Scholarship – 2011:
Printmaking (93309)
Examples of Candidate Work
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OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP
This Outstanding Scholarship Printmaking submission is based on an invented story about ‘girls’ (factory women) who work in a
Doll factory during the Victorian era. The story focuses on their ‘miserable lives’ and confinement to life in a cold desolate
environment, how their souls are emotionally being eaten away, and the subsequent infiltration of their bodies by the spirits of the
dolls. This is a semi-complicated imaginative narrative that provides huge scope for pictorial exploitation. (In this instance, it is
‘exploitation’ rather then exploration; the candidate clearly articulates their intention to pull apart the material they are working with,
to manipulate and corrupt the subject). This claiming of intention makes this a gritty and very intelligent foray. The plot enables the
candidate to engage in all the things (ideas) that she or he is interested in, such as Fashion, the Victorian era and Film through
artmaking (print processes of etching, monoprint, drypoint merged with a range of other media, drawing, collage and painting). The
first key move was the development of an individual aesthetic and visual vocabulary to facilitate ideas. The candidate was interested
in achieving ‘media-based’ evocation of emotional states. In some ways, this candidate art-directed their own investigation; print
methods were mixed with collage, drawing and assemblage to create dynamic theatrical works (each a visual installment of the
overall narrative). A lateral range of reference were considered throughout the enquiry including; James Enson, Francisco Goya,
Mike Parr, Otto Dix, Seb Patane, Stacey Turner, Horror film (Eyes Without a Face), Fashion; Anna Sui, Romantic Grunge. Surfaces
and textures are taken from details of dresses (Sui), close-ups of waves (Hokusai) and translated into blotches on figures to render
them faceless. Technical applications, such as masking, blocking, collage are used to ‘censor’ the image, to encapsulate a tension or
desperation of situation. Drawing is highly sophisticated and used to activate the continual sense of urgency and intensity of the
narrative. This is a thoughtful and ambitious submission that is executed with technical mastery and inventiveness. The candidate is
able to take advantage and recognise the potential of the accidental, making it a deliberate act/ decision within their process. The
workbook also contains a parallel body of work as possible extensions. There is not only proposition, but also finished works that
reveal how the extensions might develop. Overall, this is an incredible body of work, which is led by the candidate’s obvious passion
for the topic and artmaking.
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SCHOLARSHIP
The original proposition for this Scholarship Printmaking submission shifted as the candidate undertook to incorporate new aspects of
their everyday life (Canterbury earthquake) as it impacted on his or her life and the work being developed. Thus the topic shifted from
being purely about the aesthetics of communication between people (with a focus on postage matter and letters) to include ideas of
dislocation and the importance of family and the connectedness of relationships. This created an embedded narrative that tracked the
impact of natural disaster upon people (family) and the various states people were being exposed to; detachment, removal,
repositioned, limbo. The workbook operates as a thinking tool for the folio and evidences a natural scaffolding of ideas/ concept/
contextual relationships. It informs, unpacks and expands the folio, which it does through visual elements rather than written
description. References such as Michael Borremans, Elmer Bischoff and associate ideas are discussed and tested out in the workbook.
The format of the folio is thoughtfully considered in order to communicate the transitional changing state. Editing is key. The
sensitivity of print process and related media closely aligns with the perceived emotional and tentative state of people and the nature of
the event the candidate chose to represent. The snapshot was used as source and conceptual reference to communicate ideas of
detachment and removal. Images disappear, merge into the background and get consumed. There is a real sense of media in-action
acting out the various scenarios or shifts in time. Formal elements such as colour, tone, collage, silhouette, positive/negative space and
pictorial space are used to make metaphorical links to concept, eg. the red sticker process is indicated through ‘red’ silhouette, shape,
form, stamp. The printed collage elements are sensitively selected as a way to inform the narrative and as formal pictorial devices, eg.
the deconstructed envelope becomes a picture plane/surface itself. Also of note is the subtle understanding of the use of handwritten
and mechanical type. The candidate exploits their own confidence in media handling, and takes visual risks to construct some very
poised works that delicately deal with the subject whilst also presenting a ‘real’ view of the experience. There is a strong level of
ownership and student-led process evidenced in both the workbook and folio.
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