NCEA Level 3 - Visual Arts 2013
Examples of Candidate Work –
91459 Sculpture
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Excellence
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Excellence
This submission is influenced by a specific range of contemporary figurative sculptural
practice. Traditional planar constructions give way to increasingly complex and fluent
material investigations. Small maquettes and drawing allows this candidate to work through
ideas quickly and efficiently. Referencing artists such as Ryan Johnson and Matthew Monahan
allows this candidate to create their own vernacular that keeps on growing throughout the
production of work. This is a good demonstration of how a candidate may synthesise ideas
and methods to critically inform and refine their own work.
This candidate demonstrates an intuitive sensitivity to materials that grows in complexity as
the work develops. Materials and methods are utilised fluently to extend and refine the body
of work in a range of directions.
The notion of found object repurposed in figurative arrangements develops ideas about
metaphor of materials in the context of figure. For example the judgmental stopwatch eyes or
the motorcycle speedometer inquisitive face allows this candidate to produce a poetic and
intelligent approach to figurative assemblage.
Traditions surrounding the display of sculpture have influenced this candidate as by the end of
the submission we see the candidate articulating museological attitudes to artefact and
reverence for these objects through the nature of display.
The submission returns to its initial phase of working by reintegrating the issue of planar
representation of bust as a critical reinterpretation of space through drawing on planes that are
then twisted to form cones that repurpose the drawing to act as an object.
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Excellence
This candidate employs a rigorous conceptual framework in which to test and refine ideas
in the production of Sculpture via a range of modes of practice. Established practice is
contextualised by interlinked ideas about surveillance and audience. The early
performance and kinetic camera works generate interactive audience elements that are
evaluated to inform new work. The candidate critiques and prioritises options within the
work to extend ideas strategically. Technically challenging projects have allowed this
candidate to produce some confronting and surprising work that questions the sociological
issues of surveillance within a secondary school context. The different modes of working
allow this candidate to run multiple strategies of aesthetic inquiry firmly based in a central
proposition. The work successfully translates ideas into different formats of kinetic or
video installation. For example the first clandestine watching performance work references
the video projection figure installation on the middle panel. This approach continues to test
and refine ideas and methods between and within phases of working.
This is a candidate who may have benefited from submitting work as a digital submission
so that the true nature of the kinetic, video and performance work could be assessed.
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Merit
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Merit
This candidate has purposefully developed ideas through the confident use of materials
and methods that select and revisit ideas in an informed and purposeful manner. The
submission explores the notion of growth that starts with a didactic approach to display
in the context of a pseudo-scientific even museological way. As the found botanical
samples influence the nature of how the objects are presented the candidate shifts the
ideas to encompass material processes which lend themselves to growth through
repetition of layers like wax. Informed by the found seed pods assemblage the candidate
settles on the repetition of units to replicate growth in object and installation. These
items are initially cast to create a uniformity of components that are then arranged to
intervene in space. The last works transform consumer refuse material such as
aluminium drink cans and Styrofoam cups into organic forms or installation. This
candidate continuously shifts through materials that relate formally and conceptually.
Some of the final works hold an interesting tension between artificiality of the material
and organic inspired forms in space that replicate growth in nature. The submission
would have benefited from a more rigorous criticality in the way in which these ideas
and methods were selected in order to provide options for the extension of ideas. The
persistent almost dogmatic attitude towards developing ideas is this candidate’s strength
as much as it is its weakness. This rigid approach to developing ideas has led to a deep
and yet narrow investigation. There is a range of established assemblage and installation
practice that would have helped this candidate synthesise a range of ideas within the
central sculptural proposition.
In order to gain achievement with excellence this candidate would need to apply, in a
diverse manner, research of recent and established practice from a range of attitudes to
build upon and sustain the central proposition of materiality and growth. They would
also need to employ a more critical analytical and evaluative approach to extend ideas in
the production of work.
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Merit
This candidate has presented a process driven body of work that deals with
the notion of cocoon and wrapping of a linear material to create form. These
forms are created by a range of means that increase in scale and complexity.
Simple wrapping with wool, string and yarn leads into tape casting and
bandaged body forms, which are refined then revisited in notions of body
cocoons and finally seed pods or vessels. This reformation of ideas creates a
narrative within the work about bodies, containers and the relationship of this
notion to insect structures built for metamorphosis. Materials are used
proficiently and with great persistence as many of the works require repetitive
actions like weaving or plaiting in order to make a form.
Although a range of methods and ideas are investigated in this submission.
The understanding of how to build upon particular sculptural ideas is
restrained by the candidate’s ability to critically select ideas and methods that
integrate conventions from established sculptural practice.
In order for this candidate to achieve with excellence they would have needed
to employ a more critical approach to prioritising options to enable the
synthesis of a range of ideas and methods in the production of work that is
informed by established sculptural practice.
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Achieved
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Achieved
This submission works through a series of related formal explorations based on the notion
of positive and negative space or mass and void. Casting of different domestic objects in
plaster and wax has allowed this candidate to investigate the relationship of mass to void
in a range of ideas within established sculptural practice. These steps negotiate how a
void can be represented as its opposite or positive form next to the void itself. This notion
of inversion is then utilised to explore the sculptural idea of wrapping to describe form as
opposed to casting its interior space. This is a formal study that stays safely within the
established practice bringing conventions together to drive the development of ideas in an
elementary extension.
The candidate would have benefited from investigations into a wider range of particular
artist models that deal with the casting of negative spaces like Rachel Whiteread and that
also deal with the materiality of reproduction processes like Hany Armanious. This would
have assisted this candidate in decisions about how to revisit and refine ideas in the
production of work.
In order for this candidate to achieve the standard with Merit they would have needed to
select, revisit and refine ideas from previous works in order to reform and extend ideas in
new work. Further exploration of combinations of ideas with an awareness of links
between the phases of working would have helped this candidate achieve with merit.
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Achieved
This submission has investigated a range of pasifika cultural modes of craft and pattern
to create a range of objects, installation and performance. Basic narratives are devised
and re-formed to extend the sculptural work.
Body adornment and pattern through repetition of shape and form in relation to the
body create the basis for this sculptural investigation. Traditional pattern is investigated
to create a range of very successful small scale works on the first panel. The candidate
then moves on to dealing with notions of love and belonging through narrative used in
the traditions of illustration and symbolism of traditional Tapa painting.
Because the genesis of the sculptural ideas came from the notion of body adornment it
is logical to extend this idea into a performative gesture to articulate some of the larger
scale works in the context of body. The addition of reoccurring layer of pattern is
logically extended into a projection installation that adds to the proposition of narrative
though layers of traditional symbol and pattern to convey story.
In order for this candidate to achieve the standard with Merit they would have needed
to revisit and refine the ideas generated from the jewellery making and the other body
adornment into larger scale works that interact with the body in the same way that the
smaller works operated. Analysis of the links within and between the phases of
working would have also allowed this candidate to achieve with merit.
This candidate would have benefited from investigating a wider range of contemporary
Pasifika art practice to inform appropriate materials and methods to extend ideas in the
production of work.
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