Appendix 1
A level art work for submission Curatorial rationale 700 words maximum: I was interested in how change versus similarity impact our lives; change will often force us out of our comfort zones, whereas similarity in day-to-day life can become mundane. We can also become overwhelmed by being out of our comfort zone for too long and ‘unravel’ so we must achieve a balance between change and continuity. Change can also be seen directly through physical transformation by environmental factors, as I explore in ‘Cerulean Dreams’. In Ties, I explore how ideas of change and growth impact individuals, so I interviewed my 3 year old cousin and my 50 year old mum, as well as myself, and took photographs of all of us. Inspired by Maurizio Anzeri and Chiharu Shiota’s string works, I used red threads to create lines of vision into the future of the three portraits. Different shades of red represent different thoughts about the future, and the red is suggestive of bloodlines, showing a progression across life stages. This triptych was designed as an installation, where each portrait hangs with strings extending onto the wall, showing the future as beyond one’s view. I decided to use a corner and walls on either side to display the triptych, arranged from left to right by age. I staggered the portraits vertically so the viewer would understand that I aimed to show three individual points of view rather than the same person. ‘Catalyst for Change’, explores how DNA must unravel in order to replicate itself to make proteins. I like the idea of the need for unravelling to create new growth, since this has parallels with emotional growth. Taking creative freedom, I show these two strands being separate ‘paths’: one flows off the piece onto the wall, and the other stays in its scientific form, where the helix reforms. This represents our varied responses to change and the complexity of our emotions and DNA. The way it flows onto the wall connects further with the viewer as it depicts a relatable human experience of chaos. ‘Unravelling’ is a series of portraits exploring how we respond to change; I depicted the subject unwinding away. I wanted to create a series of portraits, each with a different level of disintegration to show a chronological progression, so it will be exhibited in chronological order at one height. I was inspired by Januz Miralles, an artist who works with mixed media to create airy portraits. On the printouts, I used alcohol inks to create forms with colour, using rubbing alcohol to distort this, and gouache and ink to explore opacity versus transparency. ‘Cerulean Dreams’ i s a triptych that I display along one wall, adjacent to ‘Ties,’ because the sense of abstraction of time and place in both pieces compliment each other. I chose to arrange the photos in the displayed order because of the cinematic progression of the increasing flourish of the skirt. The first and second one show timidness and reservation as the subject is out of focus. The second photo symbolises increasing confidence with the viewer as she stands closer, the shallow depth of field contrasts the defined flowers with the blurred skirt, creating a dreamy filter on the scene. The third photo finishes the triptych with a bold intention of power and control, as the subject appears to wield supernatural power, freezing the skirt in mid-air. In ‘(De)Liberation’ I want to contrast freedom with constraint as these bead structures show freedom in their movements, yet represent regularity and conformity to a biological system. I wanted to express tRNA molecules abstractly by using assorted colours of beads that I hand-strung. I explored the volume and silhouette of organza to represent the difference between chaos and order in the top versus the bottom of the piece. I exhibit this piece next to ‘Catalyst for Change’ because it portrays the previous process of transcription in protein synthesis. I put it across from ‘Ties’ which