First of all, we would like to congratulate all of our Art and Design students for all their passion and dedication, creative ideas and high-quality work, resilience and collaboration shown in Semester 1.
In the following paragraphs, we will introduce the students' work and learning content by grade to help you understand the differences between the IGCSE and A LEVEL Art and Design programmes, as well as digging deeper into the stories and fascination behind their work.
IG Art & Design Video Exhibition
Throughout semester 1, the IG1 students explored the theme of Natural Form. They went to the botanical gardens to record ideas, experimented with various media and techniques, and learned about American Modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe. At the end of the semester, students completed their own “O’Keeffe piece” using the photos they collected and the techniques they learned. IG1 not only equips the students with technical skills but also prepares them with the ability of thinking required for IG2 study.
Appropriation of Georgia O'Keeffe’s work
by Max Gao, IG1
The IG2s started directly with preparing a portfolio required for external assessment. The students locked in a theme of their choice at an early stage and continued with recording inspirations and researching artworks. The students took inspiration from all kinds of themes and created pieces with a vast range of subject matters, such as tangled snakes, melancholic landscapes, sci-fi characters and self-portraits. It has been the first time for the majority of the IG2 students to develop a focused and curated group of work on their chosen theme. With the teacher’s guidance, the students had their first taste of a true creation of their own.
Theme: Faces
By Evelyn Wei, IG2
Copy and Development of Jenny Saville’s Virtual
Copy and Development of Pablo Picasso’s Yellow Sweater
Study of Salvador Dali’s Galatea of the Spheres
Evelyn Wei from IG2 chose Faces as her theme. She collected photos of faces around her and investigated facial features. She then studied how artist Jenny Saville drew her self-portrait by mixing facial features with random swaths of colourful brush strokes to create an unsettling feeling. Evelyn went to the exhibition with masterpieces from the Collection of Museum Berggruen and took an interest in how Picasso combines various angles of a face and puts an odd focus on the nose. She also looked at Salvador Dali’s Galatea of the Spheres, which is set in an imagined space with a strict perspective, showing an organic face with the arrangement of geometric forms. Evelyn then developed the method of creating uncanny faces via grids, which evokes a connotation of AI. She is still working her way to create a final outcome relating to the ideas she explored, but having explored the visual possibilities through various means, she has built herself a fruitful resource to distil from.
Combing 2 faces with grids
AL Art & Design Video Exhibition
The A1 students repeated the portfolio process similar to IG2 but with a larger volume of research and practical work. The students selected abstract themes such as Mirrors, Memory and Childhood. They have also expanded their research into installations, photography, and mixed media, investigating artists such as Damian Hurst, Olafur Eliasson and Joan Jonas. With the foundation of IG2 study, the A1 students are more confident in planning and preparing their portfolios independently with personal insights.
Study of Tomasz Mro’s Double Exposure Series
By Sissi Wang, A1
The A2 students started an ongoing independent investigation into a topic of their choice. The two students took very different paths: Eva was interested in the repetition in the art world and used printmaking and photography to kick off the project, and Helen focused on raising awareness of the importance of privacy in modern society and preferred the methods of drawings and paintings. The A2 project has a free form but relies heavily on students’ ability of contextual research, critical thinking, organizing and curating.
Eva Jiang from A2 has always been intrigued by the subtle changes in the recurring items and moments in her day-to-day life. She decided to research those repetitions in-depth and learn how they are represented through art. She started by observing a pigeon repeatedly fluttering its wings to free itself from the bush, and studying Catherine Skinner’s “Bird Screen”, which uses repetition of sacred forms to reiterate their artistic and spiritual values.
First-hand study of the motion of a pigeon
Development of Catherine Skinner’s “Bird Screen”
Process of printing on cloth
Topic: How Repetition is Represented through Art
By Eva Jiang, A2
“The flock of birds represented the flow of the mundane, with the repetition of birds symbolising the ordinary crowd. The repeated flattering of the wings represented the monotonous cycle of chores and tasks we go through every day. I took photos of the cloth at an empty warehouse, and a bamboo sidewalk, which both presented a clash between manmade and nature. I chose to use these as background to represent the cycle from birth to destruction that the repeated mundane life exists in.”
Congratulations to IG1, IG2, A1 and A2 Art & Design Students!
