explores the obsession and use of technology, illustrating how people can lose a sense of self and their identity through various online platforms and social medias. With the current generation evolving and adapting to this modern use of technology within their daily life, it is plausible that their memories and life events will be viewed on a screen. Through the use of technology, I am able to display the factor of anonymity whilst online, hiding your identity; creating a virtual profile where no one knows your true identity.
Heath Jackson
Artwork title: Iron Horse
Expressive form: Sculpture
Artist statement: In contemporary society technology quickly becomes outdated, using waste resources as a departure point to shape new meanings. My interest in the old art form of blacksmithing influenced my body of work. My sculpture reflects two interconnected ideas; the vehicle and its predecessor, the horse. Both were once the apex of efficiency, now have been discarded; old vehicles become scrap while the now useless horse regresses into the iconic image of the wild brumby.
My body of work explores this history and development by commenting on the legacy of past technology. This is depicted through the brumby made from scrap metal, giving new life and purpose to the forgotten materials.
Iron Horse
Dylan Loulli
Artwork title: IIkigai
Expressive form: Printmaking
Artist statement: Ikigai: “A reason for being”. The word refers to having a direction or purpose in life, which makes one’s life worthwhile.
Inspired by traditional Japanese woodblock printing, my body of work explores my travels through Japan through still vignettes of various scenes captured over the past year. Having spent a number of months in Japan over my time in highschool, I have used linoleum blocks, printed in the form of a scroll, to offer insight into my perspective of a foreign landscape and the cultural impact it has had on my personal landscape.
IIkigai
Jack Lynch
Artwork title: Perspective
Expressive form: Printmaking
Artist statement: I believe everybody views the world differently, and accepting and embracing other’s perspectives of the world is shown to be a challenge to many. My body of work establishes a variety of perspectives ranging from Gouache paintings to photos, allowing the audience to question their own views of their surroundings and their life. ‘Perspectives’ evokes thoughts surrounding what it is to be alive, and to experience individual, unique experiences and to share beliefs. The beauty in everyday experiences can often go unnoticed; for example, a sunset, or a candid moment. Although often there, these generally forgotten experiences prove that people choose what they want to see. ‘Perspectives’ encourages the viewer to change their outlook on what they deem important in life, and become more observant of the fast paced world around us in hopes of, for a second, slowing it down.
Perspective
Ryuji Moonen-Narita
Artwork title: Continuity
Expressive form: Graphic design
Artist statement: My body of work aims to express the desire for completion or perfection. Reminiscent of Greek busts, the human figure is expressed as a state or host of purity and perfection. These pictures create an homage to those ideologies in a new technological method as society adapts to creating and idolising perfections by morphing realism into plastic.
Continuity
Brock Preston
Artwork title: Fresh Coterie: An Ordinary Life
Expressive form: Drawing
Artist statement: How important is your life, how important is your family, how important is your home? My body of work is comprised of five depictions of old houses, in five different art styles. Fresh Coterie: An Ordinary Life, was created to challenge viewers, to delve into their mind and memories to realise how important their house really is. Each viewer has a different viewing experience of these houses. Some might receive comfort, and others might feel warmth. The background across the five paintings have a sharp and or cold elemental feel, which is surrounding the background juxtaposed against the house, depicted as a safe and cosey place. A place for refuge.
Fresh Coterie: An Ordinary Life
Tobias Renshaw
Artwork title: What has been, what is to come?
Expressive form: Drawing
Artist statement: The world in its current state is frightening. The way in which humans treat each other and the planet has gone beyond anyone’s darkest imagination. Our younger generation is the only hope to fix this dark time for the human race. This plight has been portrayed in my artwork through the conceptual expressions of each subject. My tonal lead portraits follow younger children through to older individuals and their expressions explore the thoughts of the different age groups’ mindset – from innocence to guilt. The foundation of my work are the young adults both male and female as they are the foundation for the world to grow beyond the present state.
What has been, what is to come?
Charles Silva
Artwork title: Tribute
Expressive form: Collection of works
Artist statement: The story behind the firefighter is unknown, although it compels the audience to imagine and visualise the situation the firefighter is subjected to surrounding the devastation of bushfires. In light of the harrowing destruction caused by the NSW Bushfires, the painting engenders an overwhelming sense of sympathy, poignance and commemoration for those who risked their lives to protect others and our environment. ‘Tribute’ challenges the viewer to contemplate the identify of our Aussie firefighters as a collective, not an individual. It pays homage to the person behind the duty.
Tribute
Alex Talbot
Artwork title: Struggling to breathe
Expressive form: Painting
Artists statement: The pressure of society subjugates individuals into an amorphous fractured self, evoked by fear. Making us struggle under the pressures of social forms affecting the physiologic and psyche of the individual. Through self-portraits, my body of work represents my struggle to overcome these pressures as it induces anxiety and stress within me through a fear of the uncontrollable force compressing and consuming me. The canvases represent the stages of trying to find a release from this pressure, a struggle to overcome as society that doesn’t let us breathe through pressures of conformity. The work looks to an ultimate release from the pressure which I’m still trying to find, so I can have an overall sense of euphoria and liberation.
Struggling to breathe
Jed Turnbull
Title: Larger than us
Form: Photomedia
Artists statement: In ‘Larger than us,’ my intent is to immerse the audience in the dramatic scale of the natural world. By dividing the work into the various layers of underwater, human perspective, aerial and the vast night sky; the separate areas of earth and it’s landscape merge into one vast form. The vast scale of the earth in contrast to humans suggests a new representation of how nature is bigger than us, whilst harnessing the form of photomedia to represent the changing notions of the world around us, therefore, drawing the audience to the colours and beauty of the natural world.
Larger than us
Paris Valenzuela
Artwork title: Merging of Reality
Expressive form: Collection of works
Artist statement: The term reality is portrayed as a single-minded notion, of what is real and what is not, with its only acceptance being the physical world around us. In my body of work, I look to explore my own fascination between the interrelation of one’s state of imagination and the physical world. For me that point of convergence is a wholistic image of the true meaning of reality. Through juxtaposing and merging the free surrealistic art form and the photographic form of realism, I am able to illuminate how, like both these artforms, an individual’s Surreal imagination intersects with their physical world to become their reality.
Merging of Reality
Anthony Vigliante
Artwork title: Poly
Expressive form: Collection of Works
Artist statement: My body of work highlights the disregard and abandonment of the environment and our fragile relationship to it. By having ghastly-like creatures traverse an abundant, lavish underwater landscape, I emphasise our collective issue to overindulge on our precious, limited resources. The underwater world that I have created is comprised of primarily single-use, non-recyclable plastics to focus on the influences severely affecting our ecosystem. By having the abhorrent creatures thrive in the dystopic landscape, I align my interests for environmental sustainability, voicing my concerns about our fickle surrounds in hope to amplify the underlying issues tarnishing our environment.
Barney Wilson
Artwork title: Metaphor of the mind
Expressive form: Time based form
Artist statement: Your living consciousness is vast and complex, ‘ Metaphor of the mind’ tries to contextualise the dark, unidentified side of the mind, represented within the materialistic, physical world. ‘Metaphor of the mind’ personifies the mind through the character extrapolating the notion of multiple personality disorder, accompanied by memory lapses and the thesis of time. This is embodied through the bleak underground setting, representing the constraints and dangerous freedom of the mind and how it can clash against you. Influencing artists: Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick, Dennis Villuneve.
Jett Beckley
Artwork title: Vanitas remastered
Expressive form: Collection of Works
