body & world: identity (yr12)

In 2004 The Hayward Gallery staged an important exhibition of photography. It was entitled 'About Face', and "revealed a wide range of approaches from 'straightforward' photography, photomontage, appropriation of found imagery and multiple exposures to complex computer manipulations that challenged our perceptions of beauty and truth. In an age of digital technology and media domination, miracle drugs, plastic surgery and genetic engineering, the artists asked can we still take the portrait at face value?."

                    

Exhibiting artists in 'About Face' included Aziz+Cucher, Valerie Belin, Nancy Burson, Rineke Dijkstra, Lee Friedlander, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Orlan, Martin Parr and Gillian Wearing. 

              

Whoever said , "the camera never lies" was lying! Portraits are continually modified and used to manipulate perceptions of the sitter, the photographer or the viewer. The fun lies in working out the game. 

The Victoria & Albert Museum has a great online explanation of the genre of portraiture, and another really useful page on how image and identity can be expressed through photography. The V&A also staged an excellent exhibition of contemporary photography and video from China in 2005. It was called 'Between Past and Future', and investigated the energetic and experimental art made by Chinese artists and photographers since the remarkable economic, social and cultural transformations of China over the last two decades. 

           

R Davies

selecting that personal study topic (yr 13)

Fine Art covers such an enormous range of styles, meaning and techniques that it can be really difficult to select what, specifically, is of interest. The Guardian newspaper is currently listing the '1000 artworks to see before you die' which gives an interesting overview of the scope available for you to potentially investigate. 

Perhaps the best way to proceed is to first select a category within this massive discipline, and to identify an area of interest within it. Fine Art can be divided into three broad genres - portraiture, still life & landscape. Although many contemporary artists resist such categorisation there are always links to be made between their practice and older works that fit within these genres.

When you've selected your genre, then it's all about identifying a theme, issue or technique to explore in your own inimitable style. For example, if you're interested in portraiture you could compare the approaches to the depiction of class by British artists. 

       

Bill Brandt and Banksy both represented working class servants - one in a far more tongue-in-cheek manner! 

         

Thomas Gainsborough painted the aristocracy in the 18th Century. Yinka Shonibare is a contemporary Nigerian-British artist who questions issues and pre-conceptions about class and race by making clothes similar to the ones seen in Gainsborough's work out of African textiles. 

Happy Researching! 

R Davies

between two schools (yr12)

It's been fascinating to watch the New Nailsea School being built through the safety of the art room windows. The implication that change is coming our way has led to many interesting discussions in and out of the classroom. Our AS Fine Art students have been developing a piece of public art that will express some of the feeling engendered by such a transition. 

Street Art is a increasingly accessible and accepted form of fine art expression. The genre has its roots in graffiti and urban culture - democratic art of and for the people. The Tate Modern Gallery in London recently held a massive celebration of this art form, validating it in the eyes of many. The Tate's Street Art page has some really good links and context if you're looking for interesting practitioners and ideas. One of the featured artists, blu, is particularly ambitious and skillful. 

                      

Our AS fine art students looked at the work of Japanese graffiti collective Rinpa Eshidan to get stylistic ideas for their piece of public art. They decided to explore the viewpoints, feelings and moods created by the new school building, locating it on the hoarding separating the old and new schools. 

Step one was to suggest an agreed mood and tone to the background of the hoarding. It was not at all messy work!

The students then transferred moods, tones and feelings into abstract mark-making. The collective compositional plan was started on the left by expressing feelings of anxiety, and ended on the right with calm and happy. 

It was interesting for the AS students to receive feedback from other Nailsea pupils as they worked in such a public way. I'm pleased to write that these comments got increasingly positive as the work really began to take shape. 

                              

Visit our gallery to see all the photos of this work-in-progress. 

R Davies 

shoot that still life part two (yr9)

The second challenge for our intrepid year 9s was to take digital photographs of our boring still life objects, transforming these into interesting compositions. After learning some basic camera control skills the pupils were let loose to energise the dull. Here are some of the most successful shots. 

                    

              

          

Visit our gallery to view yet more of these amazingly imaginative photographs. 

R Davies

9H animations

can be found here

9G animations

can be found here

shoot that still life (yr9)

Year 9 pupils were given quite a challenge in their first three Art lessons of the year - to make the boring interesting! 

The Still Life genre is full of exciting examples of dull objects transformed into vibrant and meaningful art (go to the Tate Gallery website for a bit of context). We decided that animating conventional still life objects would be an interesting place to start. Pupils in 9G and 9H looked at artist Sam Taylor-Wood's seminal re-working of a still life convention, the decaying bowl of fruit, to get ideas for their animations. This film explores ideas about mortality and the fragility of human life. The latin phrase memento mori is used to describe a whole body of such still life art works. 

Pupils in 9G and 9H responded brilliantly to this challenge, but don't take my word for it - play the above films and see for yourselves!

R Davies