Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts Stage 5 Year 9 …vadea.org.au/wp-content/uploads/resource_files/VADEA_10... · 2016. 3. 2. · Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts

VAPD +

RESEARCH + BODY OF WORK

Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts Stage 5 Year 9 Program 2009

Year 9 Visual Arts Assessment Task 1

AREA OF ASSESSMENT 1: Artist Practice+Body Of Work

TASK WEIGHTING: 15% DATE DUE: 9 March 2009

CONCEPTS: Shared Experiences, Personal Response, Empathy, Respect, Hope, Ritual,

CONTEXT: You have been investigating the work and Practice of artist Dadang Christanto using the Conceptual

Framework (Artist, Artwork, World, and Audience) to help you order your thinking and research. This artmaking

task now asks you to work collaboratively and respond to a theme using Dadang Christanto’s artwork “They Bring

Evidence” as a reference and inspiration.

TASK DESCRIPTION:

Develop a figurative ceramic work in response to the 2009 Clancy Prize Theme:‘You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world’ Matt 5:13-14

Celebrating Who I Am

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS:Present your initial thoughts, concept development, research and drawings in your VAPD.

Present your completed work as a group exhibition and ceremony in the art space and later at the Clancy Prize Exhibition at the ACU Gallery, Strathfield Campus.

Practice: ✤ Work as a member of a team of artists to complete a collaborative artwork utilizing ceramics as your primary

expressive form. ✤ Consider: “How can I be a light in the world? What can I do? How can I be? What will I bring? ✤ When you have reflected on these questions write your thoughts on a small piece of paper and wrap them in

cloth just as Christanto did.✤ Consider: What makes my work unique and individual? How does my work become more powerful as a col-

laboration?✤ What does my work communicate?✤ Write an artist statement.

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Marking Rubric (Outcomes)

4.1 uses a range of strategies to explore different artmaking conventions and procedures to make artworks4.4 recognises and uses aspects of the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts4.5 investigates ways to develop meaning in their artworks

Marks VeryLimited

Limited Adequate High Very High

Series of drawings:

a) drawings of a Buddha

b) life drawings: quick sketches completed in class using pencil and/or charcoal

c) Dadang Christanto inspired drawing(s)

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Body of Work

3D ceramic work - sculpture

40

Total Marks /70Total Marks /70Total Marks /70Total Marks /70Total Marks /70Total Marks /70Total Marks /70

Weighting - Body of Work /10%

- Artmaking Processes and Proceedures /5%













Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts Stage 5 Year 9 Assessment Task 2, Term 1 2009

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Year 9 Notice of Assessment Task 2 Critical and Historical Study

Date of Notification: 2 March 2009 Date Due: 27 March 2009, Period 1Key Learning Area: Critical and Historical Study Task Weighting: 15%Area of Assessment: 3 Student Name: Class:

Context: This task is structured on to allow students to develop a case study on an artist and to consider their artist practice from not only a historical, but also critical and analytical perspective.

Task Description: In Class Task - WrittenYou are to consider a significant artist whose work we have been discussing in class this Term. You are also to reflect on and think about your artmaking process and the processes and proceedures you have followed in oder to complete an engaging artwork. You are also to consider how audiences react to artworks and be able to justify your reasoning.

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5.7 applies their understanding of aspects of practice to critical and historical interpretations of art5.8 uses their understanding of the function of and relationships between artist – artwork – world – audience in critical and historical interpretations of art

Marks Very

Limited

Limited Adequate High Very High

Practice:

a) Understanding of the artmaking process. Ability to show a development of processes and proceedures that

concept driven.

b) Describing artworks in detail. Talking about an artwork from a structural perspective.

c) Comprehending the article. Understanding and comprehending context. Creating a concept driven idea for an

artwork, influenced by the world and world issues.

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5-6

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Conceptual Framework:

a) Compare and contrast two artworks from a structural perspective

b) Recognise and compare artists’ intentions, as they relate to the interpretation of the world, creating artworks

and engaging audiences

c) Based on informed judgement, make inferences about how audiences relate to artworks.

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300-9 10-14 15-19 20-25 26-30

Total Marks /100

Weighting - Critical and Historical Study /15%


2

As World Water Day falls on Sunday, dozens of high school students paid a visit to Muara Angke River in North Jakarta on Saturday, only to find a murky river filled with the flotsam and jetsam of garbage. The students got into the fishermen’s boats to sail along the river, which is a meeting point of 13 rivers in the city.

Hannita Andriani, 16, was stunned when she spotted a woman taking the river’s water to brush her teeth and take a shower.

“Oh my gosh, how could the woman brush her teeth with such dirty water? It’s not healthy,” Hannita exclaimed.

“Look, she does not seem to worry about using the water. She does not even care about her health,” said the student from high school SMA 36 in Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

She was more surprised when she found out that residents in the area, who mostly worked as fishermen, used the heavily polluted water to clean mussels and fish they had just caught from the river.

“That’s not right. Cleaning the mussels and fish with polluted water will harm people who consume them,” she said.

Hannita was one of 50 students who visited Muara Angke Wildlife Reserve in an event called the Love Water Camp (Kemah Cinta Air) held by PT Coca Cola Indonesia.

The two-day event, from Saturday until Sunday, was held in conjunction with World Water Day.

The program was aimed at raising students’ awareness on the importance of saving and preserving water, as well as keeping the environment clean, said the company’s director of corporate affairs.

World Water Day is an initiative introduced in 1992 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As well as a brief tour of Muara Angke, the students also visited Manggarai sluice gate in South Jakarta and Katulampa sluice gate in Bogor, West Java.

The students took river water samples from the three locations, measured their acidity and compared them.

A participant, Kurniati, said the trip taught her many lessons.“It made me appreciate water and want to conserve it. I learned it is very

important to always dispose of trash appropriately so it won’t pollute the environment,” said the 16 year old student.

“I hope the city administration can do something about the water pollution. They, for example, could provide more cranes to remove the garbage clogging the Manggarai sluice gate,” she said.

Another participant, Ari Febriawan, agreed.“Water is the most important natural resource for humans. What can we do

without clean water?” Ari said. “I always try to save water in my daily life, like turning off the tap after using it,

and I try to keep the environment clean. I hope all people can do the same,” he said.

On Sunday, the students will do environmentally friendly activities at Gunung Geulis Adventure Camp in Bogor, such as planting trees and exploring the lake.

Read the article below ‘Students get lesson on water conservation in city rivers’Triwik Kurniasari , THE JAKARTA POST , JAKARTA | Sun, 03/22/2009 9:27 AM | Headlines

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Muara Angke River

YOUR TASK

Imagine you are an artist with a passion for environmental issues and you love working 3D materials. Your passion is sculpture.

You have read the article in the paper and feel that you must create an artwork to raise awareness about the issue of water pollution in North Jakarta, Indonesia.

Use the boxes provided to complete each numbered section.

1. /20 Marks

Draw a flow chart that describes your artmaking process - How will you create your artwork?

Include as many steps as you can. Provide a detailed response. Do not leave anything out.


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2. /10 Marks

Describe your new imaginary 3D artwork.What kind of an artwork is it? Describe how it looks and how it is made. Include as much detail as you can.

3. /10 Marks

Draw your new imaginary artwork here.

Title of your work: ___________________

Dadang Christanto and his work ‘They Give Evidence’


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4. /30 Marks

Compare and contrast your work to the work of Dadang Christanto.

Structure your response in

paragraphs.

In your comparison, refer to the structural elements of the works (how they are made?)

Compare also your intentions for creating your artwork to the intentions behind Christanto’s work.

Compare and contrast audience reactions:

How do you think will the audience react to your work? Justify your answer.

How do you think did the audience react upon viewing Dadang Christanto’s work? What was your reaction to his work? Provide an explanation.

My work Dadang Christantoʼs Work


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4. /30 Marks

Compare and contrast new imaginary artwork to the work

of Dadang Christanto.

Structure your response in paragraphs.

In your comparison, refer to the structural elements of the works (how they are made?)

Compare also your intentions for creating your artwork to the intentions behind Christanto’s work. Provide reasons why your chosen materials and mediums are important elements in delivering your intended message.

Compare and contrast audience reactions:

How do you think will the audience react to your work? Justify your answer.

How do you think did the audience react upon viewing Dadang Christanto’s work? What was your reaction to his work? Provide an explanation.

My work Dadang Christantoʼs Work

My work is made using.............................................................It is .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................(mention size, shapes, number of pieces, colours etc)

Through my work, I intended to (wanted to) show........................................................................................................................................................................................................................(what is the reason behind your artmaking?)

In comparison to Christantoʼs work, I intended to ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

If my work was viewed by an audience in an art gallery, the audience would think....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................because......................................................................................................................................................................................

Christantoʼs work is made using...............................................It is .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................(mention size, shapes, number of pieces, colours etc)

Through his work, Christanto intended to (wanted to) show.........................................................................................................................................................................................................(what is the reason behind your artmaking?)

In comparison to my work, Christanto intended to ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

If his work was viewed by an audience in an art gallery, the audience would think....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................because......................................................................................................................................................................................


VAPD +

RESEARCH + BODY OF WORK

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Year 10 Visual Arts: Assessment Tasks 2 &4 KEY LEARNING AREA: Artmaking Processes & Procedures + Body of Work

AREA OF ASSESSMENT: 1 & 2 TASK WEIGHTING: 20% DATE DUE: 25 June 2010

CONTEXT: In your artmaking during Year 9 you explored the work of a contemporary artist Dadang Christanto who primarily used

traditional materials and figurative forms to respond to his world and events that impacted on himself, his family and his countrymen.

You also visited “Sculpture By The Sea” and experienced a range 3D artworks that excited you with its range of scale, materials, and

possibilities for 3D artmaking. In this task you will begin to demonstrate your independence as an artist and your ability to respond to

your immediate world by constructing 3D objects using materials that you will collect and share.

TASK DESCRIPTION: This is an artmaking project consisting of 3 components.

Part 1. VAPD research, processes and procedures

Part 2. Proposal of Intention

Part 3. Three-dimensional sculpture

PART 2: Proposal of Intention (25 marks) AA1

Begin your project by preparing a proposal in your VAPD. Include the following in your proposal:a thorough description of the sensations / ideas / themes / intentions that you intend to incorporatepossible choices of ordinary materials you intend to transform into sculpturesketches that allow the viewer to gain a sound understanding of what your sculpture will look like

Proposal may be in the form of:★ a video - on xtranormal.com (email link to teacher when finished)★ a film - use animoto.com (email work to teacher or send via iChat, Bluetooth or USB in class)★ written report in your VAPD

PART 1: VAPD Research, Processes and Procedures (5 marks each = 25 marks) AA1

Begin your project by preparing a proposal and a series of researched items that should include:construct an imaginary 3D mini sculpturecollect newspaper / magazine articles about your chosen theme/idea/concept collect 5 objects and create a series of sketches of those objects (min 3 sketches, max 6 per object). Through this procedure, explore a variety of drawing media while sketching your collected objects. You can use pens, pencils, ink, guache, watercolour, computer-generated drawings etc.)begin developing your idea by choosing one object in particular. Draw it from 6 different angles - one drawing per VAPD pageresearch two artists who have a direct link to your concept and processes and procedures of artmaking


PART 3: Three-dimensional sculpture (50 marks) AA2

You are to create a 3D sculpture as an evocative form with an interesting surface.

The challenge is to use ordinary, collected materials to construct your sculpture. Create a form using materials such

as cardboard, polystyrene, wire, wood, plastic, pins, nails, screws, bottle caps, ordinary household objects or found

objects. (Be sure that the objects you use are not dangerous or hazardous in any way e.g. no broken glass, blades

etc.) Use these objects to create a form that is interesting, possibly complex, but not cluttered. Although the object

will be made of many separate parts, it should look united as a whole. Your final sculpture may be figurative or

abstract, but should emphasize form, shape, texture, repetition, pattern and colour.

The sculpture must communicate a concept. Try to evoke a sensation from the use of materials. For example, you may want to create a sensual, ethereal, organic or even menacing feeling through the combination of form and texture.

Consideration must be given to how the sculpture will be viewed. Whether it will be free-standing or exhibited on a

base or plinth. The design of your sculpture must also incorporate the inherent colour of your chosen materials, as

you will not be painting the sculpture.


5.1 develops range and autonomy in selecting and applying visual artsconventions and procedures to make artworks5.4 investigates the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts5.5 makes informed choices to develop and extend concepts and different meanings in their artworks

Marks Weighting Very

Limited

Limited Adequate High Very

High

a) Part 1 - VAPD 25 /5%

b) Part 2 - Proposal of Intention 25

/5%

c) Part 3 - Large 3D Sculpture 50 /15%

Total Marks /100Total Marks /100Total Marks /100Total Marks /100Total Marks /100Total Marks /100Total Marks /100Total Marks /100

Comment:Comment:Comment:Comment:Comment:Comment:Comment:Comment:

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Notice of Assessment

RESEARCH TASK

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s Year 10 Visual Arts: Assessment Task 3 KEY LEARNING AREA: Critical and Historical StudiesAREA OF ASSESSMENT: 3 TASK WEIGHTING: 20% DATE DUE: 30 June 2010

CONTEXT: Your objective is to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to critically and

historically interpret art informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames. You are also learning to value the different ways that artworks can be made and interpreted. Choose three artists to refer to during your report. Study their work. Research. Read. Your mission begins with a trip to the city on Friday 11th of June and ends with the submission of your journalist report to your teacher.During this trip, you will need to collect data for your project.

To do this you need to:a) apply your understanding of artist practice to critical interpretations of artb) use your understanding of the function of and relationships between artist – artwork – world – audience in critical and historical interpretations of works you see at the exhibitionc) demonstrate how art criticism and art history have helped to create and construct meanings

How do you prepare yourself for successfully accomplishing this mission?

Well, first - go to http://www.bos17.com/page/free_guide.html and download the free Biennale of Sydney Guide. Read it before Friday's trip.Secondly, make sure you have all of the study notes from our lessons, including information about Artist Practice. Then, begin forming your own report.You have a few weeks to finish your project, so do a section of it each day or at least each week.Don't forget to ask us for guidance and support during your project.And most importantly HAVE FUN!!

TASK DESCRIPTION: Journalist Report on the Biennale of Sydney 2010

Report Theme is The Beauty of Distance. Report on and critically assess how this theme is evident in the works at the Biennale of Sydney.

You can complete this mission in one of the following ways:a) as a written report (1500 words)b) as a collection of visual images and text using animoto.com (30 sec presentation)c) as a podcast using Garage Band (3 minute video)

SUBMISSION DETAILS: 1) Name your file: your initials_homeroom_2010VA2) Email your work to your teacher:[email protected]@mmcwakeley.catholic.edu.au Or Deliver on a USB with your name clearly labelled.

3) Keep your research notes in your VAPD and submit also on the day.

http://www.bos17.com/page/free_guide.htmlhttp://www.bos17.com/page/free_guide.htmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


MARKING GUIDELINES

articulate communication in a form of a report relevant and well-chosen artworks demonstrating explanation of the theme: Beauty of Distance reference made to the relationship between artist-artwork-world-audience discussion on elements of artist practice effective and well-presented report research and references to be collated in your VAPD

The following pages contain examples of articles written by Sydney Morning Herald journalists, not only in written format, but also in video.

Please study these resources before completing your own report.Google your own.Don’t forget to look up You Tube.Or pick up a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend and read the Spectrum section.

http://www.3news.co.nz/A-guide-to-the-Sydney-Biennale-/tabid/1356/articleID/157052/Default.aspx

Click here to view a

video - I bet yours can be even more exciting to

watch and listen to!!

http://www.3news.co.nz/A-guide-to-the-Sydney-Biennale-/tabid/1356/articleID/157052/Default.aspxhttp://www.3news.co.nz/A-guide-to-the-Sydney-Biennale-/tabid/1356/articleID/157052/Default.aspx

Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts Stage 5 Year 10 Program 2010D

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Take your partners and make up your minds, the Biennale has begunADAM FULTONMay 12, 2010

Click for more photos

Art explodes for the Sydney Biennale"Inopportune:Stage One" shows suspended cars in an animated sequence of explosion. Photo: AFP

BIENNALE OF SYDNEY, 12 May - 1 August

CARS explode on Cockatoo Island, a tank and a stealth jet occupy a harbourside gallery and beehives in the Botanic Gardens are camouflaged. Art has broken out across Sydney.

The 17th Biennale of Sydney "reflects our world as it is, rather than as we're told it is", said the man leading the charge, David Elliott, who as artistic director has gathered about 450 works from artists in 36 countries for what is touted as Australia's leading and largest art festival.

The modern art – traversing installation, sculpture, painting, film, cross-media and performance – goes from the sublime (110 Aboriginal memorial poles in the Museum of Contemporary Art) to the bizarre (a giant ship sculpture with oozing foam and pierced baby-doll faces on Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay).

"You will have a chance to make up your own minds," Elliott said of the selection.

At the MCA yesterday, dancers performed a piece linking a 1970s American dance with Mormon polygamy. The piece – portraying "sister-wives" or multiple wives – is by Angela Ellsworth, a US artist who is also showing nine pearl-covered bonnets representing a polygamist's wives.

The exploding cars form the biggest work, suspended mid-air in a gigantic hall. The harbour island and the MCA are the main venues among seven in the free, 12-week festival, themed The Beauty of Distance, which starts today.

There will be free ferries to and from the island, where the line between art and life is blurred.

The boatbuilding going on nearby isn't part of the exhibition. "I applied," a worker joked, "but was rejected."

The Arts Minister, Virginia Judge, has announced an extra $400,000 in funding.

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/art-and-design/art-explodes-for-the-sydney-biennale/20100512-uw1m.html?selectedImage=0http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/art-and-design/art-explodes-for-the-sydney-biennale/20100512-uw1m.html?selectedImage=0http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/art-and-design/art-explodes-for-the-sydney-biennale/20100512-uw1m.html?selectedImage=0http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/art-and-design/art-explodes-for-the-sydney-biennale/20100512-uw1m.html?selectedImage=0

Welcome to the age of confusionThe beauty of life battles political piety in an extravaganza that tries to unify a huge range of works under one theme, writes John McDonald.

We are the Folk Song Army,Every one of us cares.We all hate poverty, war and injustice,Unlike the rest of you squares.Tom Lehrer

This may or may not be Sydney's biggest Biennale but it breaks all records for the length of the title. The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age is the extended moniker for another huge, sprawling, shapeless art extravaganza that extends over seven venues: the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cockatoo Island, Pier 2/3, Artspace, the Opera House, the Royal Botanic Gardens and, finally, the Art Gallery of NSW, which has offered only the use of its entrance court. In this column I'll examine the themes of the Biennale and concentrate on individual works next weekend.

The phrase "the beauty of distance" conjures up instant associations with Geoffrey Blainey's iconic study of Australian history, The Tyranny of Distance (1966). So it's a little surprising that this concept never appears in the essays and fragments included in the catalogue.

With the Biennale's emphasis on indigenous artforms and exchanges between cultures, one might see a place for Blainey, who wrote a groundbreaking study of Aboriginal history but has since been demonised for his later views on land rights and Asian immigration.

As an intellectual starting point, I'm afraid this might have been considered far too simple or logical. This year's artistic director, David Elliott – a journeyman curator who has run museums in Oxford, Stockholm, Tokyo and (briefly) Istanbul – has a more complicated agenda. At least it sounds complicated. The title, he explains, “draws attention to the critical and aesthetic spaces that allow art to exist, as well as how they give art its particular power. It refers to the implicit distance in the production of art between different experiences of life (input) and what the artist finally creates (process/output), within which different ideas of quality or 'goodness' are negotiated.”

The idea that "critical distance" enables us to appreciate art is hardly revolutionary. One of the reasons there is so much bad art is that most artists lack critical distance in relation to their own work. Elliott proceeds to a favourite theme: the end of the Age of Enlightenment. We generally identify the Age of Enlightenment as the 18th century, when philosophers put forward the claims of reason over superstition, religion or convention. It was a revolutionary epoch, when the divine right of kings came under attack and the practice of slavery was declared an abomination.

Most historians believe the Enlightenment ended with the Napoleonic wars but we are all children of that era, which had such a resounding impact on our social, political, cultural and scientific institutions. Balancing out these positives is a view that the Enlightenment was a time when European values were treated as universal, being exported to all parts of the world via trade, war and colonisation.

Elliott's somewhat hackneyed argument is that we are finally over the Enlightenment. In today's world, power is more evenly distributed, cultural diversity is more widely respected, monolithic ideas of national or racial identity are being undermined by networks of migration and communication.

This leads to the proposition that “within the newly recast, non-hierarchical world of this exhibition, there is an acknowledgement of the capacity for wonder – a form of enlightenment rather than knowledge, based on the realisation that reason is no more than an illusion when faced with the immense, uncontrollable beauty of life”.

It could be argued, on the contrary, that more open attitudes are also products of Enlightenment thinking. Discard the supremacy of reason and the door is opened to all sorts of mumbo jumbo: cults, magic, religious fanaticism, political extremism and so on. It suggests that the role of a Biennale viewer is to be dutifully dazzled and not to ask too many questions.

By now you may be thinking this sounds like a very roundabout way of justifying an art exhibition. Alas, this bizarre ritual is re-enacted with every Biennale and never gets any more convincing.


When a curator brings together work by 166 artists or groups of artists from 36 countries, and tries to squeeze the entire package under one umbrella of ideas, there is a lot that gets left out in the rain. If one wanted to be cynical, it would be easy to dismiss the Biennale theme as a conveniently vague pretext that enables one to include anything whatsoever. This means that Swedish abstract painting is just as relevant as a field of Aboriginal burial poles, which are roughly equivalent to a video of someone being tortured, a gigantic silver model of a neuron, a collection of hillbilly folk songs, a labyrinth of green plastic colanders, or a series of cars suspended from the roof of a factory.

The sheer diversity of this collection makes a mockery of the conceptual framework outlined by the director. He might just as easily have said: “These are works that I like, made by some friends of mine.” Instead, we are subjected to the usual preposterous claims that this art will leave us gasping for breath and spiritually transfigured. If it doesn't, the problem lies with us, not the show.

It may very well have that effect on some viewers but I suspect the vast majority will be left confused and footsore, alternately bored and entertained by the offerings on display. This Biennale is as much a circus as ever, with some impressive works and a huge amount of filler. It is a better, more consistent show than the previous Biennale, although it still contains many exhausting hours of video and leans heavily on the extraordinary ambience of Cockatoo Island.

It was foreshadowed that one of the big features of this show would be the work of Harry Smith, the popular music buff and avant-garde filmmaker who put together the legendary Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), which influenced Bob Dylan and his peers. Some may consider folk music rather uncool but this wasn't the opinion of composers such as Bela Bartok, who scoured the villages of Eastern Europe in search of inspirational melodies. The folk music connection threatened to add a unique dimension to this Biennale but in actuality it is only a small component.

At Cockatoo Island, Australia's own walking encyclopedia of folk music, Warren Fahey, has been given a space in which he has contributed an audio-visual piece with the filmmaker Mic Gruchy. It draws on the history of the island, which has been a prison, an orphanage and a shipworks. Meanwhile, one may see and hear a bit of Smith's work on a tiny monitor at the George Street entrance of the MCA and as a wall projection at Artspace, which is hosting performance evenings three nights a week for the duration of the Biennale. Smith's films have inescapable echoes of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations, which they preceded. They are also the basis for Jonathan Barnbrook's eye-catching graphics that are such a feature of this year's show (see Design, page 16).

It seems that Smith's real value to the Biennale is as a talisman for Elliott's project of uniting different cultural traditions on a level playing field. He plays an obscure supporting role to a multitude of contemporary artists chosen for reasons known only to the director.

Elliott has travelled all over the world, selecting artists from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. In Sydney, however, he seems to have hardly travelled further than Roslyn Oxley's gallery in Paddington. No fewer than eight artists are from the Oxley stable, while Fiona Foley has only recently left. Does this suggest that Oxley has all the good artists? Her peers might beg to differ. It's hard to explain how works such as Dale Frank's huge poured abstractions relate to any of the Biennale themes, even if the catalogue does draw a very tenuous connection with the story of a drowned convict.

The local numbers are significantly boosted at the MCA by the inclusion of 110 painted poles by 41 artists of the Yolngu community in Arnhem Land. This spectacular installation is from the Kerry Stokes Collection and is easily the most potent indigenous exhibit in a show that makes a great fuss over such matters. Much of the other art that relates to indigenous cultures is of the self-conscious, ironic, politically aware variety. I'm afraid this was only to be expected. For a show that pays homage to “the immense uncontrolled beauty of life”, there is an awful lot of un-beautiful political piety to circumnavigate. Next week, armed with compass and walking shoes, I'll try to chart a course among the aesthetic peaks and valleys.

17th BIENNALE OF SYDNEY

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art; Cockatoo Island; Pier 2/3; Artspace; Sydney Opera House; Botanical Gardens; Art Gallery of NSW.

When: until August 1


Task 1_Year 9 ArtmakingTask 2_Yr9 In Class Response_ChristantoTasks 2&4_ArtmakingYear 10_Task 3_C&H Research

Documents

Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts Stage 5 Year 9 …vadea.org.au/wp-content/uploads/resource_files/VADEA_10... · 2016. 3. 2. · Mary MacKillop College Wakeley Visual Arts