Year 12 Visual Art

A snapshot of Year 12 Visual Art, exploring Art and Science connections.

Erica Gu Emotional Flux My work explores how much control we have when our emotions fluctuate, and how unstable our emotions can be when the outside world puts pressure on us. This work consists of four self-portraits (Fear, Sadness, Surprise, Acceptance), each representing four very distinct and remembered feelings. Four paintings are fixed in black frames and as the audience passes by and interacts with them they flutter back and forth. The shaky picture obscures and blurs my reality metaphorically suggesting someone else is responsible for how I am feeling. Existentialism is a philosophical approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. My work plays with that idea.

Sarah Campbell Connections Strength in any community is conditional upon Trust and Hope. Communities are like chains- as strong as their weakest links. This work is about what we see, know and reveal openly. It is also about secrets, how we share them and how we lock them away. My work is inspired by the Curiosity Cabinets (Wunderkammer), specifically Medicinal Wunderkammer, and the importance of structure and support in people’s lives. Sociologists quote “friendships are the key to surviving.” Community, trust, and working in groups are all important factors that allow for individual and collective self-preservation. The cabinet will allow audiences to reflect on their own relationships and experiences, and the significance of the connections in their lives.

Morgan Kerr Weightless Harmonies explores weight and weightlessness. Music is a healing power for the brain, and can psychologically be used to release gravitas and internal pressures like anxiety and depression. Music often provokes an emotional response from listeners, and in my works the audience needs to suspend reality to imagine they can hear music to connect with the work. Music can have a positive impact on the weighed-down human condition, yet its impact is unable to be quantified and measured through weight itself. This is ‘played on’ in my works by making instruments look like they are made of graphite rock. ‘The Flow’ is one aspect of positive psychology identified by Milay Csikszentmihalyi, who describes it as the state of absorption we experience when we engage with an activity – enter my “quiet music world.”

Jessica Kim Cemented Grief (above) The human life-cycle results in death; from death the healing process begins. Swiss–American psychiatrist Elizabeth KüblerRoss determined seven stages of grief: anger, denial, bargaining, anxiety, depression, acceptance and peace. Concrete is often considered a nonconventional, ‘lowly’ art material, mainly associated with construction, monuments and graves. I used it along with selected dried and living botanicals to represent some rituals associated with the ending of the human journey. Solidifying botanicals within the concrete and plaster symbolise emotional changes and ultimately closure. Authors Karen French and Keith Critchlow talk of the hidden geometry of life and flowers and secret underpinnings of existence. “But these geometrical archetypes are more than the building blocks of reality: they are gateways to profound new levels of awareness”. (French, 2018). Flowers have a positive impact on the human psyche, and I have deliberately chosen to include them with other shapes and textures to symbolise life’s exit.

Charlotte Cooney Inevitability Our connection with nature is ever-changing and one of extreme complexity. Seemingly the balance between humans and nature is constantly in a state of change and uncertainty. This constant battle is seen through environmental impact, climate change, human expansion, global warming and the extinction of species. As we advance and evolve, it seems nature must adapt to our needs. The Balance of Nature Theory can be defined as a biological equilibrium between the living beings such as human, plants, and animals. My work explores this ever-evolving balance by asking the audience to consider examples of human intervention (out of balance), and also examples of where humans and nature come together as one. It begs the question of the audience as to how they tip the scales in their practices and attitudes.

Holly Nahrung Impact The rapid damage to our natural world and its resources is a common fact that is often ignored by many in order to prioritise self-interest and corporate greed. This is my message that is best explored through a contemporary context. Buddhist practice promotes learning through thoughtful and mindful actions- we must be at one with the world we inhabit. It confronts us to consider what world we leave behind for future generations. Nature in all its majesty of growth and decay sends us messages to alter our attitudes towards its damage. Humans must practice and implore a growth mindset to preserve precious resources. This work explores growth and decay.