SGBIS IB Visual Arts Class 2013-15

IB Visual Arts 2013- 2015 SGBIS

Mario Almeida Georgina Barber Flavia Bernabo Giulia Candotti Chiara Castrovillari Julie Colibeau Nicole Faubel Lavinia Giungi Claudia Menin Capucine Michel Bianca Riefoli Emily Whiteman

MARIO ALMEIDA Francis Bacon once said, “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery”. This quote relates to my experience in IB Visual Arts, because I had to find and develop my talent and direction. As I was a beginner in Visual Arts I had to work hard to uncover the skills that would enable me to express my ideas I am from Angola and have travelled the world, thus experiencing different cultures and points of view based on my encounters with the people I met in each city. As I explored Visual Arts the theme that touched me the most therefore was the variety of the cultures that I have lived in. These changes have influenced my work as most of my projects are based on cultural diversity, such as the globalization of Angolan culture shown in my project with clay (insert name). I have also focused on issues of slavery, colonial rule and civil war as these are all issues that are part of my heritage.

Sculpting with clay particularly inspired me, because the development of my pieces was clearly evident as I worked.

Therefore this material allowed me to explore my ideas appropriately. I had initially struggled with painting. However, during gallery visits in Paris I had the opportunity to examine Francis Bacon’s works in person. I was fascinated by his bold energetic approach. This taught me to experiment with colour and contrast in painting. I particularly enjoyed attempting to recreate his aggressive brushstrokes in my own work Whilst I enjoy creating large studio projects, my main weakness during Visual Arts was working on the IWB pages. I had difficulty adapting to the structure and pace of the work.

However, I found that by working directly from artworks in galleries such as the Musée d’Orsay, I developed stronger research and presentation skills.

GEORGINA BARBER At the beginning of the course I focused on portraiture and developing figurative, representational techniques using media including acrylic paint and chalk and charcoal. In projects the ‘Interruption of flow’ I attempted to play with contrasting colours and shape to see whether they could flow together into one piece. In ‘Hidden words’ project I focused more on how monochromatic media can be manipulated to create detailing, shadows and highlight in faces.

Listening to music and performing in a choir are two key areas of my life. I sought to explore ways in which my work in the visual arts could describe my connections with music. During gallery visits in Paris & Madrid I investigated the work of Degas and Matisse. These artists looked at music in different ways.

Degas was fascinated by dance and the movement of the performers in relation to music; I studied two versions his ‘Little Dancer of Age Fourteen’ in Paris & Norwich. This became the inspiration for my ‘Deconstructed Tutu’ within which I used paint marks to show the choreographed flow of the dancers.

Matisse looked into the pure abstract sensations of the music itself; his cut outs, which were inspired by Jazz, showed me how we are able to translate music into shapes and colours. I used this idea for my ’Synaesthesia’ sculpture project in which I used cut out hands to show my experience at The Holi Festival which was inspired by the colours from the festival and the movement of the people within it.

A problem that I encountered during my process was creating delicate or ephemeral effects in my 3D projects. Clay always seemed too dense and clumsy for my ideas. However, in my project ‘Synaesthesia’ I used cardboard cut-outs and beaten aluminium wire to capture colour, energy, light and movement .

FLAVIA BERNABÒ The projects selected for my final exhibition are connected by a recurring theme: ‘Intimacy and Knowledge’. I paint with greater passion when the subject is someone whom I knew well. For example, my ‘Three Generations Triptych’ was developed around the notion of recording those who are closest to me: three generations of women from my family. I faced a particular challenge while painting my mother due to the technical and formal evolution of my own painting style. This had been influenced by direct studies from Sorolla, and Van Gogh’s work, and consequently tended to be quite stark and angular, thus at odds with the tenderness that I hoped to portray. I overcame this by investigating other artists who had faced a similar challenge when painting their mothers, such as Whistler, Neel and Hockney.

My ‘Ceylon Tea’ piece represents the emerging relationship between an Indonesian tea picker and myself, whom I met whilst travelling: from the left to right, the figure grows in emotions and tender facial expressions. My technical approach in this piece was again influenced by the work of Sorolla.

During a research visit to Madrid I was struck by his compassion and tenderness towards his models, reflected in the use of voluptuous brushstrokes and shimmering lighting.

Sorolla’s heavily patterned and folded fabrics led me to investigate other artists who work in textiles such as Michael Sylvan Robinson and Rosemarie Trockel. These inspired my mixed media project ‘Cara de la Luz’.

Whilst projects such as ‘Tasty Treats’ have moved towards abstraction, I tend to return principally towards portraiture. My ‘Paris Glacé' and ‘Gift Bearer’ projects were particularly influenced by direct exploration of Rubens in the Louvre. His brushwork is much less prominent, creating a subtler variety of strokes and colour schemes, which lead me to develop a layered, more diffused approach.

GIULIA CANDOTTI recent projects explore the theme Humans and their Environment. By this I mean that they often portray an aspect of My

humanity within a specific physical, cultural or emotional location.

My projects “I am The Mad Hatter” and “The Merry Wanderer” portray these “environments” through their use of materials and composition. They both depict a human figure in symbiosis with its setting. I aim to promote a sense of symbiosis and harmony through my art. This perspective reflects my early life in Kenya, where the symbiosis between humans and their natural environment is of clear and constant importance.

During my gallery visits I have had the chance to investigate artworks coming from a variety of different contexts and cultures, ranging from abstract paintings such as Jackson Pollock’s “Silver and brown” to 15th century portraits including Rogier Van der Weiden’s “ Portrait of a Lady”. This investigation has encouraged me to combine very different media and approaches within my projects.

Investigating the work of Michael Borremans, Joaquin Sorolla and Pierre Auguste Rodin in Paris and Madrid has influenced figurative projects such “Urban Life” and “Juxtaposition of Symmetry”.

Borremans has particularly influenced these projects through the use of symbols and props in his paintings to give them an almost theatrical aspect. Sorolla’s paintings create a sense of symbiosis and harmony between the figures in the paintings and their surroundings. Rodin however, has particularly influenced my sculptural projects such as “Natural Skulls” and “The Merry Wanderer” through the tactile directness of his approach as well as his compassionate empathy for his subjects. Throughout the course I have encountered a few issues. One of these included creating the elaborate composition for “I am The Mad Hatter”. This was overcome by working simultaneously in Photoshop and traditional media. This in turn allowed me to generate a range of diverse proposals for my final canvas

CHIARA CASTROVILLARI How do I express the simple, the basic, the elemental energy of nature amidst a life in which I can barely find a tangible connection to it myself?

I cannot. This formed the basis of my work’s philosophy. Nature does not exist individually. It is constantly corrupted and resisted by humankind. My work showcases ‘the symbiosis between humans and nature’, touching upon two extremes of the spectre; on the one hand the antagonistic relationship, and on the other, the synergy.

I began exploring nature in a biological sense: emotional nuances ultimately decided by chemical processes, and perhaps the largest manifestation of nature’s magnificence; the human anatomy. The Ambiguous Forces Triptych was created with this concept in mind: a product of experimentation with oil bar and acrylic paint as my preferred mediums to portray this natural relationship, reflecting the beauty and ease with which this interaction unfurls.

Greatly inspired by Jean Delville’s symbolic and ethereal use of nature in his painting L’Ecole De Platon encountered at the Musèe D’Orsay I created the highly conceptual Rocket Man. A culmination of man’s battling with the natural world, causing an unstable interconnection doomed to extinction.

The sculptor Aaron Demetz illuminated the countless opportunities for the expansion of this theme in terms of manipulation of natural materials as mediums. Indeed Halfway through the course I began using bark, wood and tree stumps as central elements of my work (exemplified in my Balance bodice representing the restoration of an equilibrated connection between nature and humans), and as decorative elements (Ubiquitous Nature and Forest Hysteria).

Underlying all my work was the constant influence of the theatrical lighting of artists such as Caravaggio and De Rivera, whose work I examined closely at the Prado. I have attempted to embody similar dramatic levels of chiaroscuro in my own paintings.

JULIE COLIBEAU “I have been the first artist to use aesthetic surgery in another context -- not to appear younger or better according to the designated pattern. I wanted to disrupt the standards of beauty.”

(Orlan, a controversial French performance artist) I used paint and other mediums not to beautify subjects, but rather distort them in order present a different perspective. A primary example of this being my sculpture ‘Split Personalities’, where I used a 3D medium to explore different levels of distortion from various angles. The use of scarification was to surface internal wounds that society carries within them but chooses not to display, which is the direct opposite to classical art which is solely used to exalt power and strength. In fact, when visiting the Louvre in Paris it was difficult to unearth pieces which complimented my theme of ‘Distortion’.

Only artists like Goya, on the margin of mental sanity, attempted to delve from the norm and no longer represented popular subjects in an aesthetically pleasing manner but instead a dark and dramatic realm of fantasy nightmare.

Olivier de Sagazan, similarly to Orlan, inspired me to adopt unconventional methods to express my desire to change society’s perspective on beauty. I reinterpreted his performance piece ‘Transfiguration’ modifying my own appearance through the use of clay, paint, and flour. I portray the process as a video, as well as depicting several key moments in my associated painting ‘Transmogrification’.

I have developed my theme increasingly straying from the orthodox and harmonious palette, to immediately, visually impact members of the audience who may not otherwise understand my message. The progress of my artistic personality has been fostered under many aspects, including a particular focus on the reception of the audience, which caused of most of my artworks to be of a large scale.

Nicole Faubel During the last two years my work has encountered many moments of change in perspective and style. Art making has become a form of raw expression within which I focus upon the theme of human flesh, specifically female. I have been particularly influenced both conceptually and technically, by my first hand gallery research in America and Europe of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Jenny Saville. Their visceral work has inspired my own expressive and carnal style, particularly evident in my painting ‘The Wound’ I feel extremely privileged to live in an environment (Rome, Italy) in which historical art is woven into modern edifices.

These rhythmic designs have contributed to my developing style in projects such as my abstract painting entitled ‘The 1920s.’ Aside from figurative portraiture, these patterns and forms have also influenced my divergence towards the exploration of the tonality and texture of raw flesh, evoking a lot of energy and hunger in my work. Moreover, this theme has allowed me to explore different media that allow me to capture the weight, tensions and textures of flesh and muscle, ranging from clay, wood and plastic to latex and oil paint. At times, I have also deviated from a central focus on painting and sculpting the female form and explored clothing and wearable sculpture, for example in my dress. Feminism is also a key inspiration for my art. My work aims to sexually liberate the female form and thus can be labeled as sex-positive feminist art. Research on controversial feminist artists such as Cindy Sherman and the late Hannah Wilke have built a foundation upon which I have based recent projects such as my sculpture Gloria. Ultimately, to celebrate the women’s body, my favorite medium remains oil paint due to the sensuousness, carnality and thickness of its texture.

LAVINIA GIUNGI A Visual Arts student should be the embodiment of evolution.

This unconscious, yet molding transformation, has been the major inspiration for my theme ‘the subconscious’.

Stemming from my initial explorations of distortion and disruption, I sought a more subliminal, internal perception of both realism and absurdity. Projects such as ‘The Figurehead of Distortion’, reflect the peculiarity jailed in one’s subconscious.

Inspired by my interest in Caitlin Hackett’s work and my studies of renaissance, classical and post classical mythological art like Botticelli’s, I wished to create an eccentric creature, elegantly portraying captivity through the harshness of the pose and theatrical suspension - in flight yet static This irrationality recurs in my performance video piece, ‘The Dance of the Bulls’ deriving from the cultural inspiration of Madrid. I then painted my vision of this performance on canvas depicting some shots of the video like a macabre circus act. I painted this in a ‘veiny’, visceral manner due to my interest in anatomical art, roused by the works of Fernando Vincente, Danny Quirk and Juan Guatti. Furthermore, my attraction to biological art was fed by the ‘SADE’ exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay.

My latest sculpting piece of a large ceramic torso ‘Creeping Resurrection’, was inspired by the timeless Greek sculptures in the Louvre museum. This piece is extremely sober and representative unlike the ones previously mentioned. It is this temperate feel to my projects, also present in the painting of my mother ‘Juvenis’ that caused me to reconsider my initial theme. I attempted this latter project in a refined manner, inspired by the portraits of Rembrandt, using similar earth tones and faded backgrounds, lighting mainly onto the faces. In these projects my approach was more subtle as the brushstrokes aren’t evident and thick, but rather convey calmness and serenity through veiled paint marks.

CLAUDIA MENIN I have often found myself resorting to art as the only way to express the ideas lurking in my mind. I see art as a storytelling form which is able to embody and convey concepts or ideas which lay parasitical in the mind and with difficulty are expressed in words due to their complexity.

This has brought me to delve into the exploration of the complexity of human nature and the concept of outliers in society, such as in “The King”. As I work on my pieces, I develop relationships with them, in which I delve in a process of constant thought regarding my next move. While sometimes my marks may be made thoughtlessly, producing a piece is like playing a complex game of chess in which every move must be carefully schemed and carried out; in which your opponent is no other than yourself. Many of my works resonate influences and elements from my own plans or other works, yet it is the pieces which started from nothingness that often have more personal value, such as “The Prince”.

While I do not have a set of fixed influences, I build my visual library by striving to find intriguing material in the most mundane elements. Nonetheless the elegance and harmonious compositions of artists such as Gustav Klimt have always resonated in my works; seen mostly in “The Drownage of Chrysanthemums”. Having explored many different mediums from acrylics to clay, I have found the versatility and immediateness of digital art suiting my approach to art the best. Yet this does not impede me from producing works through traditional mediums such as the pencil: the humblest tool in an artist's arsenal which though is able to express form and tonal value exceptionally while still retaining detail, making it one of my most preferred tools of creation.

CAPUCINE MICHEL I have a life-long phobia of birds and yet, somehow, my studio and IWB theme has steadily evolved towards ‘angels, birds and other flying creatures’ focusing particularly on birds!

The exploration of this theme has led me to combine techniques including clay, stencilling, painting on canvas, chalk and charcoal drawings and mod roc. Through the use of these diverse media I was able to develop my own ideas and personal style. A key project for me was the dress because it was a challenging experience in which I combined various techniques.

Even though ‘birds’ may be seen as a very restrictive theme it enabled me to focus on diverse artworks and analyse the purpose of birds in art and what they symbolise in different times and cultures. For example in a recent visit to the Louvre I researched Egyptian art such as the tomb of king Rameses III. The use of diverse materials such as clay, wood and wire to create a life-size sculpture of a huge Secretary Bird, has expanded my view of art being more than just painting and drawing.

Encountering M.C Escher’s in a recent exhibition in Rome inspired me to create two large drawings of many identical bird heads similar to prints. It this work I explore the concepts of shape and line.

A key strength that I have discovered is drawing using chalk and charcoal. In my project ‘When in Rome’ I use this media to create different layers to the drawing and play with shadows.

I have gradually begun to develop more dynamic compositions for my painting work through the use of rapid sketching and Photoshop to try a range of ideas. I have found that drawing directly from the work of painters such as Joachim Beuckelaer in the ‘Louvre’ enables me to develop a greater sense of depth in my work.

Bianca Riefoli In these two years of IB Art Higher I had the opportunity to increase drastically my knowledge on various artistic techniques, artists and how art changed in history and cultures.

Having studied one year in Miami, Florida and the other in Rome, Italy allowed me to experience two different ways of teaching and approaching the course, this was reflected through my art. My skill and style in this subject have grown and evolved, this is visible though the different variety of medium used and canvases that include; paper, card, wood, clay, acrylics, oil paints and photography.

The composition for each project, which are mainly portraits and abstract works, have been either created by digitally manipulating photographs I have taken or with live sketches mostly inspired by other artists. A recurring theme throughout my work is psychology. I explored this theme though art with distortion of images, forms and colors to recreate my perception different psychological disorders. This is particularly evident in the project “Body Dysmorphic” or “Maniac Tunnel” where I tried to express Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Maniac disorder. I was mostly inspired by Wyatt Mills. Another recurring element in my work is portraits, such as my “Sliced Julie” project. I think my style is recognizable because of my bold portraits of my friends, which I enjoy distorting and painting, and the thick brushstrokes I often use to create texture.

I have taken inspiration by the research in my art pages and the visits to exhibitions and museums like those of Paris, which we visited recently, inspiring my latest project “Hybrid Creature”.

Contrasting paintings of female figures from different artists such as Marcel Gromaire, Orazio Samacchini and Pan Yuliang inspired my research.

EMILY WHITEMAN Manipulation of spaces and the emotional inflictions on viewers was my key focus in IB Visual Arts, through visiting galleries such as the Sorolla museum in Madrid; inspired the creation of the sculptural garment which was worn by an opera singer at the 2014 IBAEM conference opening performance, exaggerating aspects from the traditional festive, floral and flashy clothes. I also included ideas from Dale Cihuly’s organic shaped sculptures of glass; with the freely flowing almost growing, twisting, simplistic but rhythmic shapes. This atmosphere guided the construction; using monochromatic tones of black and white to symbolise the beauty of simplicity through a calmer and more harmonious relationship with nature’s surroundings.

My second dress “Detonation of the Black and white colours of music” examines the effects of costume, makeup, scenery and sound together. Inspired by Barbed wire fence, music and Shironuri art. In collaboration with an IB THEATRE student who wore it and danced, showed the convergence of plain, ordinary, typical space into intense, exciting and dramatic space. I created a video of the development of a painting merging in to objects and metamorphosing into unexpected things for example barbed wire fence into sheet music; the barbs becoming the notes on the wire which became the lines of sheet music.

Through IB art the freedom to reinvent familiar situations in new and surprising ways, helped me develop and discover my true artistic passion which is being able to create artistic combinations using my surroundings, exotic materials and my interests. I try to show familiar objects or places in new or surprising ways. Paris inspired the “Dissection if the Eiffel Tower” where I made connections between Art and other subjects; Biology and Geography. Deconstructing and rebuilding ideas based on combinations of the human bodily structure and theories behind complex architectural structures.