IBDP Visual Arts 2023-2025 Exhibition Catalogue

CASSANDRA BARGAGNI FATIMA FONATI EZRA PAVONCELLI

MAKE GOOD ART

MAKE GOOD ART by Neil Gaiman

This speech was delivered as the keynote address for the May 17, 2012 commencement ceremony at The University of the Arts.

I never really expected to find myself giving advice to people graduating from an establishment of higher education. I never graduated from any such establishment. I never even started at one. I escaped from school as soon as I could, when the prospect of four more years of enforced learning before I’d become the writer I wanted to be was stifling.

I got out into the world, I wrote, and I became a better writer the more I wrote, and I wrote some more, and nobody ever seemed to mind that I was making it up as I went along, they just read what I wrote and they paid for it, or they didn’t, and often they commissioned me to write something else for them.

Which has left me with a healthy respect and fondness for higher education that those of my friends and family, who attended Universities, were cured of long ago.

Looking back, I’ve had a remarkable ride. I’m not sure I can call it a career, because a career implies that I had some kind of career plan, and I never did. The nearest thing I had was a list I made when I was 15 of everything I wanted to do: to write an adult novel, a children’s book, a comic, a movie, record an audiobook, write an episode of Doctor Who… and so on. I didn’t have a career. I just did the next thing on the list.

So I thought I’d tell you everything I wish I’d known starting out, and a few things that, looking back on it, I suppose that I did know. And that I would also give you the best piece of advice I’d ever got, which I completely failed to follow.

First of all: When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.

This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is

possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.

If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do. And because nobody’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.

Secondly, If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go and do that. And that’s much harder than it sounds and, sometimes in the end, so much easier than you might imagine. Because normally, there are things you have to do before you can get to the place you want to be. I wanted to write comics and novels and stories and films, so I became a journalist, because journalists are allowed to ask questions, and to simply go and find out how the world works, and besides, to do those things I needed to write and to write well, and I was being paid to learn how to write economically, crisply, sometimes under adverse conditions, and on time.

Sometimes the way to do what you hope to do will be clear cut, and sometimes it will be almost impossible to decide whether or not you are doing the correct thing, because you’ll have to balance your goals and hopes with feeding yourself, paying debts, finding work, settling for what you can get.

Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be – an author, primarily of fiction, making good books, making good comics and supporting myself through my words – was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal.

And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain. I said no to editorial jobs on magazines, proper jobs that would have paid proper money because I knew that, attractive though they were, for me they would have been walking away from the mountain. And if those job offers had come along earlier I might have taken

them, because they still would have been closer to the mountain than I was at the time.

I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.

Thirdly, when you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thick skinned, to learn that not every project will survive. A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back.

The problems of failure are problems of discouragement, of hopelessness, of hunger. You want everything to happen and you want it now, and things go wrong. My first book – a piece of journalism I had done for the money, and which had already bought me an electric typewriter from the advance – should have been a bestseller. It should have paid me a lot of money. If the publisher hadn’t gone into involuntary liquidation between the first print run selling out and the second printing, and before any royalties could be paid, it would have done.

And I shrugged, and I still had my electric typewriter and enough money to pay the rent for a couple of months, and I decided that I would do my best in future not to write books just for the money. If you didn’t get the money, then you didn’t have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn’t get the money, at least I’d have the work.

Every now and again, I forget that rule, and whenever I do, the universe kicks me hard and reminds me. I don’t know that it’s an issue for anybody but me, but it’s true that nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually I didn’t wind up getting the money, either. The

things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I’ve never regretted the time I spent on any of them. The problems of failure are hard.

The problems of success can be harder, because nobody warns you about them.

The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now they will discover you. It’s Imposter Syndrome, something my wife Amanda christened the Fraud Police.

In my case, I was convinced that there would be a knock on the door, and a man with a clipboard (I don’t know why he carried a clipboard, in my head, but he did) would be there, to tell me it was all over, and they had caught up with me, and now I would have to go and get a real job, one that didn’t consist of making things up and writing them down, and reading books I wanted to read. And then I would go away quietly and get the kind of job where you don’t have to make things up any more.

The problems of success. They’re real, and with luck you’ll experience them. The point where you stop saying yes to everything, because now the bottles you threw in the ocean are all coming back, and have to learn to say no.

I watched my peers, and my friends, and the ones who were older than me and watch how miserable some of them were: I’d listen to them telling me that they couldn’t envisage a world where they did what they had always wanted to do any more, because now they had to earn a certain amount every month just to keep where they were. They couldn’t go and do the things that mattered, and that they had really wanted to do; and that seemed as big a tragedy as any problem of failure.

And after that, the biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you doing the thing that you do, because you are successful. There was a day when I looked up and realized that I had become someone

who professionally replied to email, and who wrote as a hobby. I started answering fewer emails, and was relieved to find I was writing much more.

Fourthly, I hope you’ll make mistakes. If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something. And the mistakes in themselves can be useful. I once misspelled Caroline, in a letter, transposing the A and the O, and I thought, “Coraline looks like a real name…” And remember that whatever discipline you are in, whether you are a musician or a photographer, a fine artist or a cartoonist, a writer, a dancer, a designer, whatever you do you have one thing that’s unique. You have the ability to make art.

And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that’s been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones.

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.

Make good art.

I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.

Make it on the good days too.

And Fifthly, while you are at it, make your art. Do the stuff that only you can do.

The urge, starting out, is to copy. And that’s not a bad thing. Most of us only find our own voices after we’ve sounded like a lot of other people. But the one thing that

you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.

The things I’ve done that worked the best were the things I was the least certain about, the stories where I was sure they would either work, or more likely be the kinds of embarrassing failures people would gather together and talk about until the end of time. They always had that in common: looking back at them, people explain why they were inevitable successes. While I was doing them, I had no idea.

I still don’t. And where would be the fun in making something you knew was going to work?

And sometimes the things I did really didn’t work. There are stories of mine that have never been reprinted. Some of them never even left the house. But I learned as much from them as I did from the things that worked.

Sixthly. I will pass on some secret freelancer knowledge. Secret knowledge is always good. And it is useful for anyone who ever plans to create art for other people, to enter a freelance world of any kind. I learned it in comics, but it applies to other fields too. And it’s this:

People get hired because, somehow, they get hired. In my case I did something which these days would be easy to check, and would get me into trouble, and when I started out, in those pre-internet days, seemed like a sensible career strategy: when I was asked by editors who I’d worked for, I lied. I listed a handful of magazines that sounded likely, and I sounded confident, and I got jobs. I then made it a point of honour to have written something for each of the magazines I’d listed to get that first job, so that I hadn’t actually lied, I’d just been chronologically challenged… You get work however you get work.

People keep working, in a freelance world, and more and more of today’s world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don’t even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. They’ll forgive the lateness of the work if it’s good, and if they like you. And you don’t have to be as good as the others if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.

When I agreed to give this address, I started trying to think what the best advice I’d been given over the years was.

And it came from Stephen King twenty years ago, at the height of the success of Sandman. I was writing a comic that people loved and were taking seriously. King had liked Sandman and my novel with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, and he saw the madness, the long signing lines, all that, and his advice was this:

“This is really great. You should enjoy it.”

And I didn’t. Best advice I got that I ignored. Instead I worried about it. I worried about the next deadline, the next idea, the next story. There wasn’t a moment for the next fourteen or fifteen years that I wasn’t writing something in my head, or wondering about it. And I didn’t stop and look around and go, this is really fun. I wish I’d enjoyed it more. It’s been an amazing ride. But there were parts of the ride I missed, because I was too worried about things going wrong, about what came next, to enjoy the bit I was on.

That was the hardest lesson for me, I think: to let go and enjoy the ride, because the ride takes you to some remarkable and unexpected places.

And here, on this platform, today, is one of those places. (I am enjoying myself immensely.)

To all today’s graduates: I wish you luck. Luck is useful. Often you will discover that the harder you work, and the more wisely you work, the luckier you get. But there

is luck, and it helps.

We’re in a transitional world right now, if you’re in any kind of artistic field, because the nature of distribution is changing, the models by which creators got their work out into the world, and got to keep a roof over their heads and buy sandwiches while they did that, are all changing. I’ve talked to people at the top of the food chain in publishing, in bookselling, in all those areas, and nobody knows what the landscape will look like two years from now, let alone a decade away. The distribution channels that people had built over the last century or so are in flux for print, for visual artists, for musicians, for creative people of all kinds.

Which is, on the one hand, intimidating, and on the other, immensely liberating. The rules, the assumptions, the now-we’re supposed to’s of how you get your work seen, and what you do then, are breaking down. The gatekeepers are leaving their gates. You can be as creative as you need to be to get your work seen. YouTube and the web (and whatever comes after YouTube and the web) can give you more people watching than television ever did. The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.

Someone asked me recently how to do something she thought was going to be difficult, in this case recording an audio book, and I suggested she pretend that she was someone who could do it. Not pretend to do it, but pretend she was someone who could. She put up a notice to this effect on the studio wall, and she said it helped.

So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

CASSANDRA BARGAGNI

The intention of my exhibition is to express loss in different situations as every person during the course of life will experience loss in different ways. I decided to concentrate on the loss of innocence, identity, a part of the human body and the loss of a person. Last year I lost a very dear person to me. While I didn’t want to experience grief, art helped me to express my feelings and I reflected a lot on the loss around us. For my exhibition I didn’t take inspiration from anyone as while brainstorming I just imagined the artwork.

Since I’m talking about loss, I thought that oil paint is a good medium as it can be a parallelism with the feeling of grief: the fact that it takes a while to dry mirrors the time needed to get over the loss, and it represents the delicacy of both wet oil paint and the emotions of grief. For example: The emptiness you left, which represents the loss of a person, uses this medium to amplify this theme, and so does Incomplete, which represents the loss of a part of the body.

I also explored mixed media to further convey loss as the different mediums can interpret the different emotions that a person feels during grief. In fact in Where is my childhood? The fabric represents the fragility of childhood and the prints symbolizes the imprinting of memory. The pair of ballerinas is very important for this artwork as they are a direct connection with childhood, and the fact that they are suspended with a string indicates the delicacy and the loss of childhood that can be easily be gone. In Who am I? I used clay and acrylic. Acrylic is one of the first mediums we learn to use and so the style of drawings links to childhood memories. Furthermore the clay demonstrates the fragility and the barrier between each face of identity.

I displayed my exhibition how I found it aesthetically pleasing: the order of the artwork doesn’t have a meaning. The only decision made that was important is for The emptiness you left to have a whole wall to maximise the feeling of emptiness. Even if their position in the display doesn’t have a meaning, they all go under the theme of loss.

THE EMPTINESS YOU LEFT

Oil paint on canvas and fabric

30 x 40 cm

Death is the first thing that comes to mind when talking about loss. This piece aims to emphasize the emptiness left behind by a loved one. The room has all the furniture and it is untouched but it is missing the owner. The cigarette is still lit and the dairy is on the table. The chair has signs that it was used a lot, meaning the room was once someone’s place. The view of the room is from someone in it but near the exit. This amplifies the viewer’s hesitation of entering the room.

WHERE IS MY CHILDHOOD?

Mixed media (fabric, acrylic paint, pair of ballerina, string, print, glue)

50 x 60 x 90 cm

Brainstorming about loss I came up with the loss of innocence, which I represented using a sculpture of mixed media. The structure is made of fabric, a fragile material, which stays up due to the layer of paint. The holes in the fabric amplify the fragility of the piece and allows the viewer to see inside. The baby pair of white ballerinas hanging in the middle of the piece that symbolize childhood. The photos on the outside show some of the way a child lost his innocence and lightheartedness.

WHO AM I?

Clay, glaze, acrylic paint

2x 40 x 40 cm

Growing up feeling confused about our identity is normal but scary at the same time which is why I decided to portray it as a clay bas-relief. The clay is very robust but it can be easily broken just like our identity. The black represent the unknown and the reliefs represent the inability of mixing the component of identity. Each little drawing represents a facet of my identity.

INCOMPLETE

Oil paint on canvas

40 x 50 cm

This piece is about the loss of a part of the body: a lot of symbols are present in the painting. The key held in the hand doesn’t have a lock, and the two vases represent the opposite situation of the limbs, one is lost and the other is intact. The only hand in the painting is covering the letter E of HOME, which relinks to the theme of the incomplete body.

FATIMA FONATI

My exhibition, The Portal Between The Past and the Present, at first impact, doesn’t seem to have a direct theme, however, as you visualize and truly understand it, you can identify that they all fit under the theme The Concept of Time, through a portal, my art, connecting the past with the present. My goal is to challenge the viewers to think about how the past influenced the present, and how the human impact on the transition of time leads to a never ending cycle. My underlying theme is to explore areas in history, from mythology, to fashion, and reimagine them to fit modern society. This is done to strike reflection from my viewers, allowing them to visualize the complexities that are still present to this day, formed from past beliefs, and how they continue to affect our modern society. My work follows a timeline, starting from the beginning of time, through Adam and Eve, all the way to modern society, presenting more current events, such as politics, and modern societal expectations. This is done to contrast parallel times, through my art, presenting a more personal interpretation of what time means to me and how a certain event makes me feel through my art. All eight artworks within my exhibition depict my approach to specific events in time, and how I envision them to look compressed into one artwork. I strive to make the audience truly feel and envision my personal experiences through a variety of textures, and provoking concepts.

To strike reflection from my audience, I decided to approach time from different perspectives, and different mediums. I wanted my concept to be hidden at first glance, but powerful and shock provoking once truly understood. My work is truly comprehendable to a certain group of people, those who see wrong in human behavior, and are not blinded by pride. This allows them to visualize the positive and negative impacts humans have on time, and how they lead to certain events. To strike reflection from my audience, I decide to explore time starting from altering vital historical events, like the creation of Adam, to push my viewers to reflect where certain beliefs originated, and whether societal expectations would differ if Eve, a woman, was the first human to be created, rather than Adam, a male. I got inspired by the painting in the Sistine Chapel’s “The Creation of Adam”, where I made a structure substituting Adam’s hand with Eve’s. I also explore the theme of time through fashion, particularly the evolution of the corset in the postmodern era, and fast fashion. I explore both the positive and negative impact humans had on the evolution of the corset, by presenting one as a symbol of liberation, inspired by The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, and one as a symbol for restriction similar to a waist trainer. I use different textures to portray different messages. In liberation I used tulle as it’s a sheer and light fabric, enhancing the message of freedom and liberation, In contrast to Patient #3206, where I utilize cotton, and rope to depict restriction, and artificial healing.

The composition of my exhibition strives to portray in first person the never ending cycle of the human impact on time. I do this by presenting my artworks in a designated timeline, starting from the very beginning of time, through The Creation of Eve, where I explore one of the three perspectives present in my exhibition, the societal expectations imposed onto women. I decided to place Lifeless, liberation, and patient #3206, next to each other to allow my viewers to see how regardless of the evolution of time, a bit of the past remains present in the following artwork, through the repetition of the mannequin. Towards the middle, I decided to present the concept of time through the second perspective, fashion, by grouping Through a Lens, and, Reinvention together, as they both strive to depict the impact of fast fashion through the use of contrasting elements. Finally, towards the Left of my exhibition, I explore the last perspective, politics. I decided to place My beloved Lebanon and Cause, Effect, next to each other as I explore more present situations such as global conflicts.

MY BELOVED LEBANON, 2025 THROUGH A LENS, 2025

LIBERATION, 2024

PATIENT #3206, 2025

REINVENTION, 2025

CAUSE, EFFECT, 2025

THE CREATION OF EVE, 2025

LIFELESS, 2024

LIBERATION

Size: 36 x 19 x 56 cm

Media: Tulle, resin, pearls

This corset was primarily inspired by the The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. This piece depicts freedom, by transforming an item that was once seen as a symbol for restriction, into a depiction of liberation through its revealing form. This is done through the flowy fabric, similar to the cloak in The Birth of Venus. The pearls depict femininity, like Venus herself. This piece challenges old societal norms, and reimagines them to fit modern society, connecting the past with the present.

LIFELESS

20 x 6 cm, 39 x 10 cm

Media: Digital photography, printed

Lifeless portrays the chaos and destruction that are a result of human behavior. The concoction between the ancient setting, and the modern characteristics of the women, depict a setting where the past coincides with the future. The mannequin substituting the woman’s body portrays a lifeless state, illustrating how regardless of the evolution of time, societal standards continue to be imposed onto women, leading to destruction, and chaos.

MY BELOVED LEBANON

Size: 20 x 9 x 8 cm

Media: Clay, resin, metal,

The emblem of resilience, this mug depicts my biggest heartbreak, yet my greatest pride. Despite several bullets going through it, the mug remains standing. It guides you through my emotions as a result of the war in Lebanon, as every spike portrays the pain equivalent to a stab to the heart. The color reflects the streets of Dahye that were wiped of their memories, leaving behind a trail of terracotta. This is portrayed through a mug, as we indulge those experiences that shape who we are.

PATIENT #3206

Size: 64 x 29 x 9 cm

Media: Cotton, rope, staples, paint, mannequin

Patient #3206 depicts the restrictions imposed on women in modern society. It’s a result of the unrealistic standards to maintain an image through a waist trainer and surgical procedures. The cotton represents artificial healing, while the rope suffocating the body reflects society’s restraining expectations. This piece evokes shock, allowing my viewers to visualise the brutal and long lasting mark society leaves on the human mind over time.

THROUGH A LENS

Size: 27 x 25 x 5 cm

Media: Charcoal pencil, colored pencil on paper, frame, wooden hands

Through a Lens critiques consumerist habits, by placing SHEIN, a fast fashion brand, in the foreground on the historical Ponte Vecchio, disrupting its cultural identity. The main focus is the colorful SHEIN tower, placed on the black and white Ponte Vecchio; this contrast portrays a lack of belonging. The circular frame depicts a camera lens, and the hands holding it represent society’s exposure to consumerism. The piece serves as a critique of society’s inaction in the face of overconsumption.

CAUSE, EFFECT

Size: 86 x 50 cm

Media: Newspaper, magazines on paper, rope

Cause, Effect portrays the injustices innocent civilians experience on a quotidian basis as a result of political corruption. It is portrayed through an hourglass to convey urgency, allowing the audience to visualise the limited time at disposal, as homes are being destroyed, and lives are being taken away. The rope depicts oppression, and the striking images trigger reflection from the audience, exposing the inhumane circumstances in which they are left to live with.

THE CREATION OF EVE

Size: 14 x 5 c 3 cm

Media: Moulding alginate, casting plaster on metal, pearl

This work is inspired by The Creation of Adam, reimagined in the form of Eve. I explore the concept of time by altering the very beginning, making Eve, a woman, the first human created, from whom the man originates. The purpose is to push my viewers to reflect on the origin of certain beliefs, and how different societal expectations would be if a woman were created first. I chose to depict this through casting as its detailed features enhance the sense of realism, reinforcing my concept.

REINVENTION

Size: 20 x 35 x 3 cm

Media: Faux sheep fur, brown popaline, embossed faux snakeskin

Reinvention is a futuristic bag created from primitivelike material. Its purpose is to mock modern consumerism by using textiles that were once used for survival by the Neanderthals, and turning it into a luxury item designed solely for its aesthetic. The metallic snakeskin handle is where the past and the present collide, through its primitive animal skin and futuristic metallic form.

MICHELLE LI

My entire body of work focuses on the theme of learning, more specifically about how I acquire knowledge from the environment I grew up and currently live in. As I grow older, I often reflect on what I have changed throughout the years and the elements that influenced me to do so, learning more about myself, but also everything around me. This means that I get to think about anything that has helped build me as a person, either through my personal experiences or exchanges with other individuals. Hence, the exhibition underlines the change in my sense of identity through my teenage years, connecting it to controversial topics such as internalized racism and gender fluidity, but also about my physical conditions, thus reflecting on my own stability and health. Moreover, it concentrates on my understanding of the people around me, including the process of creating trust with them and interchanging bits of each identity to shape ourselves respectively. The project involves a range of materials, going from oil paints to 3D modelling programs, to represent time and environment through their novelty. The inspiration of the artstyle behind each work also adds onto the representation, as I have been influenced by artists coming from different timelines, such as Impressionism (Claude Monet), Baroque (Caravaggio), and Modernism (Frank Lloyd Wright).

Although I don’t enjoy oil panting as much as the other mediums, it helped me achieve the sensation that I hoped to evoke. In fact, I was inspired by great masters of oil painting, such as Claude Monet and Caravaggio, following their style to create a specific atmosphere that each painting possesses. For example, the chiaroscuro has helped me make a piece that holds mystery, but also strikes the viewer due to its dramatic contrast between light and dark. While, the impressionist influence did its job to create a calm painting, representing acceptance of my cultural background.

Making 3-D projects is something I enjoyed while working on the exhibition, as I got to learn more about the physicality of objects instead of only focusing on the meaning behind them. This therefore helped me take advantage of the texture and structure of the chosen materials to create models that would convey feelings depending on them. This explains how I purposely used toothpicks to create The Human Body Is So Fragile, as the material itself is light and can be easily broken, so that it resembles the stability of human bodies. Another aspect of toothpicks is that, when broken, they become very spiky, therefore helping me portray the pain I felt when I got myself injured, of which it led to my thought about the title of the piece.

I have chosen to position my works in two categories: those about myself and those about the people surrounding me. I made the artworks about myself be in the middle, so that the other artworks around it can represent the literal meaning of being surrounded. An example of this is The Art Room, which is placed in a way that viewers can go around it to observe the inside, therefore making them become the surrounding of the room.

I have physically divided the exhibition in three separate sections, so that it would be possible for me to place one 3-D artwork in each.

The wall is hidden when entering the gallery, representing the interiority of myself and my own learning, which creates a very intimate atmosphere. The viewers can choose to move from left to right or vice versa, depending on where they start. Since each section has its own 3-D artwork, it guides the audience to get closer and further away depending on the piece, which also mirrors the process of getting to know someone, as people get close to each other. Similarly, the sizes of each work also invite the viewer to get physically closer to them, as I placed small and big pieces together.

THE HUMAN BODY IS SO FRAGILE, 2025

SUZHOU UNDER THE SUN, 2024 THE CHRISTMAS DINNER, 2025

I AM A ROOM, 2025

EFFLORESCENCE, 2025

THE ART ROOM, 2025

A HOT CHINESE SUMMER, 2024

FLORENTINE HILLS, 2025

FLORENTINE HILLS

3D Modeling

6.4 x 9.82 x 11.6 m (1.2 MB)

Part of my identity is reinforced during high school, where I got to have the chance to discover more about myself. Since ISF is based in the Florentine hills, every morning I would be embraced by the greenery of the environment on my journey to school. This made me wonder about the buildings in the hills, leading me to create this model of organic architecture. The structure of the model is inspired by the trees present on the hills of Florence, explaining its round form and the many floors.

EFFLORESCENCE

Oil painting on canva 40 x 50 cm

I grow as a person thanks to the knowledge acquired from people around me, who always make me feel heard whenever I speak. In fact, “efflorescence” is the moment when flowers appear on a plant, just how I build myself with pieces of people around me. For this reason, I painted a girl in a blue dress, symbolizing me and my inspirations, hence those surrounding me. These individuals are represented under the form of their birth flower, that are physically framing the subject in the center.

SUZHOU UNDER THE SUN

Oil painting on canva 21 x 29.7 cm

As a child, I rejected the Chinese part of myself to fit in, but with time, I realized that my nationality is a huge part of my identity, hence, I should feel proud of who I am as a person. Portraying a picture I’ve taken in Suzhou, I conveyed my security in who I am by depicting a female model posing with traditional Chinese clothing with oil. Inspired by Monet, I painted the nature surrounding the subject to underline the natural beauty of the ancient city, emerging in the culture as well.

I AM A ROOM

Digital art, printed 2048 x 2024 px (printed 39.4 x 39.4 cm)

Experimenting with perspectives and digital art, I wanted to convey myself with elements from my life. The cupboard contains elements from my childhood, while the shelf above represents me in the present, and the darkness of the other room represents the future. The colors are also associated with the parts of my life and how I show myself to others. In fact, I experimented with the stereotype of colors and how they can be perceived as: more masculine or feminine.

A HOT CHINESE SUMMER

Digital photography, printed 21 x 29.7 cm

As I had the opportunity to visit China again, I learned more about the country itself and the beauty it holds thanks to a summer camp. The place I took this picture was Quanzhou, where I got to see many ancient buildings in a village, perfect to show my fascination with Chinese architecture as well. There are many leading lines that lead to the infrastructure the woman is in, for example her gaze, shedding light on traditionality and ancientry of the place.

THE HUMAN BODY IS SO FRAGILE

Toothpicks and superglue

7.5 x 7.2 x 9.5 cm

Tearing my ACL and MCL while skiing made me realize how fragile the human body can be, therefore this project reflects on the fragility and stability of the human body, especially on how the injury affected me. I made a model of a Chinese pavilion with a crooked supporting column to represent the physical conditions I was in after the injury, and the use of toothpicks further proves the fragility of my body, as the medium is thin and easy to break.

THE

CHRISTMAS DINNER

Oil painting on canva

29.7 x 42 cm

Christmas is one of the few holidays where you get to be reunited with your friends and family, hence by depicting a well set up Christmas table, I want to show the time spent with peers, and the privilege to be sharing pieces of our own self to each other in a warm environment. The tidily set up silverware and the food on the plate can demonstrate how cozy I felt during that dinner, sitting and chit chatting with friends and family and enjoying the dinner after a good ski day.

THE ART ROOM

Foamboard, paper and hot glue

17 x 19 x 30 cm

The art room for DP students in my school is somewhere I would never want to forget, as I spent my time learning about art, but also about the people around me. Creating a model of it leaves physical evidence of the room, forever reminding me of the warmth and the welcoming atmosphere that never fails to show up whenever I am in there. With the use of foam board, I was able to recreate the class more accurately, from the windows to the furniture.

MIYU LI

The theme of my exhibition revolves around the hypocrisy of human nature and how it affects us as a society. I explored this theme by referring to the exploration of my own humanity and relating it on a broader plane, so that it can be based on the negative threads that characterize all of us. I always had the idea that humanity in its essence is arrogant, and not as positive as we traditionally depict it as. My exhibition explores how the hypocrisy in humanity stands in the contradiction between our proclaimed desire for progress and harmony, while paradoxically fostering selfishness, exploitative rationality, opportunism and social division. My appreciation for hidden nuances manifested in some of my works such that they’d look superficially ornamental in its purpose, while hiding their meaning in curated details, while others are purposely direct with their presentation.

The medium that is the most recurring throughout the body of work is oil point, as it is the one paint that enables me to be more creatively free with my approach to a specific concept. For example, the brushstroke effect in The Art of Moving On was achievable due to the oil paint’s rich texture and slow drying time, which allowed me to manipulate the strokes in a way that expressed the emotional complexity of the continuity of life and how humanity contrasts it with cynicism. While oil paint is present in the majority of my artworks, they each involve some detail that defer them from one another: it might be depth given by incorporating 3D structures such as paper flowers or the division of a work in pieces to symbolize the fine line between human and inhuman. Other works include the use of oil pastels to create an impressionistic representation of flowers, gouache for its versatility and layering virtue and photography and photo manipulation to highlight color values.

My body of work entails a variety of colors, some being very saturated and others dark. The central theme of Let’s Not Face it is the division of one’s humanity, which would be the optimal to place as a divider between the lighter colors used in the first half of my exhibition, and the darker colors used in the second half. This layout would create a crescendo of intensity and heaviness of the topic, as the theme unravels from something seemingly innocent into a darker side.

A FLOWER IS BEAUTIFUL, FOR ITS BLOOM IS NOT ETERNAL 2025

THE SORROW OF THOSE WHO DON’T FORGIVE, 2024

THE ART OF MOVING ON

Oil on canvas

40 x 50 cm

Inspired by Manet’s painting style, composed of loose strokes and cohesive colors, I aspired to portray the continuity and spontaneity of life, by distorting and connecting different times of the day, through the vast intensity of the sky. It is a reference to the human evolution of the mindscape, the vivid colors encouraging humanity to take a more relaxed perspective of life, yet paradoxically, our ways of relaxing are cynically planned out too, just like the brushstrokes of the artwork.

CAN WE PRETEND?

Gouache on paper with fabric

40 x 50 cm

This painting captures the height of human pride and the pressure to maintain appearances, ultimately fostering a distorted and overly optimistic expectation of life. This mindset damages our perception, normalizing the tendency to set aside disputes, rather than acknowledging wrongs or rights. The necessity to project an image of everything being fine creates a denotation of inauthenticity in our every action, represented by the fabric draping the sides, reminiscent of theater curtains.

LET’S NOT FACE IT

Oil on canvas

5 canvas of 25.4 x 30.4 cm

This group of paintings come together to form a disturbing and dark image. Human arrogance and cruelty is often denied by individuals, yet present in every single one of us and what characterizes us as humans. I tried to capture the desperation in trying to conceal this part of nature and how it eventually resurfaces, overwhelming the individual. Looking at ourselves in the mirror, we often try to see the best in ourselves, while this artwork proposes an alternative outlook at it.

A

FLOWER

IS BEAUTIFUL, FOR

ITS

BLOOM IS NOT ETERNAL

Acrylic, oil pastels, oil paint, hot glue, chrome, crepe paper, colored pencils, on canvas 40 x 50 cm

This artwork depicts the human tendency to appreciate events when they are over, highlighting the metaphoric fine line between the dead and the living. The variety of flowers that symbolize life or death (respectively from left to right) are portrayed on a 2D plane from withered to bloomed while on a 3D in inverted order. The spider lily (on the right) is eventually removed altogether, leaving a mark that affects all the other flowers, representing the interdependence of life to death.

THE SORROW OF THOSE WHO DON’T FORGIVE

Oil on canvas, thread, synthetic feathers

2 canvas of 12.7 x 17.78 cm

This piece depicts a pair of angel wings that are torn and repaired in an implied cycle. I intended to capture the human ambition of reaching perfection or the extremes in their aspirations and how such leads to the destruction of an individual’s integrity and sanity. The two hands on different canvases represent the duality of such mentality: one is destroying the being that tries to achieve, while the other repairs the damage left behind so that it can pursue, ultimately failing to catch up.

DRAINED

Gouache on paper

30 x 40 cm

This artwork argues that societal perception of humans and the criteria to be considered human lead to the dispersion of personal identity and a death of one’s inner self. It portrays a woman drained of life by the flowers surrounding her, representing the escape of her humanity within her body. The thorns around her body indicate an inescapable connection to societal prejudice, yet paradoxically also representing liberation from it, as the spikes grow out of the subject’s being.

PULSE

Digital photography, print

28.7 x 19.8 cm

This photo presents my left hand, with a heart drawn on my wrist, restrained by my bracelets, each being symbols of luck and virtue in Chinese culture. The juxtaposition of symbolic merit and how it cages the eager emotion of the heart indicates how the innate feeling of inadequateness to what life offers us is what metaphorically chains us from actually enjoying meaningful experiences for self growth and self-appreciation.

ISABELLA MOBILIA

In this exhibition, I have attempted to explore nature’s beauty and simplicity, simultaneously highlighting society’s ignorance towards the fortunes our planet has given us. As an international student, I was privileged enough to travel to countless places where I fell in love with landscapes and truly appreciated the world around me. Explicitly, I have seen how this experience has led me to realize how ignorant and naive society is when it comes to valuing planet Earth. Therefore, the goal of this exhibition was to convey those same thankful feelings towards nature and enhance its protection. Moreover, I have focused on society’s ability to halt the destruction of our planet through numerous actions such as recycling and reusing. I took specific inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy, an artist who creates his pieces with the use of natural materials. Goldsworthy employs lots of patterns in his art by strategically placing elements found in the environment that surrounds him.

In countless of my artworks, I have included elements found in nature that symbolize our planet’s beauty. In the Surface of the Earth, the side that depicts what our Earth would look like if contamination was stopped completely, exhibits the use of numerous plants whose distinct and intricate characteristics give the artwork an unblemished look. Furthermore, Evolution portrays an object found in nature which are seashells, and additionally shows the direct execution of a method to stop pollution. In this case, I have used sea glass that has been lying on multiple beaches, contaminating it, to create art. Although I focused on specifically representing the beauty of nature, I also demonstrated the use of symbolism in Hollow Heart as the harmful action of deforestation is shown through the “bleeding” of cut-down trees. These three artworks specifically embody the goal of my exhibition as they effectively convey my message of ending pollution and valuing our world.

I have paid deep attention to the layout of my artworks as they are displayed from left to right as if the audience were “reading” them. As the viewer begins by viewing artworks that appreciate the beauty of nature, the exhibition progresses by showing the evolution of our planet from its first moments when no harm was done to it, to the end where it suffers from human contamination. In the end, I’ve shown the consequences of society’s actions towards the environment and encouraged the audience to fight against pollution.

PRINT OF EARTH, 2024

BLOSSOMING, 2025

NATURE’S VEINS, 2025

HOLLOW HEART, 2024

EVOLUTION, 2025

NATURE’S VEINS

Digital photography, printed 21 x 30 cm for each photograph, 42 x 60cm total

Nature’s Veins attempts to capture nature’s complexity by focusing on the details depicted in leaves. Observing the fragility in the veins can aid in reflecting on how long it took the world to develop such delicate and intricate elements. Moreover, we realize how lucky we are to live in a place where natural objects such as leaves exist and draw our attention to saving these species from extinction as global warming arises.

EVOLUTION

Seaglass, seashells, and resin

24 x 25 cm

Evolution attempts to describe the evolution of the earth through symbolism and color. It was made using collected seashells, sea glass, and broken bits of glass. While the seashells represent the initial microscopic fauna found in the world, the sea glass conveys the harm that society has done to Earth. This is demonstrated through the hues, while the color starts as a clean bright white, it gradually fades to a dark filthy brown symbolizing contamination and pollution.

PRINT OF EARTH

Plaster

20 x 30 cm

Print of Earth simultaneously attempts to draw attention to the residue that society leaves behind on the surface of the Earth, therefore showing the effects of contamination. They were made using a clay mold and plaster. While the brown one shows what our Earth will look like if we keep polluting it, the white one demonstrates what the world’s surface would be like if we were to be sustainable to its fullest extent and halt global warming.

BLOSSOMING

Oil on Canvas

20 x 20 cm

Blossoming depicts the effect we have on the flora in our world. With rising global warming, there have been countless spreading fires all over the world which result in our environment having droughts. Additionally, this leads to plants dying off due to lack of water. The piece offers contrast between the weak and dull dried-up flowers that we’ve damaged to the vivid and vibrant ones underneath which demonstrate what flora in the world should look like.

GUILT

Newspaper, Plastic Cup, Aluminum Foil, Cardboard Paper

17 x 8 x 20 cm

Guilt attempts to symbolise the guilt we should feel as a society due to the harm we’ve caused to the environment. Strategically, the human body was made out of newspaper to add an additional ironic dimension to the piece as the rubbish itself feels guilty for contaminating, but it was society who committed the harmful actions. The sculpture’s posture communicates its resentment and it surrounds itself in filth demonstrating the chaos that pollution can bring in the world.

HOLLOW HEART

Clay and resin

14 x 13 x 6.5 cm

Hollow Heart attempts to draw attention to the issue of deforestation by showing an “injured” version of a tree. It was made using clay as it provided the possibility to create a rough texture on the bark of the tree and oil paints were used to add color to it since it helps convey the realistic characteristics of the tree. In the future, the violence the tree suffered from will be shown by dripping blood using resin to give it a smooth aspect.

LYRA PIRES

In the body of works presented, I have explored the ideas of urban living from alienation to its romanticisation and the effects of increasing urbanisation. These themes connect to my experiences, having had the opportunity to travel to new and diverse locations including cities. Edward Hopper’s works have inspired me greatly, specifically the following works: NightHawks and Automat. I admired how he managed to create an empty yet detailed composition to portray the sense of loneliness. This inspired me to attempt it with my own work, where I aim to present my audience different perspectives of urban life, whether it be its cosiness, vibrancy or its loneliness.

Most of my artworks are oil painted except for two photographs. I chose oil paint for its ability to depict my paintings with more detail. Take, for instance, Eden in the Ruins. To exhibit detail in the ivy, weeds, flowers, etc. oil paint was the most suitable option as it truly brought the painting to life. Using oil paint, I was able to create various variations in colour allowing me to implement details of light and shadow and experiment with texture and layering. Additionally, my following digital photographs: The Metropolis Mirage and City lights, Heartbeats captures the city’s touristic nature, portraying the attractiveness of urban living as it gives off an energetic and exciting feel for the audience. The different colour schemes to the photographs allows viewers to experience the essence of urban life, invoking a vintage, dreamy and cinematic-like mood to the atmosphere, making it an idealized urban setting. While Metropolis Mirage, due to its absence of colour, focuses more on shapes and structures, lights and shadows, City Lights, Heartbeats, reflects a sense of energy and uplift through its vibrant colours. As for the last two paintings, Unspoken Midnights, depicting a dimly lit restaurant in the evening in Florence, and The Last Passenger, exhibiting an empty subway station. Both emphasise the sense of loneliness and urban alienation, where a usually crowded place has a sense of emptiness.

I have arranged the artworks based on their size. Since Metropolis Mirage occupies one wall, it is one of the first artworks you see, drawing immediate attention from the audience who will walk into the exhibition. My two smallest compositions are placed on one wall, while my other bigger ones are placed on the wall beside my largest to create a balanced look.

UNSPOKEN MOMENTS AT MIDNIGHT, 2025

THE LAST PASSENGER, 2025

EDEN IN THE RUINS, 2024

THE METROPOLIS MIRAGE, 2024

THE METROPOLIS MIRAGE

Digital black and white photograph

55 x 70 cm

Photograph taken in Times Square, New York City. The photograph was taken in a touristy area, demonstrating the attractiveness of urban living, as it gives off an energetic and exciting feel for the audience. The black and white adds a dreamy and cinematic-like mood to the atmosphere, making it an idealised urban setting. Tourism also plays a significant role in shaping the perception of urban life as promising and full of opportunities, obscuring the realities and instead romanticising it.

EDEN IN THE RUINS

Oil on Canvas

40 x 50 cm

A painting portraying a demolished church taken over by nature. The title suggests a paradox of how even in the ruin, there is beauty and rebirth. A new form of paradise appears here in the absence of humans, even though Eden was “lost” when humanity sinned. Now, after what humanity has built, nature is reclaiming it. The contrast between the decaying structure and the vibrant thriving plants conveys this idea of beauty that is wild and unrestrained in the absence of human interference.

THE LAST PASSENGER

Oil on Canvas

40 x 50 cm

This is a painting of an empty subway station in a bustling city. The sense of emptiness in this usually crowded area shows how, even in a place filled with people, one can still feel a strong sense of loneliness. The title emphasises that haunting sense of solitude. The painting makes the viewer feel like they are the last one there and are left behind in a “system” (city life) that never stops, lingering while the city continues its fast-paced nature.

CITY LIGHTS, HEARTBEATS

Digital coloured photograph, printed

30 x 40 cm

Photograph taken in the streets of New York City. The title represents how the city lights in the photograph are symbols of energy and thrill through their vibrancy while “heartbeats” reflect the sense of “life” in the city and its ability to uplift you. So many activities, things to see, eat, etc. as well as its people contribute to the city feeling truly alive consisting of never-ending possibilities and hopes and dreams.

UNSPOKEN MOMENTS AT MIDNIGHT

Oil on Canvas

21 x 30 cm

A painting portraying a restaurant in Florence at night. Inspired by Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and Automat, the composition overall brings a sense of alienation, suggesting the emotional depth between individuals in an urban environment. The man walking by the vibrant restaurant with people represents the unnoticed loneliness in a fast-paced, bustling city.

EZRA PAVONCELLI

The body of work presented is intended to provoke a reaction that allows the viewer to engage beyond its formal qualities and reflect on why an artist felt strongly enough to portray it. I have been extremely invested in politics for years now and it has had a significant influence on my art. Attempting to encompass a whole idea or conceptual point in a single work has been one of the most challenging aspects of my journey, however, it is incredibly rewarding to be able to learn more about the world of people and politics and to be able to pass that learning on in a visual medium.

These works address a diverse range of issues spanning across the globe. I wanted to explore these issues respectfully while also criticising the institutions and ideologies that create and perpetuate the issues addressed. Much of my inspiration stems from my childhood in South Africa and seeing the impact of politics on people, more specifically the extreme economic and social disparity faced by non-white South Africans in contrast to white South Africans. This led me to explore the impact of colonialism and its consequences in pieces like Bògòlanfini and Feel The Vigour In Your Veins to present my own experiences and personal perspectives. This range of work was specifically selected to present diverse issues that are intrinsically linked to the impact of politics on people. I sought to include my most emotionally evocative pieces to draw the viewer into the issues, and my personal feelings about them informed by my experiences and understanding. As such, my vision for this exhibition is to give the viewer an insight into experiences that are impacted by politics that they may not otherwise experience.

I frequently include the human body in my work because I believe that our physical forms help to unify us in that it gives us a figure to empathise with. I spent many years of my artistic journey attempting to learn these fundamentals out of a fascination with how powerful the presentation of people has been and the weight it has carried throughout our history.

I was strongly influenced by artists like Anne Herrero and Oswaldo Guayasamín, as these artists also sought to portray issues in their respective temporal and cultural contexts that they felt strongly about through complex imagery.

Oil paints are the main medium used because of the delicate and vibrant nature of them. The layering and ability to create texture and depth in the works serve to draw the viewer into the visual complexity. For my 3-dimensional objects, I used ceramics and embroidery because of the ability to create precise or more intuitive textures that lend themselves to contrasting institutions and people. The intentional contrast in the compositions of works to this effect can be seen in works like Civil Union, Politicise Me, and As Above So Below and Beyond I Imagine.

The arrangement of the pieces and their presentation is intentionally overwhelming. The concentration of small and detailed paintings and ceramics in contrast with larger pieces aids this overwhelming feeling. Moreover, many works are not attached directly to the wall, thus giving the exhibition a further sense of discomfort because of the diverse and seemingly uncoordinated heights, proximity, and sizes. The themes and the arrangement of the works are both intended to represent an inundation with ideas and force the viewer to engage with each piece individually rather than all of them together.

The space is organised to draw the viewer to key works like Politicise Me and Solidarity that embody the fundamental themes of the exhibition. For instance, the isolation of pieces like Politicise Me on a wall angled towards the entry to the exhibition room is intended to allow the viewer to first engage with the self-portrait, as my own identity and experiences provide a basis from which other works can be understood. Upon entering the space, the body of work becomes more clear and expands beyond the former focal point to Politicise Me. Instead, the focal point becomes Solidarity and the smaller pieces that surround it.

I FEEL IT, 2025

SOLIDARITY, 2025

CIVIL UNION, 2024

WE CLOSED OUR EYES. WHEN WE OPENED THEM, WE HAD THE BIBLE AND THEY HAD THE LAND, 2024

OLIGARCHY, 2025

FEEL THE VIGOUR IN YOUR VEINS, 2025

ABOVE, SO BELOW, AND BEYOND I IMAGINE, 2024

Oil paint on canvas paper 16 x 20 cm

Civil Union is a heavily conceptual piece that discusses the lack of legal marriage options for queer relationships. My intention is to use the symbol of hands as an indication of human connection, which is intentionally obscured by the more impressionist brushstrokes to represent the censorship and erasure of queer relationships.

BÒGÒLANFINI

Watercolour and embroidery on linen 17 x 17 cm

This work was inspired by Malian mud-dyed fabric, or Bògòlanfini. I sought to symbolise an experience of war and bloodshed that encroached upon many African societies. With roots in the colonial period, many cultural aspects were suppressed and dissidence against the colonial powers was met with violence. I sought to use the patterns of Bògòlanfini with dyed and embroidered thread to add texture and to evoke the same feelings I had when I first saw these patterns.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW, AND BEYOND I IMAGINE

Oil paint on styrofoam panel 26 x 13 cm

As Above, So Below, and Beyond I Imagine is a commentary on the treatment of women across almost all if not every society. The objectification and expectations imposed on women often lead to feelings of isolation for women, and fuel further objectification and expectations. It’s a reflection on genderbased violence and the vulnerability imposed on people on the basis of gender as revealed by the distorted figure in a seemingly hostile environment. Title derived from TOOL.

CIVIL UNION

POLITICISE ME, 2024

I FEEL IT, 2025

HAVE YOU FELT IT?

Ceramic

12 x 10 x 12 cm

I chose to draw from my own life experiences to create a piece that embodies a part of the queer experience; the input from others that, while often benign, is not wholly understanding of the intricacies of living as a queer person. Have you Felt It? is in specific reference to elements of gender dysphoria experienced by transgender individuals. I wanted to portray people in the process of a journey, hence the inclusion of a body in motion.

I FEEL IT

Ceramic

13 x 14 x 9 cm

This piece expands on Have You Felt It? with a response –I Feel It. Similarly, this piece explores the lived experience of many queer people and the feelings associated with this experience. I chose to continue the motif of the body that appears to be in a state of movement, yet continually confined by the ceramic vessel. Moreover, the stark contrast between the text and the vessel emphasises the text as a focal point from which the viewer can explore the subtle textures and forms.

WE CLOSED OUR EYES. WHEN WE OPENED THEM, WE HAD THE BIBLE AND THEY HAD THE LAND

Oil paint on mirror panel

15 x 10 cm

The title is an extract from a quote from Desmond Tutu addressing the colonisation of Africa and the importation of European religious and social ideals. Texture was used to portray degradation of culture. This work reflects on my own experience growing up in a formerly colonised country and the culture of gender-based violence that was justified by imported cultural and moral values. Title derived from Desmond Tutu.

POLITICISE ME

Oil paint on wooden panel

70 x 50 cm

Politicise Me is a criticism of the act of politicisation wherein a group is reduced to a political tool to evoke fear and resentment, thus inducing support for political figures that rally against them. This reduction in turn leads to isolation, ostracisation, and feelings of incongruence with one’s self and society. I wanted to represent the impact of this on a human level with an uncomfortable self-portrait with extreme contrast and rigidity.

FEEL THE VIGOUR IN YOUR VEINS

Stained and oiled wood carving

30 x 11 x 10 cm

Feel the Vigour in Your Veins discusses the confinement and limitation of human life and dignity, particularly in the context of South Africa’s Apartheid era. The figures are all represented together in a symbolic gesture to the idea of ubuntu and the shared struggle for life and liberty. I used staining to emphasise the different figures and the role race played and continues to play in one’s life and liberty in South Africa.

SOLIDARITY

Oil paint on linen

170 x 85 cm

As my main exhibition piece, I chose to portray how political figures and rhetoric may isolate people but solidarity and connection manifest nonetheless. Specific emphasis is placed on olive branches and wheat ears as symbols of Palestinian culture and socio-economic liberation from the influence of capital. I sought to use less refined brush strokes in many areas to emphasise the construction of solidarity and the raw emotion that fuels it.

PROMISCUITY

Oil paint on canvas paper

21 x 17 cm

Promiscuity serves as a representation of the change in our sensibilities, especially regarding sexuality and the increasing freedom that allows us to develop our relationships in the manner we choose. I intended to continue with the use of hands to symbolise both human connection, as well as the human body itself. I wanted to incorporate the more classical portrayal of the human figure with a modern concept to symbolise progress, particularly within politics.

OLIGARCHY

Ceramic

19 x 7 x 17 cm

Oligarchy explores a form of economic exploitation whereby capital controls the politics of a society. Inspired by the rise of this exploitation in the United States and the figures associated with it, the use of the salute was intentionally a representation of the diversion from the extraction of wealth and the structural collapse it results in. The vessel, a symbol of the general population and social structure, is deliberately shown as folded and leaning from the influence of the arms.

OLIVIA SCHMELZER

Beyond the Postcard is an exhibition attributed to Florence, Italy. As my senior year passes by at lightning speed, my eyes have been opened to how fortunate I am to attend high school in the center of such a unique and beautiful city like Florence. Throughout the last year, I have begun to imagine a life that is no longer in Italy and all of a sudden, every little detail seems so much more important to take in. In honor of my final months here, I have chosen to portray the precious moments and places that have shaped my experience. In Florence, artistic heritage, cuisine, and community form the foundations of its culture. There are many famous landmarks that attract tourists to Florence, but what truly contributes to its vivacity and beauty is community. To me, the people whom I share my meals and memories with are those who have helped me flourish the most here, accompanying me along my journey to becoming a Florentine local.

Swayed by the beauty of Florence, I chose to create artworks inspired by my photographs because I was able to reinterpret certain scenes or individuals which emphasize specific details and alter faces in ways that made them appear more as I experience them. As a result of this, I have been able to create artworks that felt like the moment in which the photograph was taken. One of my main influences was Edmund Darch Lewis, famous for his life-like landscapes. He and Jamie Coreth have specific techniques that make their artworks feel 3D. They create a world that you could practically reach into. The centerpiece of my exhibition is Welcomes & Goodbye’s which is based off of a photograph of me and my lovely friends. This particular oil painting is where the two worlds of perspectives in my exhibition collide. Most central to the painting are my friends and I, standing in the window of my best friend’s apartment, indicating that community is the most central element in my life in Florence. The stunning skyline of the Lungarno forms our background, revealing that these landmarks are not only significant in tourism, they also create the setting for my life. Nighttime has always been my favorite time to walk around Florence and be able to experience it without all of the noise and crowds, therefore I created The Ponte Vecchio (Nighttime). This landscape oil painting depicts one of Florence’s most famous tourist attractions at its quietest hour. The only way to be able to experience and appreciate Florence without chaos is to see it at night, when one can take their time to appreciate its beauty entirely undisturbed.

As the centerpiece of my exhibition, my Welcome’s and Goodbye’s piece is placed on the largest wall in my area so as to isolate it from the rest of the artworks, making it the main focus and implying its importance and individuality

among all of my artworks. Similarly, My 17th Birthday stands alone to bring focus. The birthdays that I have had and attended in Florence are a grand center to my universe here because they demonstrate the importance of friendship and connection through special gatherings. Center to the room is Corkitecture, allowing the audience to walk around the 3D model. As a result, the viewer may view the different sides and components that I have put together to form the artwork. In the entryway to the small area will be Unmasked (Two Faces). The photograph will introduce the theme of my exhibition which is that both the local and foreign components of Florence are what come together to create the Florence that I know so well. The other four paintings of mine are to be arranged on the remaining wall towards the end of the exhibition. This display creates a spacious collage of my artworks, put together to mimic a collage that a tourist may create after their visit to Florence. The audience will view these components to my exhibition as the puzzle pieces that form my life in Florence. The various perspectives insinuate that it is both the local and touristy views and locations that make Florence so special to me.

PONTE VECCHIO (NIGHTTIME), 2024

WELCOMES & GOODBYES, 2024

UNMASKED (TWO FACES), 2025

A QUIET CORNER, 2024

THE PONTE VECCHIO (NIGHTTIME)

Oil on canvas

30 x 21.5 cm

This artwork was influenced by an image of mine, inspired by Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks where small windows of light contrast with the dark night. This painting commemorates my favorite time in Florence: nighttime. My favorite memories are speeding through the streets of Florence with my friends because of how empty the roads are compared to during the day when they are bustling with tourists. Walking the bare streets encourages a feeling of tremendous freedom. Here I am most content.

MY 17TH BIRTHDAY

Oil on canvas

42 x 59.5 cm

This artwork was inspired by a photograph of me and my best friend, which was her favorite picture of us together. One of the most significant reasons for my enjoyment of my time in Florence are my friendships. Birthdays have always been what I find unites various groups of people when they come together to celebrate the life of a mutual friend. These scattered celebrations are what creates community, which I believe is one of the most valuable things one can find in Florence.

WELCOMES AND GOODBYES

Oil on canvas

59.5 x 84 cm

Inspired by Jamie Corth’s Alice Eve, my artwork was influenced by a photograph taken of my four friends and I. This view has been very significant in my time in Florence: this apartment is flooded with memories of dinners, small parties, and deep conversations. The background of Florence represents how it is the backdrop for my life. Most of the girls who I posed with have since left Florence but nonetheless, like this artwork, their role in my life in Florence is forever ingrained into my mind.

CORKITECHTURE

Cork, hot glue, wire, cardboard. 60 x 41 x 42 cm

This model was inspired by the Duomo in Florence, Italy. I chose to use corks from my father’s winery to symbolize how my father’s business forms the foundation for all that surrounds me. Similarly, the Duomo forms the foundation of much of Florence’s appeal and lore. The uniform design and color on the corks suggests the unwavering presence throughout my life. The distinct shape of the Duomo is shaped by the cork, symbolizing the underlying importance of my father’s winery for my lifestyle and experiences.

TIMELESS CONNECTION

Oil on canvas

21 x 29.7 cm

Inspired by a photograph of my guy best friend and I, this painting was created with reference to Guernica by Picasso. Painting in black and white reflects the strength of our friendship through many years: it is a timeless connection. Using the sfumato technique, the background is far more blurred than in the image, emphasizing focus on us as our friendship has been an important focus in my life in Florence.

WISH YOU WERE HERE!

Acrylic on postcard with photograph by ATLANTIDE

14.8 x 10.5 cm

Postcards from vacation have always symbolized a “pictureperfect holiday”, usually sent to a relative to say “Wish you were here!”. Depicting my friends and I enjoying breakfast on a terrace, I painted us large relative to the Ponte Vecchio, symbolizing how relatively famous areas in Florence are simply backdrops to my memories. One who is unfamiliar with Florence may deem that the Ponte Vecchio is its most prominent feature, yet to me, it is merely the background of my favorite memories.

UNMASKED (TWO FACES)

Digital photograph printed on paper

29.7 x 42 cm

This piece contrasts the two sides of Florence that locals experience by juxtaposing time and atmosphere. In multiple of my artworks, there is a recurring theme of nighttime in Florence which to me has always represented serenity, familiarity, and calm. This theme is emphasized next to the chaos of Florence’s most touristy hour, bringing attention to the extremity of both scenarios.

A QUIET CORNER

Watercolor on watercolor paper

19.5 x 32 cm

The warm colors create a cozy and intimate atmosphere, contributing to the theme of viewing Florence from a personal perspective. The watercolor’s translucency allows the building of soft colors, further emphasizing the delicate and “quiet corner” feel of the painting. The abstract quality encourages less attention to detail, and more to the romantic qualities of quaint Florentine scenes, again tying in the theme of serenity at dusk/nighttime.

AURORA TOVO

For this exhibition I decided to represent the cycle of life. This theme idea came to me, when I analysed the artwork The three ages of Women by Gustav Klimt. I tried to explore this theme in a broader sense, focusing on various stages humans can go through in our life.

The setup of my exhibition artworks represents the cycle of life of a woman, with the first piece representing birth and the last representing death. The layout is ordered for my audience to see the growth of a person through different stages of their life, going from birth, childhood, teen years, middle age, old age, and the last artwork representing death.

The use of nature is a recurring one throughout my exhibition as I use it as a vessel to represent growth both physically and mentally. My first sculpture is of a tree with a baby growing inside of it, representing the birth and growth of a new life. Throughout my exhibition I use figures such as flowers, trees, plants and animals to represent different stages humans experience throughout their life.

For this exhibition I tried to find creative ways to depict the cycle of life. These range of materials allowed me to represent my ideas in a 3D way as well which helped develop my messages. For my first artwork, the tree sculpture with a baby growing in it, being able to represent my idea in a 3D way allowed me to further represent the symbolism of protectiveness, the tree serving as almost a motherly protective force, and the blue baby representing innocence and vulnerability. For my tiger, the bones being the only part of the artwork sticking out brings the audience’s attention to the stomach of the animal, emphasising the idea of body dysmorphia and being skinny.

The goal of my exhibition as a whole was to spark a sense of reflection in my audience. I wanted the viewers to feel like they were back at childhood selves, full of joy and innocence, no care in the world for anything but being happy. After that I wanted my audience to experience and reflect on struggles they had in their teenage and young-adult years. I wanted to induce reflection in how beauty standards in society and gender expectations not only mentally but physically impact someone in a way that can fully change the way they act. Towards the middle of my exhibition is when I wanted my audience to see that these experiences and feelings are not forever. The values ingrained in adolescence, the ones focused on beauty standards and self-absorption, will not rule over their lives forever. I use

and it’s inevitable. The reason I chose to end my exhibition in that way was because throughout I represented a woman who lived a full and eventful life, so her death is after being able to experience everything she wanted. The deeper meaning of my exhibition is to encourage my audience to reflect on their life, and ensure that the day death comes they will have done everything they wished for and lived the life they wanted with no regrets.

SEASONS OF LIFE, 2025

STAGES OF LIFE, 2024

GARDEN OF EVE, 2025

ARBOL DE LA VIDA, 2025

TIME IN A BOTTLE, 2025

ETERNAL WALTZ, 2024

DANCE WITH DEATH, 2024

POWER, 2025

FRAGILE

ARBOL DE LA VIDA

Clay and acrylic

17 x 7 x 5 cm

This sculpture represents the beginning of a new cycle of life. It depicts a baby growing within the trunk of a tree, emphasizing the connection between growth of a human life and growth of a plant. The tree is painted plain white, drawing the focal point to the child. The white also acts as a symbol of innocence, purity, and fragility, symbolizing the vulnerability of babies in early stages of life. The tree acts as a ‘protective’ figure keeping the child safe and protecting it from the outside world.

FRAGILE POWER

Oil on Canvas

60 cm in diameter

This artwork represents the difficulty of adhering to beauty standards in society, especially for women. Specifically it represents body dysmorphia, and how being skinny in society means having power and influence over others. I used a tiger to represent this message because on the outside tigers have power over other animals because they’re predators, but this artwork represents the pain and fragility that is going on internally, which the outside world can’t see, similarly to human insecurities in real life.

GARDEN OF EVE

Wood, string, nails

25 x 25 cm

This artwork explores the connection between growth, fertility, and femininity. By depicting a woman’s face surrounded by flowers, it symbolizes beauty, strength, and overall womanhood in the Middle Ages of life.This artwork serves as a vessel to celebrate femininity, the beauty of being a woman, and the power we have to be able to bring a new life into this world. The plants further serve as symbols for growth, both personal and the growth of a new life.

ETERNAL WALTZ

Acrylic on Canvas

90 x 60 cm

This artwork represents young love, its purity, intensity, and emotional depth that often goes unrecognized by society. The two swans on the lake, with their reflection in the water as two human figures dancing, conveys the idea that love is real, even at a young age. The dance represents beauty and innocence, with the swans emphasising the idea of love not lust, as they’re animals which mate for life. Swans also represent beauty, innocence, and emotion, adding to the message of the artwork.

SEASONS OF LIFE

Oil on Canvas

60 cm in diameter

This artwork represents the passage of time and cycle of life through the representation of the cycle of life of a tree. It depicts a tree from its first sprout to its death, and all the stages in between which can appear like seasons. The flowers represent fertility, and the fruits represent birth. Then as we move on to autumn we can see the tree start to lose leaves which represents starting to age and eventually die. It depicts the beauty, change, and suffering of human life.

STAGES OF LIFE

Plaster

30 x 20 cm

The three plaster sculptures represent childhood, middle age, and old age. Childhood is depicted through the use of childhood toys, representing innocence and joy. Middle age is represented with flowers, repressing blooming as a person, growth, and fertility. Old age is depicted through rings of a tree, which represents years, and its cracked representing experience and suffering. This artwork was inspired by The Three Ages of Women by Gustav Klimt.

TIME IN A BOTTLE

Digital Photography, printed

40 x 30 cm

It depicts a woman stuck inside an hourglass, trying to break out but not being able to. It represents a time in human life where we don’t want to keep on growing up, but stopping time is not possible, making growing old inevitable. Her efforts of breaking the glass aren’t successful, making her fade to her eventual death. It not only represents time passing, but has a double meaning of not being able to stop or turn back time, encouraging the audience to reflect on appreciating every moment in life.

DANCE WITH DEATH

Acrylic on Canvas

50 x 40 cm

This artwork represents an inevitable stage in the life cycle, death. While death can be depicted as a negative thing, this artwork represents it as a beautiful and peaceful event. By having the two figures dancing, similarly to when they were young, and the woman fading away, it represents death as the end of a beautiful life and paints it in a positive light. The light colors, and symbolism of dancing, shows that she’s dying but was able to live a long, experienced, but overall happy life.

LARA YU

My exhibition explores identity, self representation, and self acceptance, reflecting the emotional and psychological journey of living in a country that is not one’s place of origin. Inspired by my own experience as someone born and raised in Italy with Chinese heritage, I understand how difficult it is to adapt to a completely different culture due to many inevitable reasons. Therefore, it’s important to recognize the efforts of a foreigner of any age, either from young childhood or adulthood. The works express the challenges of adapting to a culture and the ongoing process of self discovery. My art recognizes and represents the process of finding identity, facing the complexities and overcoming the struggle to finally reach self acceptance. For this reason, in my work I employed various means such as sculpture, paint, and photography to represent the diversification of struggles and solutions of each individual.

The selected works investigate different aspects of identity: while some concentrate on personal reflection and emotional phases, others explore representation and perceptions. Echoes of Home captures Shanghai’s nightscape, reflecting the sense of belonging and nostalgia, portraying home as a place that exists in both memory and reality. Still, I Am is a photography series capturing the emotional stages of self-acceptance. This artwork represents the emotional stages of this journey. Following, The Unveiling represents the final stage of this journey. Made of dried clay resembling the color and texture of a rock, symbolizing resilience – something solidified over time, unbreakable after hardship.

Each piece contributes to the theme of identity, capturing change and permanence internal perception and external reality. Together, they invite the viewer to reflect on their own journey, how we shape ourselves, how we are seen and how we find home within.

The arrangement follows the emotional and conceptual progression of self-discovery. The exhibition begins with Flow of Us since self-representation and perception are fundamental to all other stages of identity formation, followed by The Path Within, reflecting personal journey and solitude. Through Foreign Eyes highlights the tension of identity in a foreign space, leading to The Unveiling which symbolizes resilience and self acceptance. Lastly, Echoes of Home reinforces the interplay between memory and belonging, while Still, I Am concludes the exhibition, emphasizing the emotional evolution of self acceptance. The progression of the work encourages viewers to move as if on their own journey of self reflection and transformation.

STILL, I AM, 2025

THROUGH FOREIGN EYES, 2025

FLOW OF US, 2025

FLOW OF US

Fabric, watercolors, wood

200 x 135 cm (about 200 x 120 cm each)

The installation explores self-representation and perception. Layers of transparent fabric in varying colors symbolize how we’re seen by others. White reflets purity and innocence, watercolor splashes embody experience shaping an individual, blue represent positive, and red the challenges. Overlapping fabrics represent the complexities of identity, and the movement within the space alters the way layers interact, mirroring the changing and fluid nature of personal and collective identity.

THE PATH WITHIN

Oil paint on canvas

50 x 40 cm

A painting of a quiet path stretching into nature, reflecting the solitude of navigating one’s journey, especially in unfamiliar places. The sand and endless road symbolize both uncertainty and possibility, moving forward without knowing what lies ahead. In a foreign land, loneliness feels freeing yet isolating, similar to the process of self-discovery. The work invites viewers to enter this space, accepting the unknown and solitude as necessary components towards the pursuit of finding oneself.

THROUGH FOREIGN EYES

Mixed media (photo transfer, oil pastel on canvas)

29.7 x 21 cm

This piece explores the tensions between identity and external perception, especially when navigating life in a foreign country. Traditional Chinese opera masks and the phoenix ascend toward the sun symbolizes personal pride and the path to self acceptance. Conversely, the surrounding faces represent the foreign society observing, judging from their own lens. It highlights the challenge of embracing heritage while being shaped by external gazes, emphasizing identity as personal and perceived.

THE UNVEILING

Clay, fabric

55 x 39 x 11 cm

Sculpture of clay represents the final stage of self-acceptance. The dried clay mimics the texture of stone, symbolizing resilience – something once fragile that has solidified over time. This work reflects the perseverance needed to fully embrace oneself and depicts the strength that comes from self-discovery. Identity is created by experience and becomes indestructible, much like time-shaped rock.

ECHOES OF HOME

Oil paint on wood panel

66.5 x 19.5 cm

Oil paint of the famous Shanghai’s nightscape captures the emotional weight of home – both as a physical place and intangible feeling of aspiration. The interplay of light and shadow conveys nostalgia, memory, and belonging. The city lights glow like distant memories, blurring the line between past and present, reality and dream. Shanghai represents both familiarity and longing – a place tied to personal history yet full of possibility.

STILL, I AM

Digital Photography

63 x 96 cm (30 x 30 cm each)

Six part photography series captures the emotional journey of self-discovery, reflection, embracing, and acceptance. Confidence shifts to self-doubt as new experiences challenge identity. Following, there’s an effort to embrace the present, yet a shadow remains — symbolizing heritage that never fates. The cat represents a personal source of strength, universal to all who find power in something familiar. Lastly, the body expresses comfort and belonging. A journey from uncertainty to assurance.

EMILY ZHENG

My artworks illustrate the inner world of an ever-growing girl, from her exploration within herself, finding a way to accept herself, to her wonders and concerns about the world around her. Each work might explore different themes, cultural roots, belonging, or wonder, but they are all connected by this conceptual thread. The intention of my exhibit is to discover the most truthful and genuine thoughts of my girl, my inner child. I took inspiration from my own life experience as I’m growing and made them tangible and visible, to me and to my audience. Of course, I also got influenced by artistic movements such as the observation of Impressionism, deeply inspiring me to paint and give form to ideas rather than content, and the balance of softness and attention to details in Rococo.

Initially, I made artworks going with the flow, without following a specific theme, and I developed this connecting thread looking at what I had, which coincidentally matched with a message I would love to convey. A pivotal piece is My Path, an artwork you could always go back to after seeing all the other pieces. It evokes the message that everyone’s life path is the best one for them, uniquely different and incomparable. Concerning the choices of materials and techniques, it’s transparent that my selected pieces are all two-dimensional, including some lensbased works, ranging from oil paintings, pencil drawing installation and digital art to photography and video art. It serves as the function of enhancing the meaning of the exhibit by pointing out the flaw many people have to judge a book by its cover, seeing things, and people, very superficially. The double meaning in this relates to the choices I made in terms of the content of my endeavors: they reveal thoughts, reflections, and what my girl values the most at this stage of her life. Each material used was designed for their project based on my artistic and aesthetic values considering their function to enhance the work’s meaning. Deciding to arrange my pieces more compacted to one another, rather than scattered or balanced, and the choice of having a diverse variety of sizes of the pieces, seemingly conflicting but is in reality in equilibrium. My exhibit opens with First Heart and ends with A Princess Dream, two lens-based artworks which raises unity of the entire body of the exhibition. The two paintings following up to the first artwork, in Harmony and A Railway towards Imagination, are allocated diagonally and next to each other as they both prompt reflections on concepts from the portrayal of unreal situations. The fourth artwork, or the central artwork looking at the exhibition overall, is My Path, conveying the ultimate message that any path I take is the best path I could ever take, promoting the golden value of being content with what is owned. After the oil paintings, the remaining three hanging artworks are arranged in the shape of a staircase, one taller than the other, and the last piece off-wall is a video film displayed on a tablet below the staircase. This is to resemble the

aesthetic of a house: starting from entering the house through the door in the opening artwork, into perceiving each artwork one by one as a hallway of the house filled by artworks, and lastly to a little table below a staircase. There is a deep connection between the arrangement of the artworks and the viewers. The decision of recreating the aesthetic of a house is made by having taken the environment given into consideration: a real hallway of the art gallery. As the opening of the overall exhibition, viewers see my exhibit right when they enter the gallery. My choice of the position assists my exhibit as viewers can perceive my whole exhibition to the fullest by entering the gallery in real life as they enter my exhibit, or my “house” spiritually. Dynamic and harmony are both being communicated to the viewer, conveying the volatile and the changing nature in my girl, as well as highlighting the presence of an invisible thread linking all the artworks together.

A PRINCESS DREAM, 2025

MY PATH, 2025

IN HARMONY, 2024

VISIONS BORN IN THE SHOWER, 2025

STAY CHILDLIKE, 2025

FIRST HEART

Photograph shot using iPhone 14 Pro Max on panel

70 x 70 cm

This is a photograph of the doorway of my living apartment, with some paintings younger me made hung on the walls. My home, as the only source of light, a warm and familiar light strikes on a red cleaning mop my mother uses to clean our house everyday, and on a red trail my father uses to carry groceries he takes home every night. It reminds me of the very first reason why I started pushing myself forward: my First Heart. Always coming back at it feeling safe, carefree and empowered.

IN HARMONY

Oil on canvas

40.5 x 51 cm

Ginkgo is the national tree of China, whereas the bird on the branch the girl’s gaze falls onto is a European Robin. Two distinct elements from different cultures appear in one unique piece, creating a conceptual bridge connecting an impossible daydream with the reflection of a third cultured girl’s identity in real life. The girl only shows her profile as she looks at the direction of the bird and ponders whether this is reality or just a fantasy.

VISIONS BORN IN THE SHOWER

Watercolor, colored pencil, grey copic marker, white ink pen on paper

42.8 x 30.5 cm

This work illustrates a girl sitting on the floor of her shower, feeling the water droplets drip on her face as a way to have a contemporary escape and relief from pressures of reality. The faucet turned all the way to the left and the vapor surrounding her indicate the high temperature of this room, and the body and facial expression of the girl suggesting the relaxed sensation of being at ease.

STAY CHILDLIKE

Colored pencil on paper

50 x 50 cm

This piece is composed of two pieces of aged paper of different sizes laid one on top of the other, a cool toned one on the front, using cobalt blue, and a warm toned one on the back, using sage green. A little girl playing with snow is drawn on the front paper, resembling an old photograph, and on the back paper, a setting of childhood elements and flying papers, symbolizing the purest happiness.

A RAILWAY TOWARDS IMAGINATION

Oil on canvas

42 x 59.5 cm

This canvas interprets the wonder in the eyes of a girl looking through the window of a train, where its regularity and coldness contrasts with the scene portraying the creativity and imagination of a child’s brain. In their innocent mind, wind can blow in a closed space, trains made of hard metals can emerge as a light and flexible artifact, and can even fluctuate. The red door echoes with the red emergency hammer, which is a symbol of escaping reality.

MY PATH

Oil on canva

60 x 60 cm

A round canvas to indicate that a life path can have no regular borders, and an artistic conception inspired by the Rococo movement. It conveys the message that a life path has infinite possibilities depending on each step we take choosing our own direction, and the correct path for us. There are symbolic elements, such as the blue fog on the left resembling the shape of a gourd which links to Chinese culture, and the red poppy on the bottom of the frame meaning uniqueness and independence.

FREE LIKE THE WIND

Video art shot using Fujifilm camera X100V on tablet

1 min 35 sec

Everyone can find themselves in resonance with nature. Everyone is a different and unique flower, therefore, everyone is incomparable. This video film is a collage of footage on natural elements out of human control, growing along the rules of Mother Nature, with the purpose to convey a different perspective to think when countering insecurities and comparison.

A PRINCESS DREAM

Mixed media on panel: photographs shot using Fujifilm camera X100V and digital art

47.4 x 80 cm (47.4 x 25 cm each)

Every girl has or had a princess dream deep down in themselves, and every girl should bloom and shine like a firework. This is a series of three digitally manipulated photographs of fireworks: on the right, bloomed to its greatest, resembles a ballerina with a splendid dress; and on the left, it’s the moment before disappearing after the bloom, recreating an elegant dress of firework sparks. These two each represent day and night, two guards of the inner child they surround in the middle.