St Andrew's Cathedral School - IBDP Visual Arts Exhibition

 Exhibition Statement

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The St. Andrew's Cathedral - IBDP Visual Arts Exhibition showcases the culmination of nearly two years of studio practice and theoretical investigations by students who have undertaken the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme course in Visual Arts at St Andrew’s Cathedral School from 2023 – 2024.

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The studio work going on display is grounded in the aims of the IBDP Visual Arts Programme where students are encouraged to challenge their own creative and cultural expectations and boundaries. Students devise their work by developing analytical skills in problem-solving and divergent thinking whilst working towards technical proficiency and confidence as art-makers.

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The work exhibited seeks to answer the challenge to actively explore the visual arts within and across a variety of local, regional, national and international and intercultural contexts. Through inquiry, investigation, reflection and creative application, the students have developed an appreciation for the expressive and aesthetic diversity in the world around them becoming critically informed makers and consumers of visual culture. The outcomes of this process will be on exhibition for the audience to both be challenged and to enjoy.

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GAFFA may glean benefit from introducing these students into the art-world by being one of the first galleries in the CBD who are playing an active role in advocating emerging artists from the context of schools. In connecting with student networks, their parents, families and thus the broader community that St Andrew’s Cathedral School offers, GAFFA can gain unique access to future patrons who have a vested interest and commitment to the arts. The gallery will feature in the various media releases connected to this exhibition and will be mentioned as part of the annual report for Visual Arts in the school’s yearbook.

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Students have enjoyed the unique opportunity to be involved in the planning of their own exhibition directly with a real-world gallery space that will allow their work to be shared with the general public. This meets a specific need in the course for students to understand and explore the issues and theories surrounding notions of display, curatorial practice and to understand how the various agencies of the art world function.

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Artist Statements

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Amelia H.

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The journey my art has taken me on is one where I have learnt the meaning of expression and the importance of creating art that is fuelled by the joy of nature and life. Harnessing the expressive forces of colour, I have tried to capture the scenes and memories from my life. Inspired by a simplified outlook, my art captures the clarity of life through a childlike lens. Through capturing elements of my childhood, visiting both sets of grandparents at Berry or North Haven, I revisit a time in which life and the elements that surrounded it seemed so simple. Relying on my senses to express the elements of the environments around me: capturing the light, the colour, the warmth of the memories and places I hold close to my heart. Turning 18 during the Exhibition, I return to the memories and the bright moments of my childhood for which I have captured through bright colours, expressive and intuitive strokes. I hope this exhibition can remind the viewer of their innocence and naivety of their own childhood and inspire them to view the world through a simplicity that inspires joy and expression.
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Amelie L.

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In my exhibition, I wanted to capture the everchanging nature of my development as a girl, using my artworks as a visual diary. Through this diary, I reflect on fond childhood memories that have shaped me, capture the present and dream about the future. I share my own experiences between holding on to the person I was and the person I am becoming in a pivotal year of my life. I wanted to focus on this theme to not only gain a better understanding of myself and explore a creative method for reflection and aspiration but also to convey complex, universally felt emotions. These can vary from nostalgia to longing but are deepened by my entrance into adulthood where I exist in the liminal space between girlhood and adulthood, speculating on how far I have come and how far I have to go. The subject matter of the early childhood works are memories that have remained focal in my memory today though they once seemed insignificant at the time, while the works about adulthood explore the woman I want to become.

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Ameya M.

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My art represents the origins of the universe from a Hindu-Buddhist religious perspective. For example, one of the motifs I have often depicted is that of the ‘Bhraman’, a form which may be considered the ultimate and purest form of creation. I have done this to allow a deeper understanding of my own cultural roots and religious beliefs. Having moved to Australia at the early age of nine, I somewhat felt that I missed out a deeper understanding of my own cultural and religious roots. Thus, I have used this art making journey as an opportunity to delve deeper into my own cultural roots and help visualise the important aspects of my belief system. I also hope that this exhibition might provide the viewer a glimpse into the creation story of the universe from another perspective, one in which they may have never experienced before.

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Asha B.

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The central exploration of my exhibition is the subversion of the traditionally idealised female subject, primarily through the Classical Greek motif. Through a purposeful distortion of this female form, I have attempted to highlight the damaging impact of conforming to these idealised standards which can ‘disfigure’ the individual sense of self. In addition, my work also explores the link between physical beauty and the divine within Ancient Greece, through the specific figure of “Venus de Milo”. By altering the romanticised image of “Venus de Milo”, I intended to reveal the constructed and often oppressive nature of beauty standards while also revealing the unattainable nature of physical perfection. In addition, a wider personal purpose for this body of work is to enrich my own artistic ability, experimenting with a variety of mediums and attempting to extend my understanding of the human figure overall. Through experimenting with a variety of mediums, referencing classical images and classical theory, I was able to consolidate my understanding of some artistic techniques, to more effectively depict my subject matter.

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Elena G.

My body of work is an expression of my own journey as a young woman navigating my way through this superficial world, looking for substance in others or in some aspect of life outside of myself. It not only explores my observations of the world around me, but helps me arrive to a deeper understanding of my own consciousness as I search for meaning amidst society’s collective need for material gain and blind rush for instant gratification. My art depicts scenes inspired by my own interactions with peers and aims to slow them down as I reflect on these experiences and attempt to express the feeling of being lost in a material world. My work is characterized by undefined forms and hazy or smokey edges to represent the memory of these experiences, rather than the actual event. I naturally use a blackish, reddish colour palette and adopt painting as a personally therapeutic medium of choice, which also allows me to create a blurred effect to symbolize my own vague emotional perception of these moments.

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Lou V.

Trust is the central theme of my exhibition. It is something I personally struggle with when blindly trusting someone and giving them a power which I can’t control. Within my life, when it comes to trust, I have always been proven right in the worst ways possible. I have chosen the media of newspaper print to help me with this theme. Journalists and news reports used to be trustworthy source of news and facts. As I have grown older, I have realised that this is not always the case. Thus newspaper print itself acts a symbol of untrustworthy sources in my practice, one that allows me to share my struggles. Through the act of exhibiting my art, I want to explore the difficulties I have around these issues of trust and use them to come to grips with my own inner turmoil.

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Lucia S.

My exhibition is a series of paintings around the theme of growing up and the significance of family. Each painting depicts photographs of people or places that hold deep nostalgic value for me. Often this meant I painted beaches, as I spent much of my childhood at the beach. In a sense it became a reoccurring motif that has come to signify the joy and beauty of childhood. I attempted to amplify this feeling by using an impressionist style to capture the blurry, nostalgic essence of memories. The process of painting these scenes from the perspective of a teenager, on the brink of adulthood, gave me an opportunity to reflect and reminisce what these scenes meant to me and the role my family has had in shaping me today. Truthfully, becoming an adult is something I think about a lot and is something I’m honestly quite scared of. By being able to explore my childhood memories it allowed me to better consolidate this change in my life. Additionally, I hope to evoke a sense of familiarity and emotional connection with the viewer, perhaps inviting them to reflect on their own experiences of family and their own childhoods.

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