NCEA Level 3 - Visual Arts 2013
Examples of Candidate Work – 91458
Printmaking
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Excellence
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Excellence
This candidate shows evidence that:
•This submission deals with the candidate’s experience of illness, in particular
Whooping Cough. It captures the sensations of illness; monotony, the restriction of
breath. The macro and micro environment of illness (bacteria versus whole body).
•The candidate works with a range of printmaking media and multimedia techniques
such as, monotype, prontoplate, etching, screenprinting, marbling, photographic
transfer and an appropriate use of photocopying. Printing onto surfaces such as xrays, pill packets, pills, growing bacteria to incorporate into the prints, printing onto
an actual lung. Stitching is a reference to mending, a lack of heath, being sewn back
together
•The combination of photographic and hand drawn conventions, such as the synthesis
of the gestural intaglio mark with photographic imagery to communicate control
versus lack of control with the cough.
•The use of nudity is appropriate as a reference to fragility and the raw nature of
illness – reference to medical diagram.
•The colour palette is clinical, purposeful and symbolic in areas, the colour of lungs,
hospitals, medical diagrams, surgical equipment etc.
•Sequences of works read as smaller series but feed into each other as a larger body of
work.
•A variety of approaches to drawing is evident which is experimental and wideranging. These provide a range of options from the outset and throughout. The
candidate has documented their sculptural interventions as the foundation for new
work.
•The final work refines several earlier options, exploring the concept of the X-ray, the
interior world of body and dissections; it is not a full stop but sets up other
possibilities
•Artist models include Damien Hirst, Ralph Hotere, Terry Winters, Jim Dine, Medical
journals, Rauschenberg, Ghada Amer (Sewing), Marina Abromovic, Kathe
Kollowitz.
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Excellence
This candidate shows evidence that:
•A clear proposition is established from the outset – looking at abuse, fragility and
isolation. The candidate uses the symbolism of the wings/landscape/puppetry/skulls to
describe a lack of control and the relinquishment of innocence.
•There is a fluency and synthesis of formal printmaking conventions and ideas which are
underpinned by well understood links between contemporary and tradition printmaking
practice – Goya, Jason Grieg, Rembrandt, Barry Cleavin, Otto Dix, Kathe Kollowitz.
•There is a mature reference to literature and film in order to further explore the suggested
loss of childhood and a mythic landscape in order to develop a unique submission.
•It is clear the candidate has used their own photographs, documenting orchestrated
performances or situations in order to make work which is an authentic reflection of their
visual voice. The candidate is very present in the work, operating as a director rather than
just thinking in terms of 2d works on paper.
•There is a conscious decision to use a monochromatic colour palette which enhances the
considered theatrical nature of the work. An intangible quality permeates the submission, a
psychological, harrowing, disturbing exploration. The narrative or concepts do not
undermine the pictorial understanding and exploration.
•Ideas are explored in multiple ways, with subtle shifts between each body of work.
Decisions are well understood and the work is a natural progression. There is a range and
depth of ideas evident – being invisible, escaping, nightmares. For example the top of
panel 2 establishes several possibilities. Panel 3 technically refines and prioritizes options
set up earlier.
•It is evident that the Internal Standards are embedded in the evolution of the folio.
•A range of printmaking techniques is used, often in combination. For example reductive
and additive monoprint, rolled slab, draw through monos, collograph, intaglio,
photographic transfer.
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Merit
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Merit
This candidate shows evidence that:
•This submission deals with a clear and accessible proposition of “my life and my
social group’ and builds from this a refined series of works. From the beginning the
candidate recognises their graphic strength and how it reflects the motifs of popular
culture reflective of their generation.
•There is a successful integration and exploration of print processes using a
combination of methods and media. The sources of imagery are personal and
distinctive, giving us an insight into the student’s personality and humour.
•The candidate is not afraid to build the visual momentum of their picture making.
The work combines a clean graphic starting point into an expressive, energetic and
distinctive handling of colour and mark making which allows for a unique
investigation.
•This submission reflects an active engagement with printmaking. Attention to surface
and colour is key to the coherence of the work. Techniques selected are appropriate
and purposeful to the consideration of the candidate’s ideas (for example linear mono
and pronto plate).
•There is a sound understanding of the relationships between the ideas being
communicated in each sequence of work. Previous pictorial explorations are revisited
and reconsidered in order to inform new sequences.
•Editing refines and formalises work while building upon the initial proposition such
as the use of the informal grid, fragmentation and overlays.
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Merit
This candidate shows evidence that:
•A range of starting points is established on panel one to introduce motifs and
characters that are distinctive in their use of print processes and aesthetic (for
example the treatment of colour; colour is taken from the game and the green of the
circuit board).
•Particular print processes are selected in order to communicate a symbolic handling
of subject such as woodcut which is used throughout to symbolise a supposed reality
while airbrush forms reflect a virtual mind-crafted world.
•The relationship between the digital image and the handmade (for example
collograph) is handled with purpose.
•The selected surfaces support the reading of messages within the work such as grid
paper and tessellated imagery.
•Panel two begins to explore the deconstruction of motifs in order to enhance a
narrative which deals with the disintegration and digitalisation of self.
•An ongoing range of related propositions which deal with the relationships between
supposed reality and virtual reality are developed through the handling of space,
fractured images, white linear and digital forms, and the juxtaposing of techniques.
•There is a limited analysis between each phase and on panel 3 we see how
technique fails to build conceptually and in its facility. On-going thinking is evident
throughout but is let down by a collapse in technique at the end.
•The limited technical and conceptual extensions result in interchangeability
throughout the submission.
•There is a reliance on a solid but limited idea and selection of imagery.
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Achieved
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Achieved
This candidate shows evidence that:
•The candidate establishes a consistent understanding of layering and composition
throughout the folio using different formats and arrangements including the use of
devices such as symmetry, juxtaposition, pattern, grid, and mirror images.
•A range of techniques are deployed that include woodcut, collagraph, mono print,
gel media transfer prints cut outs and stencils combined with text, hand drawn and
photographic images.
•The selection of colour is not only appropriate in a cultural context but also
compositionally and pictorially. There is evidence that the colour palette has been
mixed to help form coherent links between works.
•The handling of text and fonts is used in different contexts as part of the
composition rather than to just convey a message.
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Achieved
This candidate shows evidence that:
•The submission is systematic and the ideas are regenerated by the third panel to show
an integration of the print conventions selected. There is a balance between the use of
black and white and colour that is applied selectively to identify key areas.
•Techniques used include dry point, collage, mono print, marbling with black ink and
colour. Wiping back and plate tone are used as effective devices to explore tone and
form. Colour is added adequately to revisit earlier ideas. Collage is used successfully in
related series in order to extend the narrative.
•The two large works on the third panel holds the folio at Achieved as they consolidate
the ideas and reformat them but do not refine them. There would need to be further
sequences of work on panel 3 in order to explore and analyse links between the
different series or sequences.
•Artist references include Graeme Sydney and Escher.
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