Literarti online draft by Greg Morgan

A Journal of Creativity St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s British International School

Designed, produced and edited by Greg Morgan With thanks to all of the staff, parents, students and alumni who have contributed to this edition of Literarti

(Jerome Bruner)

Greg Morgan Thinking About Three Wise Monkeys (detail) Oil on Canvas

Introduction

n the preceding pages, Jerome Bruner offers us a succinct definition for the complex concept of creativity. The ‘act of effective surprise’ implies a useful or appropriate outcome, that was not previously apparent to us. However, many of the greatest innovations, although initially surprising, seem obvious once revealed, through a process of creative ingenuity. Our duty as a school is to prepare students for a largely unknowable future. Beyond enabling them to achieve the best possible results in exams, we also aim to teach for creativity. A capacity to question, invent, adapt and improvise is essential for young people as they approach the challenges and opportunities of their global society. Some outcomes of this aspiration were documented in the original Literarti, produced by Estella Gutulan-Bastide, Maria Radford and myself, several years ago. In that book, we focused predominantly on student work in creative writing and the visual arts. As part of my ongoing role as Lead Teacher for Creative Projects, St George’s Vice Principal, Adam Oliver, asked me to create an updated and enlarged Literarti. This new journal of creativity offers a more comprehensive picture of the breadth of creative activity occurring across our entire school community. The following pages describe projects and activities ranging from whole school initiatives such as the Student Media Team and GTV, to astonishing achievements by individual students in local, national and international competitions. Having worked at St George’s for nearly 20 years, I have come to understand our school as a singularly creative community. From the parents who choose to entrust us with their children’s education, to the staff of our three schools, everywhere you look there are examples of Bruner’s ‘…acts of effective surprise’. In this edition of Literarti, I have included examples of creative writing by Mr Oliver and Mr Ratto, in addition to extracts from a recent novel by La Storta parent, Annika Milisic-Stanley. My colleagues’ creative activities are sometimes linked to their field of pedagogical expertise. For example, our Music Department is comprised of an array of gifted professional musicians. The members of the Drama Department continue to work in film and theatre. In the Art and Design & Technology Department, we are all practicing artists and designers and so on.

A Journal of Creativity St George’s British International School

However, there are many surprises hidden within our faculty. For example: Kathy Kida, our Deputy Head at NJS, is a noted authority on Batik. Raniero Bei, in addition to his work in Modern Languages, TOK & CAS, is also an accomplished pianist who regularly performs with a Jazz ensemble. Teaching for creativity is evident throughout our school. For example: in projects such as Roberta Pazardjiklian’s use of gallery visits to inspire poetry and musical compositions in Key Stage Three. At IB level, Sonia Barber’s Year Thirteen Economists’ creative writing was awarded a major prize in an international competition. Many other examples of teaching and learning at St George’s being concerned with far more than exam results alone, can be found within this book. Our staff and students frequently demonstrate their growth mindsets through exploring areas outside of their obvious comfort zones. This can include our Head of Economics running a Mosaic Club or teachers from diverse academic areas providing sports coaching. I was delighted by the enthusiastic attendance of the ‘Teachers’ Art Club’ that I ran last year. Our many musical concerts, theatrical productions and major charitable projects such as ZOA, all rely upon the seemingly boundless creativity, ingenuity and adaptability of St George’s staff, students and parents. Greg Morgan

Using Literarti.

have used QR codes throughout this book, in order to allow readers to access associated media including video, audio and websites. In order to access and enjoy these resources, you need to use a phone or other device, equipped with a camera and QR code reading software. Suitable apps such as QR Scanner are widely available for free online. If you are reading the digital version of Literarti then simply click on the QR codes in order to access the relevant hyperlinked resources.

Venice International University V

enice International University is located on the island of San Servolo. Earlier this year the President of VIU, Umberto Vattani, hosted several meetings with Ms Williams and Mr Ryan, to discuss the possibility of developing a number of collaborative projects between St George’s and his own organisation. Amongst his many previous roles, Sig. Vattani has served as Italian Ambassador to Germany, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and President of the Italian Trade Commission. He is currently engaged in a wide range of international cultural, artistic and economic endeavours beyond his work with VIU. Consequently, we are particularly pleased that he has asked to involve our own school in some of his future projects. To initiate our long term partnership with VIU, we were invited to bring a group of students to visit San Servolo, so as to experience their unique campus. We were also asked to participate in a significant performance work by Chinese artist Qin Feng, that took place in the former Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore. Eight members of Y12 were selected for their creativity, curiosity and eloquence. Accompanied by Ms Williams and myself, the students used the journey up to Venice to carry out additional research in preparation for their meetings with Sig. Vattani, his university staff and Qin Feng. La Serenissima greeted us with a torrential downpour. Fortunately, resplendent in wellingtons and waterproofs, we were well prepared for anything that the elements could throw at us, including acqua alta. We filmed and photographed our way across the canali, ponti, campi and calli, until we reached the vaporetto from San Zaccaria to San Servolo. Having settled in to our accommodation at the university, we then set off for our appointment with Sig. Vattani, Qin Feng and the illustrious art critic, Achille Bonito Oliva. Qin Feng’s ink painting performance took place under a replica of Veronese’s ‘Wedding at Cana’, in Andrea Palladio’s refectory of the Basilica di San Giorgio. Accompanied by a solo cellist, the artist scythed his colossal brush across the canvas covered floor. Audience members frequently risked a splattering of inky droplets. Once the show was over we met the artist himself and were extensively photographed by the attending press. The following morning our group met with VIU’s programme coordinator, Cristina di Gioia, who gave us a tour of their facilities. This was followed by a fascinating presentation of the university’s history, aims and their ongoing work with visiting students and professors from around the world. Our students were a credit to St George’s, as they enthusiastically articulated their ideas and questions. We discussed opportunities for many innovative creative and educational collaborations between our two organisations. We set off back into Venice with our heads buzzing with fascinating possibilities. After a session of drawing, photography, critical writing and poetry in Santa Maria della Salute, we had lunch around the Accademia. We then hopped on to the number 2 vaporetto back up the Grand Canal to the railway station. The students spent the return journey to Rome editing a video documenting their trip and generating further ideas for our new partnership.

Nomentana Junior School At The Keats-Shelley House

ear 5 and 6 students from St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nomentana undertook a 3-week poetry and art workshop with Viviana and Isadora from Art and Seek. This project was in collaboration with the Keats Shelley House in Rome. The students and teachers investigated the life and work of Byron, Keats and Shelley. They produced visual artworks and creative writing on diverse themes. Their final outcomes, including the collaborative poems shown on these pages, were displayed in the Keats Shelley House. KK

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eech leaves leech summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heat, boil themselves brown on the bough. Sugars ferment into unpoetic nouns: anthocyanine; carotenoid; xanthrophyll. Slipped emerald capes reveal flashes of strange orange lingerie over a skeletal frame. Exiled Ovid would applaud this slow metamorphosis each year when, for carmen et error, in Tomis he watched another season fall orating to a room filled with the deaf writing for a salon of the blind waiting for what never comes: recall. Adam Oliver

Ruihong Jaing: Year Eleven Autumn (After Giuseppe Arcimboldo)

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The Process Portfolio in IB Visual Arts at St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Maths Extended Essay

The Tautochrone Problem

he following extract is from the Extended Essay in Mathematics produced by Edoardo Mancini. The section below describes the initial part of creatively solving the Tautochrone problem.

Section A: Derivation of the Equation of the Tautochrone The problem The Tautochrone problem asks: “which is the curve down which a bead placed anywhere will fall to the bottom in the same amount of time?” The etymology of the word “Tautochrone” derives from Greek, tauto signifying “same” and chronos, meaning “time” . Reaching a solution to this problem requires an assumption of a frictionless surface and uniform gravity where a particle can freely slide down only under the aforementioned force. I have created a diagram, not to scale, of a possible curve in 1. The distance remaining to the end of the curve is denoted as s, and the curve will start at the origin and end at a general point (P,y p ). Assumptions and modelling For the purpose of reaching a final solution, namely that the equation of the Tautochrone is that of a cycloid, I have considered a particle of mass which, were it to be hanging freely in space, would experience a force due to gravity acting downwards equal to standard acceleration due to gravity, g.3

Weisstein, Eric W. “Tauthochrone Problem” http:// mathworld.wolfram.com/TautochroneProblem.html Accessed 04 October 2015 Merriam Webster, “Tautochrone” http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/tautochrone Accessed on 05 December 2015 This derivation is based on Proctor, Richard. “A treatise on the cycloid and all forms of cycloid curves and on the use .,of such curves in dealing with the motions of planets, comets, and c. and of matter projected from the sun” London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1878. (135-139) Image source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_ inclinato#/media/File:Piano_inclinato.svg. Accessed on 05 ..December 2015

Considering intermediate scenarios, when the particle is placed on an incline at angle θ above the horizontal, to calculate the effective gravity I have resolved g in its tangential and normal, g sin⁡θ and g cos⁡θ as in Figure 2.

Extracurricular Creativity The Key Stage Three Mosaic Club

S3 the K rds f o t r a e boa ed he st m t a w n e a ear s ject – ics you n e y o r t s p a t sa os rs s, l orge’ d on our fi autiful mo osaici wh a e G t e n M S ion o ts of we decide o make b inamarie t n a r e r o a X T P s llab m the initial idea corridor. come from ctly in co o r f ly g e C jects o is corr to ful undin ter lots of oards on f o r s o p d t r t h s oa Af firs eb tw ion hank lub. notic d for this Mosaicis and b – precis C e d c s i e u a n e e us sig new lac hed e ho Mos d, de he right p lved in a or se we ccomplis ve th e o o n h b n t a a a d nt rrid nvo on. s pl to go ul tiles an yer, is an tiles i ve been i and D co Lond e student e f n i h i A t t u a C ha um th ing tin bea Chris V&A Muse photos, t gett students s between t. , n r e e p n s en ow the air the re the from Hours we This year central st ic departm ct at e ine e j e o r s p n . . erald us he t a t s l G c m e u n t s s e u o a u e h th As yo nt the ho the end r rds to go work in t ages m i e a l e o s t o u e f m uti repr rful b to do so rtant e bea t impo ting colou a m e i o r a s ! is dc a we rn an oo quickly ct cre is project a e j e l o r o t p ll ct fter th siasti izzes by a u h t and a n h w oe are s lunchtime s t n e tud the The s and I find ll Farre

ne of our topics in a Language B Italian lesson, was related to the beauty of words in different languages. Students discussed the sound of words and the nuances of meaning that they convey, according to the context they are used. They realized that words can be mixed and used in an infinite combination of relationships to express new ideas and communicate feelings and emotions. Therefore, we decided to play with words in Italian, using pages torn out of an old book. Students chose their favorite words from random pages, and inspired by the art of Tom Phillips, they combined words to write and illustrate thoughts and ideas inspired by the evocative power of words. RP

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community. Our Head of Nomentana Junior School, Michael Barber, discovered TEDx Transmedia. This particular series of conferences has been organised by curator, producer, designer, pioneer, speaker, strategist, change maker and self proclaimed ‘proud geek’ Nicoletta Iacobacci since 2010. Michael contacted Nicoletta to discuss the possibility of involving our staff and students in her conference. I was then asked to coordinate our 3 schools’ involvement in her events at MAXXI and The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. I worked with with staff and students from both Junior Schools, plus the Economics, English, Music, Art & Drama Departments as well as ZOA, to contribute a range of presentations for the conferences. Our students took to the TEDx stage alongside internationally renowned authors, film makers, games designers and visionaries from diverse fields. They presented talks on subjects as diverse as: ‘ Drones’, ‘ The Ethics of Street Art’ ‘Experiences of Serenje’ and ‘Becoming a Change Maker’. Our choirs, musicians, artists and GTV crews also enlivened and recorded the events. GM

From The Bow Seat ocean awareness student contest B

ianca Pozzi in Year Eight created this amazing image and explanatory text as her prize winning entry to the annual ‘From The Bow Seat’ competition. This project was developed in 2011 by a family who were concerned regarding ocean pollution in their local area. Having created their own documentary they became aware of how powerful artwork in its many forms can be, and took this to a global level by offering competition opportunities to young people around the world to create ‘the next generation of ocean caretakers’ Bianca was one of 900 international entires in the middle-school category. She was awarded the silver medal and $750. VB

elating to the competition theme, I chose to concentrate on Plastic Pollution. My painting depicts the negative effects of plastic on marine life. I show this through the image of the sea-bird’s rib cage filled with plastic waste abandoned by humans on beaches or in the sea. The plastic eventually falls out of the bird’s body and reaches the baby (which I chose to represent as a reflection of the bird). This means that the effects of plastic pollution harm marine life but will be reflected onto the human race if we don’t stop it. Through my painting however, I don’t only want to transmit a negative message but I chose to show that by flipping the page around, the child (representing us humans) has the power to stop pollution reaching it. I believe this can be done and entered the contest to give others the motivation I have.

I first became aware of the plastic pollution issue in oceans walking along a beach in Canada, where I saw a sea-bird who had been killed by a plastic ring. I drew the sun in the style of Native American artwork because of this memory. A man on the beach then told me “You can also help the loons, if you try”. From that trip I was given the nickname “loon” (a type of sea-bird) and I want to try to help our oceans. Bianca Pozzi

The Art Expedition for AS and IB Visual Arts Students

ach year our IB and AS level Visual Artists undertake the Art Expedition as a central part of their course. In locations including Paris, Venice, Madrid, Florence & Barcelona, they investigate the work of other artists as well as exploring and documenting the urban and cultural environment of the city. The visual and written material that they produce contributes to their Visual Art Journals and Process Portfolio. Crucially for Year 12 students, the Art Expedition is the starting point for their Comparative Study. This is a written and visual project of around 4000 words, within which they compare thematically linked artworks and artefacts from diverse times, places and cultures. The museum and gallery visits allow students to investigate many of their key works at first hand. Each student produces around 20 pages of research during the expedition, in addition to many hundreds of photographs and extensive video footage. In larger galleries such as the Prado or Louvre, they will typically work independently for 5 hours at a time. Their work must reflect their personal concerns and evolving themes within their studio work. Consequently, the teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; role is to constantly circulate around the galleries supporting and guiding individual students, rather than leading the entire group as a tour. We often do some drawings of our own alongside the students. It is an exhausting, but highly rewarding project for all involved GM

The Art Expedition for AS and IB Visual Arts Students

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Extension & Challenge

Creatively Exploring Photography

ften the photography that is produced within IB and GCSE Art is primarily for gathering imagery that can be used as a reference for more traditional methods such as drawing and painting.

However, at St George’s, the Art Department appreciates that photography is in itself a popular and exciting artistic medium and therefore the students are challenged to use it to develop their portfolios. At GCSE level the students use it when on their educational visits as additional tasks. The students are taught how to experiment with angle, lighting, shadow and composition in order for their work to be more thought provoking. This idea is developed further by encouraging the students to work both in full colour and in black and white. The GCSE students are also introduced to the work of David Hockney and in particular his ‘joiner’ technique. This encourages the students to not only produce creative collages but also requires the students to analyse the structure and shape of their subject matter in more detail. At IB level, as part of their Process Portfolio, the students are provided with a specific photography based project. The students are introduced to a variety of artists and photographers that focus on the idea of portrait distortion. The students are then provided with materials and props to allow them to try to replicate the artists’ styles and techniques. This project not only provides the students with a specific photography based portfolio but also provides creative imagery to work from to produce large scale drawings and paintingss as well as using media such as lino printing. The students live in a world whereby lens based media form a huge part of their everyday lives and the work that is provided in the Art Department excites and inspires them to develop their skills. RL

Intimatio

Ruihong Jaing: Year Eleven Seamus Heaney (After Tai-Shan Schierenberg)

ons of Mortality L

ife and death mingle inseparably in Human Chain, the twelfth book of poetry by Seamus Heaney. Everywhere plants / Flourish among graves, notes the narrator of A Herbal, and it is the interplay of this intricate, intimate bond that is crucial to understanding his latest work, the first collection from the Nobel Laureate since recuperating from a mild stroke in 2006.

Family and friends, places and objects, the natural world and the realms of language and literature all form other links in the chain of the title, just as they connect all Heaney’s work. Nevertheless, his brush with mortality sets the tenor of the volume from its first poem. Had I not been awake treats the sudden brief trauma of the attack metaphorically. It is A wind that rose and whirled until the roof / Pattered with quick leaves off the sycamore. A precise attention to etymology is a feature of Heaney’s style and his choice of wind as metaphor is typically careful: our abstract noun ‘inspiration,’ to be filled with ideas or creative energy, derives from Latin sources where it means ‘to breathe into.’ With its swirl of inspirational wind and its liquid pattering of leaves, the line holds more than an echo of the epigrammatic couplet which opens The Haw Lantern: The riverbed, dried-up, half full of leaves. Us, listening to a river in the trees Heaney’s narrator is strangely galvanised by this gust which nearly kills him: it got me up, the whole of me a-patter / Alive and ticking like an electric fence. Stroke blends with the lightning-strike of creativity; a brain-storm that is simultaneously destructive and creative. The collection, like the life, will take root in the borderlands of life and death; will Flourish among graves energised by the electric nature of the thin fence dividing the two states. Heaney’s first collection, Death of a Naturalist, was published in 1966. In a career spanning nearly fifty years he has unsurprisingly rubbed shoulders with death on many occasions. Even as early as that first major volume he was writing movingly about bereavement, the poignant and muchanthologized Mid-Term Break exploring the loss of his brother. Likewise 1987’s The Haw Lantern centres on the eight-sonnet sequence Clearances, discretely dedicated in memoriam M.K.H. and remembering his mother. In Human Chain, the experience of the stroke makes the confrontation with mortality even more direct. The second poem to deal with his illness, Chanson d’Aventure, substitutes the comfortable pastoral allegory of Had I not with a harsher, more industrial metaphor. Like a broken-down machine the stroke-paralysed narrator is Strapped on, wheeled out, forklifted, locked / In position for the drive to the hospital. We are accustomed to a more agricultural, more ‘human,’ voice in Heaney’s verse and the unexpected shift of register embodied in those four verbs of imprisonment (Strapped, locked) and mechanical movement (wheeled, forklifted) suggest his own sudden dislocation. The primal Heaney voice of field and furrow will slowly re-establish itself, but at the moment of rupture the narrator’s first recourse is not to nature but rather the support of his wife, Marie. They mirror each other: Our postures all the journey still the same, a painterly still-life with the threat of death hung over it. The ambulance ride to an uncertain diagnosis is agonising - no transport / Ever like it – but again it is the brush with death that makes life and language blossom. Playing upon the ambiguity of transport Heaney is able to fuse the literal sense of the ambulance he lies in and the word’s other meanings: the frightening ‘removal from this world to the next’ and the poetic ‘Carry away with the strength of some emotion.’

A poem begun mechanically takes flight from this noun that does double service in both common and abstract forms. Part one of Chanson concludes with a literary reference to one of the richest of English writers, the Metaphysical poet John Donne. But Donne has been present before he is name-checked. The clue again rests in the multiple meanings attached to transport. In its sense of being carried away with great emotion it is synonymous with ‘ecstasy,’ and so we are led to Donne’s poem The Extasie. We see that Heaney has been re-writing Donne’s meditation upon love and the human soul, renewing the poetic chain in line after line: Everything and nothing spoken / And we said nothing all the day; Our eyebeams threaded laser-fast / Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread / Our eyes; Our postures all the journey still the same / All day, the same our postures were. The bell will one day sound for Heaney too, but not yet. The poem ends with him in step // Betwen two shafts, another’s hand on mine. The human chain, rebuilt through love and through the literary tradition, completes itself for a moment, ends touching as life and death connect. The elderly poet remembers his youthful beginnings, and in that moment of rural surety feels the pressure of a hand from the other side of the electric fence. A fatherly hand, still present to help steer the ploughshare through the hinterlands of his lot of years. Literature and language from the ancient world underpin Human Chain as deeply as the masters of the English canon. As Alphabets, in The Haw Lantern reminds us, Heaney’s classical education included column after stratified column / …of Elementa Latina. When, in Album, his grandson rushes him With a snatch raid on his neck Heaney is struck as a parallel embrace…/ Swam up into my very arms. He is thinking of Aeneas, the hero of the Roman poet Vergil’s Aeneid, trying to embrace the ghost of his father Anchises. Heaney’s memory is not just of stories, but, again, of the individual words that compose them. The tender sincerity of the hug leads Heaney to recollect that phantom / Verus, Latin for ‘true,’ in more detail. In a parallel verbal chain of its own the word has survived for two thousand years in our modern quantifier ‘very.’ We use it to call something very good, or very bad, for example. Heaney however, ever the watchful etymologist, uses the word not in its modern adverbial or adjectival senses but in its archaic manifestation, where it holds literally ‘true’ to its root meaning. Holding true is an important notion in Heaney’s work. The Riverbank Field, a poem placed near the centre of Human Chain and arguably one of its central links, sees linguistic echo amplify into direct translation. Ask me to translate what Loeb gives as / ‘In a retired vale…’ The words are again from Vergil’s Aeneid, and the elderly Heaney repeats another youthful act, reworking the verse as he was enjoined to often / ‘In my own words’ whilst a student. His re-phrasing explores Vergil’s consoling suggestion that the human chain extends beyond death. That the after-world is only another part of our journey, where the soul… longing to dwell in flesh and blood / Under the dome of the sky awaits rebirth. And again, humanity and language are united in the human chain as the verb translate, like that earlier transport, is made to do double service. It is not just the act of converting words from one language to another, but chimes with its other, original meaning: ‘carried over’; ‘to be removed from one state or place to another.’ The form of most of these poems, the shape of the ‘chain,’ is the tercet. Each three-line verse is usually marshalled into poems or sections of four stanzas. Heaney’s use of these ‘squarings’ has grown in frequency as he has matured. They are rare in the early collections, occurring only once in each of Death of a Naturalist and Door into the Dark. Where they do appear, as in Rite of Spring, the line seems tentative. The tetrameter feels jerky, the product unfinished compared to the fluent iambic pentameter of Human Chain.

Here the squarings are so common that their utterance is like a heart-beat, cardiac dull / …taken for granted. Through regularity and recurrence poetic form is able to subtly suggest unity, the sense of a single speaking voice that in the early collections is present in tone and manner but not so coherently presented by form. It is appropriate that Heaney has built his twelfth book of poetry from these twelve-line ‘bricks’ which, in his maturity, he seems capable of laying as profligately as his father and grandfather cut the turf in that very first poem, Digging. The poet Colm Toibin, in a sensitive review of Human Chain in The Guardian, called the squarings sonnet(s) without a couplet, that display a refusal to close and conclude. In this sense, the predominant form of the collection marries with the central content. These ‘almost-sonnets’ teeter at the brink, the tipping-point where we might expect the ‘turn’, the sudden delivery to our expectant ears of consummation. And they do not deliver it. The final couplet is always absent, the last link in the chain absented. Where we expect an end, we find the possibility of continuity. We are reminded that it is a poet’s task to raise questions, not answer them. Looking for solutions rests with the reader: in any poem the writer is at one end of the chain; we, the audience, at the other. There is, however, a form of answer to conclude Human Chain. The ordering of the poems in a volume is always significant, and in selecting A Kite for Aibhin as the last poem Heaney makes an optimistic statement. The poem is dedicated to his latest granddaughter, and this very literary kite also features in an earlier poem for his two sons. The suggestion is of continuity, of family: the genetic incarnation of the human chain, travelling into the unknown future: A white wing beating high against the breeze.

wrote this article just after Seamus Heaney had recovered from serious illness. ‘Human Chain’ would however prove to be the Nobel-winner’s last collection; his health again deteriorated and he died not long afterwards. It was very poignant, re-reading this piece before its reproduction in Literarti, to come across: The bell will one day sound for Heaney too, but not yet. The poem ends with him in step // Between two shafts, another’s hand on mine. The human chain, rebuilt through love and through the literary tradition, completes itself for a moment, ends touching as life and death connect. Seamus Heaney was one of the most lyrical, most human and most humane poets of our time, and I recommend his work to all lovers of poetry who have not yet discovered it.

Adam Oliver Originally published in emagazine September 2012

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Y11 Creative Writing

Detail of Self Portrait by Daniele Chen Y13

e all see refugees on the TV news and in the newspapers every day. The problems are inescapable, but do we often stop to think what it would be like to have to flee our homes taking just what we can carry? This is what our students were asked to do for the Vivi Vejo competition in the summer of 2015. The results were staggering. These young people demonstrated an impressive degree of empathy, compassion and thought. Following Atticus Finch’s advice in To Kill a Mockingbird “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” These students considered just what it was like to be wrenched away from all that is familiar and, adopting the persona of the refugee, explained their experiences.

DBW

The Refugee Camp y fingers curled around the icy iron bars. They matched. My calloused hands with the undersides of my M fingernails caked with dirt; and the iron bars themselves, also filthy. The rust, tinted the colour of orange spices back home, hit me with nostalgia, as if my heart were burning a hole through my thin shirt. The chill of

the late winter afternoon stabbed me like a dagger; my flimsy clothes did little to keep me warm as the wind sent a shiver through my body, from my head to the ends of my toes. I spent my days idle. We were only allowed out of the gym for a few hours a day. The gym itself, formerly belonging to a school which had long since closed down, was littered with mattresses and clothes. We sleep shoulder to shoulder; on cold nights like this, we are grateful for the bodily warmth of the person next to us. A person we met days before. A person who likely doesn’t share a language with you. A person who came from a different background to you, yet here you are, huddled together in the vast, spacious hall, gripping each other to share the little heat that still remains, with the shrill sounds of the wind making its way through the cracks of the derelict ancient auditorium. And, in the dead of night, the gym is quiet; the coal black sky visible through the skylight windows above remind me of the dark, dark sea that one evening, when only a dozen of us out of many didn’t drown when the boat capsized. Something about the forceful draught brought the memory to the surface of my mind. I think, it was how eerily similar the wind was to the screams. It sounds like I’m saying the refugee centre was like a prison. It wasn’t really. Yes, the rules were strict. Yes, we had as little as we would have had in a prison. Yes, there was a sense of entrapment but calling it a prison… it makes it seem like we’ve done something wrong. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind; it wasn’t a prison, rather a temporary lodging until we could find work. When we arrived, there was a basketball hoop at the corner of the gym; we played around quite a bit. With nothing else to do, we passed our time rolling our clothes into balls and tossing them to see if we could get them through the net. They often hit the backboard and bits of peeling paint came crumbling down onto the mattresses below. The games we played were fun; they were something to do. The only downside was that we had to shake off the bits of old paint that got caught in our tattered jeans; now you could barely see the marker lines on the backboard, the paint had all peeled off. Much to our dismay, one day the hoop gave out. It broke clean off the board and barely missed a young girl from Palestine. It drew attention; it made sense, in the circumstances, that people would be more concerned for the safety of a young, eight year old girl than us, the people who caused the hoop to fall, grown men in their late twenties. But the girl barely flinched. As if dangerous falling objects were common in Palestine. Instead, now, we use the metal frame of the structure to hang clothes. It removes some of the clutter from the floor. A man came by once. I met him for the first time outside the camp. He was tall, his beard unkempt, and whitening by the day. The hairs were bristly; his voice was slightly muffled when he spoke. And when he spoke, his words were long, his language sophisticated. He had an eloquent way with words, and carried himself in a way that showed off his refined character. Despite this, he was discreet, shown in the watchful way he handed me the disposable camera, and told me he had a job for me to do on the inside, in exchange for a permanent job on the outside. I met him a week later in the same place. The same time. I’d smuggled in the camera, I did what he said, I took photos of daily life inside the centre. The guards wouldn’t allow anyone from the outside to go in. ‘And what about the job? The permanent one. Y’know, the one that’ll get me out of the camp, and out making some money I can send back?’ Same time. Same place. Next week. He’d give me the details of the job- where to go, what to say. And we shook on it. Same time. Same place. A week later. This time was a little different. This time, I was there. And he wasn’t. Isabella Houghton Year 11

Why Won’t You Say My Name? Why won’t you say my name? You avoid it like a plague, like if it rolls off your chapped lips, you would catch my disease. Why won’t you say my name? Is it because my language is as strange as my face? You only recognise me from what you see not what you know. And you do not know. Why won’t you say my name? Is it because you have already created one for me? Do not think I cannot see your banners; ‘Go home refugee’. I have no home to go back to. Why won’t you say my name? Maybe you will not feel guilty for denying me food. If you do not know me, you do not owe me; not even a sip of water. Why won’t you say my name? I have been forced into a dangerous journey, into a death trap of a boat. But the trap is not the boat, it is the hope it gives. Why won’t you say my name? I have crossed oceans for you. I have left my brothers and sisters behind for you. I escaped once, only to end up in another cage with you. Why won’t you say my name? My children cry out, their voices as soft as a cloud, but there is nothing I can do so I close my ears. The hero they knew is not the shell I am. Why won’t you say my name? I kissed the ground when I arrived, and danced as if there was a secret symphony in my soul, as if my veins were nothing but fire, blazing and nurturing a deep optimism. Why won’t you say my name? I had hoped it was just a phase, that after a while you would open your arms and doors for me, let me in. Why won’t you say my name?

Emily Msolla Year 11

This Apparent Wonderland unpleasantly amusing to think nothing has really changed. As usual, it is the promises that Ioftturnissolitude to disappointments, as one is never truly free. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m used to it by now. When in a constant state and desolation from the rest of the world, one learns to be tough and embrace what

life gives to them. Therefore, I often think back to when that narrow cramped boat had started to oscillate, I thought that the pungent smell of sea salt filling the air around us would be the last breath I would take. The vessel lurched back and forth, back and forth and back and forth: cradling us into discomfort Unfortunately I was not pushed out at sea. I made it to Rome alive. This is the problem: I survived. My family did not. The boy to my left seems aged by the sun, his parched skin perfectly complementing those despondent eyes. Once they had radiated hope, excitement and anticipation at the prospects offered by this apparent wonderland. Now these distopic surroundings trap us like caged animals. As the boy and I head to the refugee camp, I can sense the glares. It is quite perplexing and ironic how it is the luckiest and the most prosperous of people who end up being the most closed-minded and apathetic. This boy and I, we have survived the bombing of our own homes; we have crossed oceans, stripped of our lifejackets and deprived of food; we have seen so much death that the fear these prejudiced minds are now trying to provoke leaves us merely indifferent. We are simply too numb. Too numb to recognise the flow of blurred faces around us. Too numb to even notice or acknowledge the architectural details of the monumental buildings of Rome. People have a tendency to assume that we are ungratefully arrogant towards the aid they offer to us. We arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. It is just challenging to show appreciation to people who claim to be compassionate whilst, if they were to speak with candour, simply pity us. Yet, as the void between our silences becomes bigger, the boy and I seemed to be connecting more than ever. We used to be in the same boat, both literally and metaphorically. Our peculiar and damaged bond grows stronger; in times like these, one must always have someone to can rely on; one who will offer reassurance during the darkest of times. Everybody needs a rock-solid person to rely upon when the world seems to be crumbling. Someone to believe in us when we have lost all hope. It was hard at first. Every time his eyes met mine, it elicited vivid flashbacks. Yet, no matter how terrifyingly morbid those hallucinations were; I was able to push aside that reminiscing memory and nostalgia of home and embrace the road lying ahead of us. The boy was all I had to fill the pit of melancholy burrowed deep in my heart. We had both built up resilience, hence we did not reflect our emotions in our actions; yet still, unfathomably, we knew exactly what the other was feeling. With a mere gaze- we could give comfort and reassurance to the other. We arrived at the refugee camp in the midst of night; the bitter chill of the wind took a deep dig at our skin. I looked over at the boy to find an expression I had never seem him wear yet: curiosity. His eyes wild and fixed on the entrance; painted on his face, an expression of both assertiveness and contentment as we entered our new home.

Olivia Whimpenny Year 11

A Distant Whisper

he thatched roof above my head laid bare the damage of years of carelessness and harsh T winters. Wide cracks coursed across the white plaster walls as veins would on the arms of a young man. I focused on the gentle tip-tap of water in the rusty, broken sink. Tip-tap, tip-tap.

Tiny water droplets fell at a steady and regular beat. Tip-tap, tip-tap. A sound that under different circumstances would have irritated me now gave me comfort because at least I had the certainty that no matter what happened that droplet would fall. A certainty that I had not felt in a while. The repugnant smell of sweat filled my nostrils and caught at the back of my throat. The rough weave on the hard mattress clawed at my sore back. And yet it was still better than being back at home. I shut my eyes. Thinking about those four walls I used to call 'home' made my stomach churn. And neither sleeping nor crying could alleviate my nausea. With my mind I traced the skylines of Rome as seen from the back seat of an old, battered bus. The apartment blocks, pine trees, the cramped streets. I saw the bewildered faces of the locals: some concerned and others raging. But most of them had fear in their wild eyes, a thick, grey cloud that blurred their view. Whether the fear was theirs, or simply a reflection of ours, I do not know. Eyes closed, I allowed my mind to travel. My parched lips parted only slightly. My body relaxed, my breath steadied. And then I was at sea; salty waves lapped at the bow of the boat. A salty breeze ruffled my hair. My clothes were drenched, probably due to a storm I could not recall. It felt as if I had been sitting in that boat for countless months, maybe years. Bright sun rays hit my eyes, reflecting like silver on the surface of the water. I scanned my surroundings squinting my eyes, desperate to find another pair of eyes to look into. But the faces of the people encircling me were distorted; their features unclear. I heard their howls and felt their touch but could not see their eyes. I was surrounded by people and yet I was alone. A solitude that creeps up only to hit you hard when you least expect it. As if you had shoved it in your rucksack when fleeing your county, a baggage too heavy for the heart to carry. I fumbled for my wallet, taking out the only photograph I had of the family I had left behind. Trapped in that photo was my seventeenth birthday; mother and father standing tall and smiling; my brother Adnan and I cradling our sister Sabeen. A warm teardrop trickled down my cheek, splattering onto the faded photo. "Saad." A distant whisper reached for me. The waves had stopped lapping. The breeze had stopped blowing. "Saad." I could hear my name being called, but all I could think about was its meaning: the fortunate. I scoffed. How inaccurate it was. "Saad." I awoke with a sudden jolt, only to find two hazel eyes staring straight into mine. I remained anchored for a few moments. The bright glare of his volunteer uniform screamed at my exhausted eyes. Beyond the flutter of his eyelashes I could see his fears, his preoccupations, just as he could see mine. I felt bare. Those beady eyes peered inside my soul and I couldn't stop them. I feared he'd judge me for leaving my family behind, for letting them down. A sense of pure shame swept over me. I had forgotten what staring into someone's eyes was like. Sofia Pellegrino Year 11

White Plastic Cup there: on a cold winter’s day; shivering and exhausted; on the thin mattress full of holes and Imysitcovering myself with a flimsy blanket. My thin grey hair, once so lush, deep and dark is stuck to forehead by white, salty crystals. My face, once so full of life, is taut and lined with age. It is

now pulled into a constant expression of pain. My grey, hollow eyes are staring hauntingly into nothingness, watching that gruesome scene unfold in my head over and over again. My eyes stare, helpless, as they see water rush into innocent people’s mouths and noses, drowning them and their piteous cries. My eyes watch, powerless, as all my life possessions sink to the bottom of the dark ocean. My eyes see the cruel waves, like mountains, washing me further and further from the silence of the dead. I am the sole survivor of a capsized refugee boat. The piercing sound of a bell rips me away from my recollections and snaps me back to the present. Men and women, like rabid dogs who just smelt a bone, scamper to the cold, metal pot of gruel and line up. Men jostle and push each other for positions in the line while women and children complacently move to the back with their heads down. I get up from my mattress and take my place. Each of us gets a ladle of a soup-like substance and we choke it down in a feeding frenzy, finishing and wanting more, but knowing that more won’t come. Now I take my blanket and file out onto the packed Roman street. People notice me by my dirty, distinctive clothing and the bedraggled look that they have learned to recognise in refugees. They avoid me. The crowd parts just in front of where I walk and closes just behind me as if I had some sort of plague or disease they can catch just by coming into contact with me. They are afraid of me. Some children point at me and whisper. A man gestures at me and shakes his head at his wife. Either way, the message is clear: stay away! I find a place to sit just out of the way of the pedestrians. Thousands of men, women and children walk past me: a panorama of diversity and colour, a stark contrast to my grey blanket, grey clothes, and greyer hair. Two children laugh and chase after each other, bitterly reminding me of my own, waiting for my promised money and support that is a long time coming. A man in a dark blue striped suit with a black leather briefcase walks past briskly while I huddle against the cold. A young woman with a white t-shirt strolls past, listening to music, her headphones planted firmly over her ears, drowning out the world’s noise while I catch the murmurs of people whispering about me. Their pitying eyes make momentary contact with mine only to slide over me as if they hadn’t seen me at all; as if I don’t exist — a ghost. They pretend that I’m not there. It’s easier for them that way. It’s this, the total disregard for my existence that really drives me crazy, what makes me consider even getting up each miserable morning. The only thing that keeps me sane is the rare clink of a coin as it lands in my white plastic cup. At this point, there is one thing, one thought, one shadow of an idea that gets me through my day. The soft embrace of a warm bed. The satisfying feeling of a hot meal. The comfort of somewhere to live and call my own. It’s this tiny seed of hope that keeps me from wasting my money on beer or drugs. And it is these things that keep me from seeking refuge in the sweet, seducing arms of death. Those things and the memory of the gentle laugh of my children as they play with their loving mother. If I could only earn enough, I could send some money back. That way they could save up, come here too and then we could be together at last. That hope begins to slowly die as tens then hundreds of people pass me by without a single clink.

Alex Ablyazov Year 11

Extension & Challenge

Open-ended Homework in KS3 Art

he Art Department at St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is always keen to creatively extend and challenge all of its students. We are aso aware that students require and even request additional time for their Art homework as it often takes them a lot longer than other subjects. As a result all homeworks that are provided to Key Stage Three have deadlines that allow more scope in regards to scale and materials used. The tasks themselves also encourage students to use a media of their choice based on their own individual interests and skills. Students still produce excellent pieces using traditional methods such as drawing and painting but have now had the opportunity to work on a larger scale or have chosen more complex compositions in order to explore their own potential. Students have also produced equally strong pieces using more contemporary media including sculpture, video and photography. The lens based work in particular really allows those students that struggle with the more traditional art methods to excel. When the students are asked to research specific artists they are given the chance to really explore the artists inspiration, techniques and influence as well as to try to understand how it affects them as young artists themselves. The feedback that the Art Department has had is that the students appreciate the additional time to produce the work to the beDt of their ability as well as to discuss the progress that is being made. They also genuinely enjoy the tasks that are provided. They have more artistic freedom and in turn this provides them with more confidence, particularly if they then choose to continue the subject to GCSE and IB level. RL

This QR code links to an extended homework task by Emily Simeons in Y8. Her project won the overall international prize in the 2016 United Nations World Food Day Video Competition

Art Gallery Visits Creative Writing

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Collaborative Creative Writing by Students in Key Stage 3 & their Teachers

Il Fagiano

Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) The Pheasant (Il Fagiano) 1926-27 The Phillips Collection

i sono sempre chiesta cosa volesse dire quel quadro. Il corpo inanime, indifeso di un fagiano adagiato su un panno bianco immerso nel rosso del sangue, tanto sangue.

Ero piccola quando mamma me lo mostrò con un certo orgoglio: “è del nonno” disse indicandolo, “Il nonno Alfonso che tu non hai mai conosciuto”. Quell’uomo era una figura mitica per me, era colui che aveva combattuto due guerre. La prima nelle trincee, la seconda come partigiano, contro i nazifascisti. Un uomo coraggioso, pieno di virtù e sensibilità. Quel quadro era l’unica cosa che restava di lui. “Un bagno di sangue”, diceva mio padre, passandoci accanto, nel corridoio. Invece per me era qualcosa d’indecifrabile, un punto interrogativo nella mia esistenza, la figura sconosciuta di un uomo d’altri tempi. Un uomo di cui i vecchi, giù al paese, parlavano ancora con rispetto, con voce ferma, come qualcuno d’importante. Il quadro non rappresentava solo la dolorosa morte di un fagiano, ma molto di più. Quegli occhi rossi e doloranti erano per me un interrogativo che non la finiva di tormentare la mia mente: cosa volevano dire quelle due sfere rosse? Qual era stato l’ultimo volo di quello splendido animale? Chiedevo a mia madre, ma lei sviava la conversazione. – Hai visto che bella giornata? – aggiungeva, Perché non vai fuori a giocare? Eppure le sue risposte, invece, di calmare il mio bisogno di conoscenza, lo ampliavano, lo rendevano più stringente. La prima volta che andai a casa di mio nonno, voglio dire: il giorno che mia madre, per la prima volta, mi portò in quella casa vecchia e scrostata, avevo diciotto anni. Fu una specie di regalo di compleanno. Ora sei adulta – fece aprendo la porta della casa, – io ti posso dare delle risposte, ma la verità la puoi trovare solo tu, da sola. M’incamminai per quelle stanze con la stessa riverenza di un devoto in un luogo sacro. La casa era rimasta la stessa di molti anni prima. C’erano molti oggetti antichi e interessanti tra cui un orologio a pendolo, una collezione di francobolli, le medaglie conferite al nonno per il servizio nell’esercito e molti attestati della nonna, ricevuti durante la prima guerra mondiale, per aver prestato servizio da infermiera. Infine, quassi in fondo all’edificio, c’era lo studio, Il cavalletto, i colori, i pennarelli induriti dal tempo. Tutto era rimasto come allora. Trascorsi molto tempo tra quelle mura. Vi andavo ogni domenica pomeriggio ed ogni volta, ogni ora, ogni minuto che passavo in quel luogo mi rendevano più vivida l’immagine di mio nonno. Un uomo come tanti vissuto in un’epoca turbolenta e spesso tragica.

Poi un giorno, in un cassetto nello studio, tra vecchi fogli e tubetti di colore induriti trovai alcune lettere. Forse erano solo missive, fogli scritti in una calligrafia minuscola e accuratissima. Non capivo il significato di quelli scritti, ma un nome: Gemma, tornava tra le pagine. Gemma doveva era una staffetta dei partigiani, una di quelle donne, diciamo pure ragazze, che portava messaggi ai gruppi dei partigiani. La corrispondenza chiudeva con poche righe, questa volta vergate da una calligrafia diversa, veloce, netta: Con grande cordoglio la informiamo che Gemma è caduta durante un’imboscata sulla piana del fosso. Quando rividi mia madre, quella sera, le dissi che volevo sapere, che ero stufa. Dovevo sapere la verità. Gemma era il nome di battaglia della nonna, mia madre, - rispose, - fu uccisa dalle SS. Il nonno cadde in una profonda depressione e io andai a vivere con mia zia, la sorella della nonna. Dopo alcuni mesi il nonno fu ricoverato in un ospedale psichiatrico e per anni lei non ebbe notizie di lui. Quel giorno mia madre si rivelò una donna così forte ma allo stesso tempo fragile, capace di mascherare l’invivibile. Il nonno rimase in manicomio per quasi due anni, gli elettroshock servirono a poco, finché un dottore che prendeva un po’ più a cuore i suoi pazienti, saputo della sua passione per la pittura, gli chiese di dipingere. Dopo alcuni mesi fu reputato idoneo al ritorno in società, vendette la sua vecchia casa e si trasferì in Liguria. I medici gli avevano detto che il mare gli avrebbe fatto bene. Lì prese a dipingere ogni giorno, di giorno dipingeva facciate per ville prestigiose, di sera lavorava su tela. Fu in quel periodo che fece quel quadro.Quando me lo mostrò piangeva come un bambino, - aggiunse mia madre. – Era come una diga che a un certo punto si rompe e tu non sai più come fare a tenere tutta quell’acqua che all’improvviso inonda tutto. Quel giorno il nonno è guarito, - mormorò con lo sguardo perso nel passato, - certo, non era più l’uomo di una volta, ma… quel quadro gli aveva dato la possibilità di piangere, di accettare. Forse era l’unica cosa che lo liberò veramente. Come se il quadro fosse l’addio alla sua amata, a tutte le cose passate insieme, al loro amore. Le ultime parole che il nonno disse alla mamma prima di lasciarla furono: “il quadro ora è tuo…” Con quelle cinque brevi parole il nonno donò la sua preziosa storia alla mamma che a sua volta l’ha donata a me, e sarà mia per sempre. Resterà qui, limpida e inspiegabile come solo era il loro amore. Stefano Ratto & Valentina Vinciarelli

Razionale

a prima cosa che mi ha colpito di questo quadro è il rosso, il rosso puro del piumaggio e quello corallo del lenzuolo, quasi un sudario dove il fagiano stremato, immobile, inanime è steso. Le sue zampe sono rattrappite, piegate in un ultimo spasimo. Le ali quasi distaccate dal corpo. Simbolo di libertà che qui rimangono immobili, chiuse. Infine nel nero della testa una macchia rossa circonda gli occhi. L’animale pare piangere. Il fagiano è un uccello selvatico, un animale libero quindi simbolo di libertà. Una libertà strappata dalla morte. Questo quadro ha evocato in noi il sacrificio di una persona pura, dolce, una persona che ha lottato per la libertà. Insieme a Valentina abbiamo pensato alla storia di un amore celata dietro a questa immagine, al suo significato, alle emozioni che porta.

Each spring the members of the Rome International Schools Association gather for their annual conference. The event is guided by the motto ‘By Teachers for Teachers’. With this motif in mind St George’s volunteered to host the 2016 conference at our La Storta site. Leading a session at the RISA conference became a key focus for our recently formed Teaching & Learning and Action Research Groups. In the months preceding the event, the members of each group proposed, discussed and refined an array of talks. Eventually more than twenty teachers, from across all three of our schools, presented conference sessions articulating topics ranging from flipped learning and creativity, to resilience and wellbeing. Part of our initial aim, as hosts of the 2016 conference, was to raise the profile of the event. Consequently I specifically focused on developing a coherent visual style for the preliminary publicity materials, videos and graphics for use in conference badges, programmes, certificates and so on. We received very positive feedback on this image makeover and the general standard of our organisation from the Heads of the other RISA member schools. A total of 38 talks and workshops were delivered by teachers from across the Rome international school community and further afield. We were delighted by the exceptional quality and quantity of participation. The 2015 RISA conference, by comparison, included a total of 26 talks. We were delighted to welcome Professor Stephen Heppell as our Keynote speaker. He delivered a frequently hilarious and consistently thought provoking presentation. Professor Heppell took us on a rollercoaster ride around the hottest innovations and directions in education across the globe. He also led two workshop sessions, met with the RISA heads and, perhaps most tellingly of all, gave up much of his lunch break to be interviewed by our Student Media Team.

A Creative Community Creative Families at St George’s

St George’s Nomentana Parents: Paulo Von Vacano & Domitilla Sartogo Paulo von Vacano

erman by birth, Paulo grew up in Latin America and Africa before becoming Roman by adoption. His love for the eternal city allows him to see in Rome one of the world’s most important beacons and brands. Paulo has been immersed in the urban and contemporary art scenes for decades, first as a journalist for international magazines and newspapers, and later as the president of the Castelvecchi Publishing Company, where he produced more than 500 books and several magazines (among which “Aspenia” of The Aspen Institute). Now he leads Drago in a quest to stimulate the collective conscience by showcasing cutting-edge artists from around the world. Domitilla Sartogo

omitilla Sartogo has been the executive director of Drago since 2004. She has previously worked as a graphic designer for the Richard Avedon Studio, a talent scout and director of photography for Fabrica, the Benetton Group Center on Communications, a professor at the Parson School of Design in New York and the director of communications for Borbonese, an iconic Italian fashion brand. She has also acted as the executive director of the Florence Biennale of Fashion & Cinema, a series of seven exhibitions focusing on the relationship between film and fashion that brought together award winning set and costume designers with renowned fashion designers from around the world. Drago

L to R: Domitilla Sartogo, Paulo Von Vacano, Nicola Scavalli Veccia.

rago is a publishing house, a think tank, a cultural communication and art consulting company and, above all else, a generator of cultural occasions and energies. All Drago events are conceived as cultural, economic and political platforms.

Among these iconic books are anthologies that bring together the best of street art and photography. These include From Style Writing to Art, A Street Art Anthology; Scala Mercalli, The Creative Earthquake of Italian Street Art and Drago’s vast upcoming project, The Street is Watching, Where Street Knowledge Meets Photography. As the official publisher of The French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, Drago has been in charge of all its publications for exhibitions and artists-in-residence. Among other clients are Nike, The L'Orèal Group, Danesi, The City of Rome, 55DSL, Alcatel and Bulgari.

www.dragolab.com

Over the years, Drago has published the works of countless internationally celebrated artists and photographers including JR’s The Wrinkles of the City, Estevan Oriol’s LA Woman, Ed Templeton’s The Golden Age of Neglect, Boogie’s Ah Wah do Dem, WK Interact’s Act 4, Shephard Fairey #OBEY, Ricky Adam’s Destroying Everything and Letizia Battaglia’s Anthology and Just For Passion, a book that catalogues her new exhibition at the Maxxi Museum.

Publisher, Paulo von Vacano, at the Drago Headquarters in Rome. Photo â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Paolo Romito

Why we chose St George's We believe that St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s does not solely conform to strict construct of a British international school. The staff are curious, ambitious and open-minded when it comes to creativity and the perception of art. Our first experience of this passion was during the 2015 Outdoor Festival of contemporary art held opposite the Maxxi Museum. The Art department knew that we were the official publishers of the exhibition and wasted no time in contacting Drago to arrange a special visit for the school. We were humbled by the number of students that attended and showed a genuine interest for this fascinating art form. A school that is prepared to go out of its way to organise visits to unique events such as these is certainly one that nurtures the creativity and passion of its pupils.

Generation €uro

Interviewing President Draghi

his year, for the first time, we took part in an International Schools Competition organised by the European Central Bank (ECB), the aim of which is to engage students in its workings and learn about monetary policy. ‘The Georgians’ comprising of Dante Gaviano (team leader), Dalila Battaggia, Nicholas Frapiccini and Elena Zheng spent many hours preparing and researching for the various parts of the competition which started back in September and had three stages. After 100% correct in the online quiz lead the next stage was to write a 2,000 word essay predicting the Governing Councils interest rate decision in March. Reproduced here is part of the students submission in the form of an ‘interview’ with President Draghi. It was a major achievement to be selected as one of the 6 finalists (from over 100 teams who had started the competition) and be invited to ECB Headquarters in Frankfurt. Here the team gave a presentation of their views on the interest rate decision in April, to a panel of ECB experts and this was followed by a 20 minute Q&A session. The Georgians were placed 3rd in the competition, a fantastic result at the end of a very special two days. SB Our correspondent from Frankfurt has sat down with the European Central Bank (ECB) chief, Mario Draghi, to discuss the Governing Council’s decisions of March 10, 2016. Question: “Mr. President, good morning. What are the key decisions made by the Governing Council at its March monetary policy meeting?” Good morning. Given that sufficient solid evidence has yet to be provided with respect to the effects of negative nominal interest rates upon price stability, we have decided to leave the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and those on the marginal lending facility and deposit facility unchanged at 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.30% respectively. Furthermore, as far as non-standard monetary policy measures are concerned, the Assets Purchase Programme (APP) currently set to expire in March 2017 has been extended to September 2017, and it is open to further extensions were the economy to require it. The amount of monthly asset purchases will also rise from the current €60 billion to €65 billion, to be reviewed at our April meeting. Question: “What is your view on the extent of the ongoing recovery?” The recovery process is advancing, even though at a slower pace than expected. The economic recovery that has been present in the past two years is expected to continue. Real GDP has already witnessed a growth, and in particular by 0.3% in the third quarter of 2015. Our projections have further shown that there is likely to be an increase in the rate of annualised growth from 1.5% in 2015 to 1.7% in 2016 and then to 1.9% in 2017. However, the growth in real GDP has been revealed to be slower than our previous projections. This was most likely due to domestic demand, which has been weaker than forecasted, even though its outlook is nevertheless stronger than that of foreign demand. Moreover, financial markets in the euro area have also seen a recovery in the past few months, despite the volatility experienced by those of the Asian economies. We are confident that this improvement has been a direct consequence of the firmly anchored inflation expectations of Eurozone households and firms, clearly resulting from the continuance of our low interest rates policy. Question: “Do you see the recent surge in migration numbers to Europe as having a major impact on the economy?” While the arrival of refugees from Syria and other countries to Europe is presenting a social challenge, it is also an economic opportunity. We understand that the extra government expenditure represents for many countries a loosening of their fiscal stances, thereby providing an additional support to aggregate demand and growth. However, further remarks on this matter would be of political nature and thus not for me to comment on. Question: “Returning to the state of the economy, what is the medium-term inflation outlook, and what are the main downside risks challenging it?” HICP Inflation forecasts have been recently revised down due to the impact of lower oil prices, and stand for the first quarter of 2016 at 0.7%. They are then set to rise to 1.2%, 1.5% and 1.8% in one, two and five years’ time respectively, buoyed by the feeding of our past and current monetary policy decisions into the economy. We expect inflation to increase steadily over the foreseeable future. The good news about medium-term inflation expectations is that, after falling in September, these have now returned to a level above 1.8%, which is not far from our inflation rate mandate of close to, but below, 2%. Were we to have any concerns regarding the attainability of our medium-term target, the Governing Council would swiftly undertake the necessary measures.

As we begin a new year, economic downside risks have continued increasing since our last decision in January, amid heightened uncertainty about emerging market, volatility in financial and commodity markets and geopolitical risks. The recent sharp fall in oil prices has worsened the Eurozone inflation outlook, and it is clearly the main factor causing low inflation rates and slower nominal wage growth. Question: “How does the ECB’s monetary analysis support your decision?” Firstly, monetary aggregates clearly displayed the need for a more buoyant monetary policy. The annual growth rate of the broad monetary aggregate M3 decreased to 4.7% in December 2015, from 5.0% in November. Furthermore, the annual growth rate of the narrower aggregate M1, which encompasses both currency in circulation and overnight deposits, decreased from 11.1% to 10.7% in December. Hence, it appears that the liquidity picture across the Eurozone has noticeably worsened at the turn of the year. Secondly, annual growth rates of total credit to euro area residents and private sector in the Eurozone have fallen in the turn of the year from 2.6% in November to 2.3% in December 2015, and from 1.2% to 0.5% in the same timeframe. Within the private sector, the annual growth rate of loans (adjusted for loan sales and securitisation) decreased to 0.4% in December, from 0.9% in November. As such, due to the perceived ineffectiveness of even lower interest rates, an expansion and extension in our Asset Purchase Programme (APP) was consequently deemed as necessary to boost further liquidity and availability of credit in the Euro area. Question: “In what state is the Eurozone’s banking sector? How has this shaped the Governing Council’s take on its APP?” From a purely financial point of view our banking system is not as solid as it should be, and it still faces some difficulties due to past financial crises. Our banks currently hold €1 trillion in “bad loans”, which are by definition very difficult to sell to other financial institutions. Moreover, Eurozone banks appear to be cautious in their lending. In 2015 we registered lower lending volumes, which affect businesses and households through a more restricted access to credit being imposed upon them. Furthermore, the ECB is still wary of this lack in corporate investment. There is no evidence elsewhere in the world that even lower rates could have a noticeable effect on investment or on lending levels. Capital markets, which have been influenced by the recent crude oil glut and by slower growth in China, remain flat. We have therefore concluded that our APP had to be extended up to September 2017. Question: “Have there been any obstacles in the implementation of the APP?” Unfortunately, there have. The impact of our corporate bond purchasing has not been as strong as anticipated. Investments in this secondary market are benefitting people who already own these assets, while this increase in asset prices is discouraging people who are willing to invest in bonds and financial instruments such as Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). Overall, the biggest threat and the one that has mainly influenced our decision is corporate investment, which fell by 20% this year. Such phenomena mean that the APP adopted may be slower than expected in bringing results, and that we will have to respond in order for investment levels to rise and for banks to become more willing and able to provide additional access to credit for households and firms. It is for this very reason that we are both extending and expanding the programme into the foreseeable future with the purpose of increasing confidence in the Eurozone recovery. Question: “How could you improve the effectiveness of the ECB’s non-conventional monetary policies?” Firstly, allow me to say that I am convinced that our sustained monetary stimulus in conjunction with public investments on the part of national governments, not to mention our experiment regarding negative interest rates on deposits, will indeed incentivise households and firms to increase consumption and investment and undertake more lending. Additionally, a means of improving the effectiveness of our non-standard operations would be improving the Eurozone’s monetary transmission mechanism, and specifically its indirect pass-through to the economy, hence seeking to create a stronger liquidity position that would easily benefit small-medium enterprises (SMEs). This is an essential aspect of our economy, since these SMEs represent 65% of the workforce and employ more than 88 million people, thus being at the core of the transmission mechanism itself. Today small businesses, in order to grow, need more access to risk capital and to bank financing, and an improvement in the monetary transmission mechanism will help bring about exactly this. Mr. President, I thank you for your time. Thank you for your invitation.

The Final Exhibition in IB Visual Arts at St George’s

n 2017 Oxford University Press will publish the definitive student and teacher guide to the new IB Visual Arts course. It has been written by the Chief Examiner and Principal Examiners who designed the specification. Much of the exemplar material for the exhibition component was produced by St George’s Visual Arts students. For many students, the final exhibition of the IB Visual Arts course is the highlight of the programme. Until recently, each student’s exhibition was required to include up to 18 large scale sculptures, paintings, video installations, drawings and so on. It has been known for students’ exhibitions at St George’s to include nearly 40 major works in some extreme cases. The revised IB Visual Arts specification assesses HL students on a display of 11 major projects, whilst SL students submit 7 projects. Until recently the final exhibition was visited by an external examiner who carried out a 40 minute live interview with each student. Whilst the global expansion of the IB Diploma programme means that this has now been replaced with a written Curatorial Rationale and photographic documentation, the final exhibition is still a vital culmination of each candidate’s work. During the Vernissage, our artists present and explain their work to the school community, including their parents, teachers and friends. GM

The Final Exhibition in IB Visual Arts at St George’s

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. Claudia Menin

The Final Exhibition in IB Visual Arts at St George’s

y exhibition explores the central theme of ‘tranquillity’, with each chosen work investigating its subthemes. There is a path from darkness to lightness, with the fragmented space connected together with yarn and circular as well as ‘x’ shapes, which evoke the brushwork of ‘Stationary Transience’. The first abstract work is entitled ‘Geology Meets World’, and due to the similarities in use of darkness it is next my post-Paris trip canvas, ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning.’ Whilst the former represents tranquillity through ‘ordered chaos’, with different marks co-habiting on the canvas in a self-ordered fashion, the latter captures the audience through the emphasis on the figure with the spinning world around it. Placement at audience eye level strengthens this connection. Facing these two works, elevated in the corner, is my wearable sculpture ‘Freedom’. Inspired by nature, Jehsel Lau and Rebecca Horn, this work looks at memory and freedom. The leotard is mounted on a mannequin, hand-painted to echo the marks on the fabric, suggesting freedom of movement, linking to Lau’s work in the dance industry. The painted fabric sheets, depicting enigmatic figurative scenes that evoke some personal feeling in each viewer, are arranged around the mannequin as if exploding around it, with the yarn cascading to emphasize this waterfall effect. ‘Freedom’ bridges my exhibition, which is divided by a doorway. It’s suggests lightness ‘exploding’ and matter is subsequently ‘ordered’ in the next area. ‘Void’, my first canvas in the light area, creates a feeling of silence and confinement. It is placed at the same level as my post-Madrid canvas, ‘You Can’t Blame Gravity’, because of their shared bright tonalities. This canvas investigates the importance of balance through the use of complementary colours and a centre of gravity, the figure’s hand. The suggestion of things settling down is further explored in my post-Paris sculpture ‘Sanity’, with its mechanical, digitized layering of elements. The last work in my exhibition, ‘Stationary Transience’, hangs above the stairs. The central figure seemingly leaps into the chasm. To represent the idea of motion and water as subthemes of tranquillity, I used the support of Jackson Pollock’s painting techniques and Benjamin Garcia’s capturing of the subconscious. There is a suggested centre of gravity, seemingly pulling in everything else. It is placed at the end of my exhibition because it shows an ultimate image of matter settling down, with the blues and other aqueous colours evoking a longexposure water drop. Milda Lebedyte (IB Visual Arts Class of 2016)

The Final Exhibition in IB Visual Arts at St George’s

he key themes that connect the seven pieces in my exhibition are nostalgia and time. The ambiguous meaning of some paintings, such as Submissive Detachment, aims to enhance the viewer’s curiosity. The exhibition has therefore been set up in a relatively open space, allowing the viewer to be pulled to the piece which speaks to them the most. However, the piece which has the most intricate set up is You Were Less Deceived, in which I have explored the theme of satire. The dressing screen has been placed in a secluded area of the exhibition; a more intimate atmosphere is created by the figures being painted on a dressing screen. As the viewer walks behind the screen, there is a video of a ballerina dancing. The use of silent film was inspired by Andy Warhol’s ambiguous yet powerful piece Blowjob. Furthermore, the costume and makeup she wears makes her resemble Degas’ Little girl of 14 years sculpture. This adds context to my piece and gives the viewer an immersive experience. The two separate portraits in my piece entitled Opa Jean, have been suspended from the ceiling at a distance of one metre from each other. As this was a personal project for me, black and white photographs of my grandfather over the years float between the two canvases (also suspended, but at different heights). Even though my initial idea was to use Jeff League’s technique of printing these photographs on canvas, the small and simple photographs intensify the piece’s sense of reality, consequently enhancing the theme of nostalgia. The visual representation of self-reflection in Ricocheting Physiognomies, a piece inspired by Christian Schad and his tendency to represent himself in his artworks, has been emphasized through the placement of a mirror behind the piece. This is also practical advantage as the viewer gains visibility of another angle of the sculpture. The sculpture has been placed on a small table that I have manipulated in order to resemble an artist’s chaotic workspace, leaving yet another fragment of the artist in the piece and making it seem like the piece hasn’t been completed. My other sculpture, Distinct Remembrances, Dim Recollections has been hung with its left edge prominent in order to make the most intricate tattoo visible to the viewer. This is particularly important as it enables the viewer to see the story of memory loss through the transformations of the tattoos. Inès Chessa (IB Visual Arts Class of 2016)

The Final Exhibition in IB Visual Arts at St George’s T

he overall vision for my exhibition is to establish a calm and intimate visual connection with the viewers. Therefore, I decided to display my artworks in a line sequence along a white-painted corridor, allowing generous breathing spaces in-between each work which will enable steady contemplation from my audience. The mixed media sculpture, entitled “Food for Soul”, was inspired by my studies of baroque figurative sculpture in Paris, in particular the “Venus de Milo” by Alexandros of Antioch. I placed it as the starting point to engage the viewers immediately with its bright colour palette and dynamic figures. This is followed by 3 digitally manipulated photographic works printed on small canvases, entitled “Hope, Pray, Sin”, a piece which explores the theme of biblical mythology whilst recreating an alternative version of “Adam & Eve” with very strong shadows contrasting with the foreground, effectively drawing the attention from the viewers to the subjects. Whilst I have explored elements of abstraction in my clay sculpture, I always return to figurative portraiture as I find it to be the best way for me to engage with viewers. Portraiture dwells with human’s emotions and this is reflected in all eleven artworks in the exhibition. I initially thought “Food” would be suitable as the theme for the exhibition as it relates to many of my projects and also my Comparative Study. Food is a basic necessity for humans. In Art it is often depicted for its connotations or as symbolic roles in the understanding of the emotions of the artist. For instance, food can tell the viewers about the cultural background of the artist, the religion they follow or even the political aspect of the time. In my most significant work (oil paint on canvas), entitled “The Forbidden Fruit”, the centrepiece is the apple that is prominent in many biblical literatures as the fruit that was eaten by Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden. Therefore it would immediately establish a strong connection with viewers from similar cultures or with similar beliefs. This work is also displayed in the centre of the exhibition as it is a very important piece overarching all the other projects. The painting’s style was stimulated by my investigations of Caravaggio’s use of chiaroscuro.Through my Extended Essay, I also drew inspiration from Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian court artist in Imperial China. Consequently, my chiaroscuro figures are often placed on flat graphic background as I wanted to convey a cultural convergence through my art, combining Chinese elements with Western painting style. Contrasting the foreground with a dark background brings out the vibrant red palette which is coherent with other surrounding paintings; like my self portrait also has a similar palette, entitled “Self Contemplation”, it was inspired by my own personal reflection on identity and my cultural heritage, conveying my confusion and loss of direction and expressing my inner passion and emotions. However the theme of food would not be enough to connect all my works as I have approached a wide range of subject matters, and instead the exhibition will be unified under the theme of “Growth”. Growth not only refers to the food that we eat which would enable us to grow, but also fits my other projects which dwell with the spiritual growth apart from the physical; for instance one of my project, entitled “Transcendence Into The Scream”, showcases my experimentation with self-portrait, exploring ways to convey the transcendence of emotions and time through the changing expressions and streaks of paint and charcoal. Growth directed my broadly chronological hanging of my works. This allows viewers to understand the growth of my style and ideas over the course of time. To enable a clearer understanding of my work, I hung pages and imagery from my Process Portfolio on the windows and wall opposite my actual studio projects. Growth is also present in my tendency to rework my past projects. Indeed I suddenly decided to add several new elements to my canvas, entitled “Triplicity”, just as the audience was preparing to enter the vernissage of our exhibition! I particularly rely on natural sunlight as the main source of lighting for my exhibition, not only does it provide a warm undertone but also fits in the overarching theme of “Growth” as a necessity for biological life.

Daniele Chen (IB Visual Arts Class of 2016)

Poems About Water

by EAL Students in Year Eight

A Year In The Life Of St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School

Year in the Life of St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is a video project that I produced in conjunction with our Student Media Team.

From September to June we observed and filmed some of the key moments, great and small, that combine to produce a typical year within our unique school. Many hours of video footage were distilled down into the final outcome. Still images are shown on these pages. The QR code on the next page links to the full film. GM

A Creative Community Creative Families at St George’s

St George’s La Storta Parent: Author, Painter and Campaigner, Annika Milisic-Stanley

nnika Milisic-Stanley was born in 1975 in the USA to Swedish and AngloGerman parents, but grew up in Britain and has strong family connections with the Tarrant Valley. After graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies, she worked with humanitarian projects in Nepal, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, India, Burundi and Egypt as well as living in Tajikistan for several years. Annika now lives with her husband and three children in Rome. In addition to writing and painting, she works as a campaigner to raise awareness on the plight of refugees in Southern Europe. She is writing her second novel. (from http://www.cinnamonpress.com)

er recent novel ‘The Disobedient Wife’ (Cinnamon Press 2015) is about Tajikistan, and charts the relationship between Harriet, a British diplomat’s wife, and her maid, Nargis. The retraditionalisation of former Soviet countries and its impact on women interests me. The book is about women’s rights (migration, divorce, child custody and domestic violence) in Tajikistan as well as drug trafficking. It is the first novel published about the modern day Republic.

Excerpt One JOURNAL

ajikistan, you come to me at dawn, when I am at my most vulnerable. I wake to a new day and reach for an outstretched arm, listen for a sigh. Then I remember; my world has gone crazy. I think of you as a sweet nightmare lived in a harsh land of frozen deserts and steel-grey mountains, a place that hardly a soul has heard of, nor can find on a map. The friends I clung to so fiercely will eventually scatter like starlings across the globe. Nargis, Ivan and the others will eventually forget, moving on to work for new masters. The life I so painstakingly constructed dissolved like the mirage of my marriage even as I packed my suitcases to board the air ambulance out of Dushanbe. It is painful to think that my home was let to a new tenant within weeks, my lush garden, so briefly but tenderly nurtured, now lies abandoned, dying of thirst in the unrelenting Tajik sun. I brush these thoughts away by day, busy in the business of constructing a new existence. All traces will be erased until the Dutch tulips I laid last September rise above the earth to bloom in April and pronounce the truth of my presence; I really was there. The language, hastily learned and badly spoken, is already fading from my dreams. I catch sight of Cyrillic script on my old papers and mourn. Tajikistan: A few cheap souvenirs, fading photographs in albums and my memories are all I have left of you.

Excerpt Two

reen Bazaar was packed. A small covered market with peeling green gates topped by an antique Soviet sign in Cyrillic, it was the only place with local colour in the Dushanbe winter. Vibrantly attired Uzbek and Tajik traders with wet, red noses and white hands clamoured for Harriet’s attention, yelling “Dotchka, Lady” as she wandered past. They ignored Nargis. Others sat semi-hidden like blue-lipped statues behind stalls piled high with pillars of naan bread, carts of semi-defrosted bits of chicken and turkey and next to dirty buckets of grey, slimy water containing writhing river fish. They wore fingerless gloves and heavy jackets to do battle with the icy shade but they were clearly freezing on their perches like proud, stiff cockatoos. In the icy dead of winter they did not have much to sell other than herbs, onion, carrot and cabbage. Much of it was half-frozen and already half rotten. Nargis thought anxiously of her little stock of onions in her shop. How long I spent sifting through sacks to find ones that were not rotten but fresh! I hope people are buying them. Pale, malnourished school-age boys repeatedly offered to carry their bags by hand and short, black-eyed porters beckoned towards their blue wooden hand carts, some daring to grasp at Mrs Harriet’s sleeve as she passed by. Nargis wondered if her stupid brother was keeping an eye on the school children, making sure they did not steal extra pens or sweets. Was he flirting with local girls, or worse, sleeping on the job with the door locked? Mrs Harriet lifted her chin high, stared straight ahead expressionlessly and vigorously ignored them like a Buddha deep in active meditation. It was a deliberate, practiced distancing from Tajik reality, a habit that Nargis found incredibly rude. Nargis smiled apologetically at everyone as she passed. “When I focus on my tasks, the people disappear and become nothing more than objective challenges to overcome,” she once explained. Clutching her designer handbag to her chest Mrs Harriet delicately picked her way past open ditches mercifully purified by the icy climate and frozen looking Korean ladies forcibly moved to Tajikistan by the Soviets in pom-pom hats trading pickled delicacies with wooden chopsticks. Excerpt Three

t had not been a good day for takings. Only a few customers had come in to buy potatoes and flour and Nargis had sat bored, idle, staring out of the window at the slow comings and goings of people on the road outside. Several people entered and said that they would like to buy meat and Vodka from her for New Year, if she would bring them to the shop. She sighed, wondering how she would find the money now. Savsang had had an equally dismal day, only selling one strand of tinsel and a few sausages. Nargis looked at the decorations and wondered about the Mullah’s reaction if he found out she had wagered their home with the bank. She was almost certain he would beat her badly and possibly divorce her on the spot, as per the Islamic law of Talok. As she was his second wife and he was a Mullah, he could certainly do this. Savsang had two children, a little girl aged four and a boy of six. What would happen to them, Nargis could not guess. She was running low on all her supplies but had little money spare to buy more. In the meantime Savsang’s wares were spreading themselves along the shelves into her half of the shop. She scowled at the gay tinsel and closed the door, fastening the heavy padlock. She trudged home through potholed lanes, walking slowly in the evening cold, greeting passing villagers on their way home for the night. Old Russian country houses from more prosperous times stood imposingly along the road, alongside more recently built mud brick houses. All shared cracked windowpanes, peeling paintwork and some of the doors and windows were lined with plastic sheeting, Tajikistan’s version of double glazing. Once pretty front gardens were clogged with weeds and the roadside ditch was full of stagnant sewage, algae and food waste. The wide river bank lay beyond the houses, at a winter low. The Mahalla lay north of the confluence of the Varzob and the Kofharnihon rivers. It had once filled in spring to become a roaring gush of glacial water. Nowadays it remained little more than a trickle throughout the year, the water syphoned off to a hydroelectric dam near the city for summer electricity. Dushanbe’s rubbish collection trucks stood still in the evening light alongside excavator machines used to dig out river rock for construction. When the wind blew from the West, the mahalla was assailed with the smell of burning waste from the large piles of rubbish deposited on the river bank each day. Down river, the waterworks extracted the polluted, untreated river water for the city population to drink. Beyond the river, snow covered mountains rose majestically out of the valley gorge, their tops stained orange by the winter sunset. It was beautiful if one ignored the man-made filth.

Innovation and Leadership at SGBIS

Creativity Through Sport

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E G N A

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n 2015 I was contacted by students from The United IExchange World College of Maastricht, to discuss setting up an Art in conjunction with the BP/Tate Gallery initiative.

The project subsequently evolved so as to also include The International School of Paris. Prior to the live exchange at SGBIS, we asked students from all schools to devise several collaborative creative activities. The 4-day project began with the visiting students participating in a range of our own IB DP lessons. They subsequently ran a book making workshop with our Year 5 artists. The following day, staff and students from all three schools explored concepts of cultural convergence through collage, drawing and the production of a large scale, permanent mural in the office of our Principal’s PA. On the final day we were given an extended private view of the recently opened ‘Outdoor Festival’. This huge exhibition, held this year in an abandoned military complex, is Rome’s annual showcase of international street art, organised by Drago Labs. The following paragraphs, written by SGBIS IB Visual Artist Giulia Gherardini, are taken from a 7 page article about the project published in World Student Magazine in 2016 GM

y Year Twelve IB Visual Arts class was given the M chance to collaborate with an exchange group from UWC Maastricht and ISP. This interaction was potentially a challenging one; not all of the participants were Art students and, prior to this project, we didn’t know each other. However, in the spirit of the IB and international education, we took this occasion as an opportunity to engage with diverse visual stimuli and characters, thereby opening ourselves up to unfamiliar techniques and approaches regarding Art and creativity.

The core focus of this project was to generate unconventional yet coherent compositions evoking the human face. During our collaborative project, we merged disparate artefacts, contexts, costumes and historical periods. Indeed, this step-by-step process required reflection, resourcefulness and dedication. Initially, we assembled individual collages, choosing from a variety of images; I selected the most peculiar, contrasting features of the source photographs

provided that I found most captivating and thought provoking and, together with my peers, consolidated divergent but equally inventive ideas in response to the idea of cultural convergence. In particular, I explored the surreal association of elements of a WWI gas mask with Native American headwear, whereas another student found visual links between contemporary Halloween make-up and subSaharan African Tribal sculpture. We each created large-scale drawings of our collages. These were then further developed by using emulsion paint and water soluble graphite sticks to define the areas of light and shadow. Once these individual drawings were completed, we collaboratively assembled them into a cohesive overall composition. Thiswas when diplomacy, tact and cooperation started to become particularly meaningful. Our final task was to transfer these drawings onto the walls of an office; simply fitting seventeen students, two teachers and all of our painting and drawing equipment into a confined space was a major challenge, and working simultaneously on a two metre high mural was like playing a game of three-dimensional twister. On the final day of the exchange project we explored the ‘Outdoor Festival’ of international Street Art. The festival’s distinctive notion: bringing a stark, inaccessible military establishment to life through an array of vast mixed media artworks and installations highlights the approach of thinking “outside the box”. The American Transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau stated: “It is not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”. Analysing this statement in coalescence to the Outdoor Festival, one may consider the ways in which these artworks are perceived by the different individuals participating in our project. Although each of us was exposed to the same art piece, personal and unique responses were evoked by our interpretation of these elements; this freedom of thought and flexibility as regarding the observer’s approach to the pieces is also echoed in the festival’s method regarding the organization and arrangement of the exhibits themselves. We were privileged to wander freely around the huge site, not following a set path but being guided by intuition and sentiment. This established a sense of autonomy and installed an intimate connection regarding each individual’s relationship with the elements observed, defined by our affinity to the pieces, by the power of the emotions they evoked in us and by the imaginative ideas, also concerning potential counter creations. Having spent the previous day creating our own site-specific artwork, we were better prepared to appreciate the intentions and approaches of the artists and curators who had vividly animated these previously bleak environments. This visit formed a perfect conclusion to our initial collaboration and left us all eager to plan further projects with ISP, UWCM as well as with our own peers from St George’s. Watch this space! Giulia Gherardini

Extension & Challenge Creative Approaches Within Y9 History

istory has always been a subject where creativity has occupied a central role. Certainly this would be the case if one considered the work of Herodotus (c480-430BC) said to be the founder of history as an academic discipline and whose (his)stories of winged beasts, giant ants and goat footed men owe a significant debt to creative thinking. While in the modern era a little more fact checking is common, it remains clear that Historians must think and act creatively, finding new ways to approach the study of the past, engaging in empathetic reconstruction of the motives of historical actors and piecing together the fragments and remnants of lives lived. History is, after all, the greatest of all stages and historians the directors, assembling the cast to convey both narrative and meaning. History in Year 9 deals with some of the most significant questions of the 20th century. Why and with what consequences did Russia suffer two revolutions in 1917? Why was an entire generation of men from across Europe sent to their graves in the trenches of World War One, and why was the continent, and eventually the world, allowed to lurch from one war to the next with little apparent effort to avoid further slaughter. Taking a creative approach to the teaching of World War One allows students to develop their own, authentic learning outcomes, promoting deeper understanding of these fundamental questions. Collaboration and co-construction promote effective teamwork and an approach rooted in enquiry allows students to develop their conceptual understanding on the ‘Big Ideas’ of history. The cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham stated that “memory is the residue of thought”. The harder we make students think, about both content and form, the deeper the learning gains. PR

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SGBIS Alumni Creativity The Creative Lives of Ex-Students

Mikaela Patrick: Post Graduate Architecture Student at the RCA

graduated from St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in 2009 and I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh in Architecture, after which I worked for two years in a Spanish-Italian architecture studio (EMBT), working in both Barcelona and Shanghai; working on a range of cultural projects and a series of exhibitions. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m now in my final year of my Masters in Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London.

IB Art Batik Work

I am training to become an architect which was a decision it took a while to come to. After finishing the IB I decided to move to Barcelona to send some time developing my artwork and really figure out what was interesting to me. It was a year where my work became very personal, dealing with issues of health, identity and the body. It was an incredibly valuable time and gave me some breathing room which allowed me to realise I wanted to be able to combine creative work with something more practical, which is why I was drawn to architecture. My architectural work still focuses on the same themes, looking at the architecture of healthcare, and of health; particularly viewing them as social and not just physical problems.

etfe aluminium roof structure + three layer cushions

steel structural system

mezzanine level

steel cable railing for plant growth

translucent panel railing

concrete wall addressing adjacent building

concrete perimeter wall

green st entrance

english garden

tropical garden

circulation block

aluminium facade structure

mediterranean garden

concrete perimeter wall

redclyffe rd entrance

fixed glazing and etfe panels

polycarbonate panels

PROTOTYPE Green Street Community + Social Health Centre London Borough of Newham

Metafora Barcelona Dress

RCA Social Health Projects & Health Case Studies

steel cable railing for plant growth

translucent panel railing

concrete wall addressing adjacent building

english garden

circulation block

mediterranean garden

SGBIS Alumni Creativity The Creative Lives of Ex-Students Cecilia Granara: Artist Graduated from St George’s in 2009 Chelsea College of Art and Design, 2009-2010 Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, 2010-2013 Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts De Paris, Erasmus, 2012 Studied in Pascale Accoyer’s painting techniques studio and took James Bloedé’s Drawing and Composition classes 2013-2014: Worked full time in an afterschool bilingual children’s center in Paris: Pari Grandir teaching Art and English 2014-2015: Worked part-time for the prodcution company Council as assistant editor and prepared portfolio to re-enter the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts de Paris 2015-2016- Enrolled in second year at the Beaux Arts de Paris, James Rielly’s studio and François Boisrond’s studio. 2016-present: Internship at Francesco Clemente’s Studio. Working part time for Dries Van Noten and painting all the time, whenever I can!

ur very conception of what art is is subject to our cultural and historical context. I look back through art history and revisit artefacts that we accept as central to our eurocentric vision of art. What is a model? What is a muse? Where do these notions come from? What does it mean to represent through the act of painting? These are the things I hold in mind as I explore the sea of image banks we navigate through when we confront ourselves with our cultural heritages. Painting seems an evident way of confronting myself with these questions. The act of contemplation and representation through the practice of painting is a meditative, enjoyable, slow, sensory one. My time at St George’s, especially during the IB, allowed me to understand the importance of visual culture in our every-day lives. The images we are surrounded by must always be considered and analysed, questioned and re-contextualised for us to be truly present in our interactions with the world. Every object, building or item of clothing around you has been drawn and designed by someone, somewhere. Our appreciation of the existence of the things around us is essential to creating and contributing to a society that is attentive to its environment, on all levels, aesthetically, socially, psychologically and physically. I remember at the end of two years, looking at six or seven sketchbooks of research and a body of work of fifteen paintings and some sculptures, and understanding that this is what hard work and practice resulted in. This is a vital lesson to channel throughout the rest of your life. Methodical, patient, but always inspired, hard work. You can become a documentary maker, a film maker, a designer, a technical assistant for a comedy show, an architect, a pattern designer, a fashion designer, a painter. All these things exist because people choose to consciously contribute and therefore shape the existing creative industries. Examples of Cecilia’s work as an IB Visual Arts student at St George’s

Obscene, oil on wood

TUntitled (Meditation Series), oil on canvas

Picassoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Girl, (detail) Tempera on Wood

Revisiting, oil on canvas

Coin Di Casa, oil on canvas

Verge, oil on canvas

Untitled (Meditation Series), oil on canvas

Untitled Dyptich (Meditation Series), oil on canvas

SGBIS Alumni Creativity The Creative Lives of Ex-Students

Dilâra Medin: Freelance Design Practitioner in Theatre and Television

ilâra Medin graduated from St George’s in 2006, She is now a highly sought after Design Practitioner with an impressive CV that spans the worlds of Theatre and TV. Having graduated in Theatre Design at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, she went on to work for the Welsh National Opera in various different roles from assistant designer, prop maker and event designer. She has worked on opera and theatre productions at Teatro alla Scala, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, Opera’r Ddraig and The Grand Slam Theatre. Having assisted various different theatre and opera designers such as Paul Steinberg, Paul Brown and Anthony Ward, she decided to venture into the TV & Film industry as model maker and Standby Art Director. Some of her credits include Game of Thrones, Casualty, Skins, Doctor Who, The Killer Elite, The Green Hollow and Deal or No Deal on Tour.

Examples of Dilara’s work as a Visual Arts student at St George’s

Theatrical Model Making Ryder Cup Event Design Model Making For Game Of Thrones

hen someone asks me what I do, I find it almost impossible to give a simple answer. Yes, I’m a designer, when it comes to events or theatre, but I also assist designers and make models for them. This is mainly when I work within theatre though. If I’m on a TV job, I’m a standby art director. Although my main duty when art directing is setting up the scenes that are to be filmed, making sure all the props are there and everything looks good on camera, you can sometimes find me on my computer making up graphics or at a drawing board measuring out technical drawings. It’s a little bit of a manic world, whether you are in the office, on the studio floor or standing under torrential rain by the docks during the coldest winter at the crack of dawn. Either industry is intense in it’s own way, but I’m glad I still can jump between the two for now. I guess I’ve always known that, although I’ve always enjoyed the academic, the arts were where I’d end up. When I started university it was a big change, but at the same time not as daunting as it may have been for the others. I was privileged. Putting aside the wonderful backdrop that is Rome and its source of artistic inspiration. Art at St Georges was always a big deal. We didn’t take it lightly and it never felt less important than any other subject. I managed to go straight to University without an Art Foundation and when speaking to my new classmates I realised why. A foundation course is a wonderful place to learn the various different paths you can take and I would have benefitted from it, had I not known what I wanted to do to start with. In a way St George’s gave me that. Most of the student’s I met, did not get to practice the various skills I had learned and I have the IB to help for that! It’s a great subject to take and I say if you want it, do it! There can never be too many artists out there!

SGBIS Alumni Creativity The Creative Lives of Ex-Students Beatrice Bonafini: Artist

ea Bonafini graduated from St George’s in 2009. She is an Italian, Londonbased artist with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art and a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art. She has exhibited and presented performances at Lychee One Gallery, the Royal College of Art, Place Theatre, Cob Gallery, Arts Atrium @ Twitter HQ London, Tate Modern, Camden Arts Centre, Guest Project Space, the Slade School of Fine Art, and Central Saint Martins. Art residencies include Villa Lena Residency (2016) and The Beekeeper’s Residency (2015).

y art practice is a collection of painterly objects, installations, textiles and performances that are interconnected. My process-based approach follows experimental methods involving risk and failure in the handling of sensuous material. In my work I explore the dynamics of social gatherings and traditions, human relationships, and our connection to consumption. I invite viewers to inhabit idiosyncratic spaces that question their relationship to the functional, the domestic, and the purely aesthetic. The work I made at St. George’s was an early attempt to regurgitate the world into an array of visual forms that were raw with colour, bodies, intimacy and found material. Everything was deemed worthy as a surface on which to paint. Any discarded material could be appropriated. We weren’t precious. We didn’t make small-scale work. And ugliness was just as precious as beauty.

Examples of Bea’s work as an IB Visual Arts student at St George’s

Skin Flaps. Knitted wool and thread. 2015.

Theatrical Model Making

In the Likeness Of... Dance performance.

Tender Beds. Le Cabinet Dentaire, Paris. 2015.

Supra. 2016.

Together. Performance, with Cecilia Granara. 2013

After Cake. 100 x 90 x 60 cm

E120 Banquet Performance.Slade Degree Show 2014