High School Art Exhibition: Illusion
Presented at the Gallery at UWCSEA Dover
Art Attack!
This year we had 172 students exhibiting over 300 artworks on show, ranging from animation to photography, painting, drawing, digital and mixed media, textiles and sculpture.
Students hard at work
Distance by geography may have limited the visitors of the exhibition but with the possibilities of virtual tours, our students' hardwork are now accessible for their friends and families far away.
How does Art inspire?
Art inspires me everyday to express myself, my passions and my motivations. It has been my vehicle of creativity which has allowed me to feel free, especially in the stressful atmosphere of school. The changes in my daily life and the unique experiences I face, are constantly influencing my values and ultimately impacting the way I approach art.
Art inspires me to explore my creativity and imagination in order to create an art piece that I feel proud of. It gives me the chance to represent my values and beliefs through a form of unspoken communication.
Art allows me to be creative and think outside the box. It inspires and challenges me to look at the world in a different way and capture it in a unique and interesting light.
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Discomfort
My piece represents the theme of ‘Culture and Identity’. Being in an international school my whole life and being a Third Culture Kid, I have always been surrounded by so many backgrounds and have been enriched and exposed to my own culture as well. Resultantly, feeling lost ended up being my main idea for my piece. I wanted to vividly represent the confusion and the lack of self-identity I feel as a result of having so many cultural experiences. It has led me to not fully understand who I am and where I ‘fit in’ which ultimately inspired my largely scaled and emotional self-portraits.
Caution
My photography piece in the exhibition was created upon the basis of the theme ‘Vanitas’ or in other words ‘The Transience of Life”. At first glance, my artwork can represent other things as well, but once it is slightly deconstructed, the message can be seen.
From the start itself I had been drawn to the use of subtle objects in order to purvey the message, for example fast food. It simply represented how our life is on the go and we rarely take pauses to focus on what really matters.
Since this was my first unit in photography, I was given the opportunity to explore different angles, camera settings, composition and object setups to support my learning.
Illusion
My artwork in the exhibition is simply called “Abstract”, after the theme. I was very excited to do this coursework because it was new and very different to the themes we had been given in the past. It allowed me to focus more on composition and the principles of art rather than the content of the piece.
I also liked that I could experiment with different forms of photography such as light and film photography. The first thing that came to mind was creating something 3D, something that the viewer had to look through, not simply a piece of photographic paper.
What would you hope your loved ones at home or far away, feel when they see your final artwork?
My brother who goes to university in Canada came back to Singapore to visit during the Christmas holidays. I was in the midst of my painting when he came into my room and was shocked by what he saw. He was surprised to see something so big and detailed that I created as since he hasn’t seen me in a while, he hadn’t realised the amount I have learnt in the past year. I hope this final piece for me can resonate with my family abroad to help them to recognise how their culture has influenced who I am and how thankful I am to be part of such a rich culture. I would want them to feel connected to me as culture is something that we would be able to relate and feel part of together without actually being in the same country.
I hope that my parents and my brother look at it and understand the different forms of photography. Many people just think of a flat piece of paper with an aesthetically pleasing photo. I wanted to push the boundaries and create something that was different and unique which showcased the various forms of photography.
I hope that my loved ones get a sense of how simple photographs or pieces of art can hold more than one meaning to it. I find it quite fascinating that there are so many elements that an artist/photographer has decided to include or not include in their image to strengthen the power it holds or message it can deliver, so I trust that my loved ones can also appreciate this.
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