Scholarship

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Scholarship 2010Printmaking (93309)

• Examples of Candidate Work

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OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP This submission in
printmaking admirably demonstrates that a simple
and close observation of subject matter can
provide ample opportunity to develop concepts
with increasing sophistication and complexity.
The choice of birds as subject is certainly not
an unfamiliar one at this level. However what
distinguishes this candidates treatment is the
ability to conceptualize beyond the literal. This
investigation appears to have come about through
an interest in the art historical notions of
vanitas and this has been developed through an
interest in museology. The ruminations on the
death and life of nature through the lens of
the museum specimen provide a framework for
various explorations of pictorial space. In this
way the bird as subject easily becomes a
metaphor, taking on human characteristics in a
surrealistic manner for talking about the random
interactions of individuals. The workbook draws
upon analysis of a diverse range of artistic
precedent both historical and contemporary.
Celebrating traditional references ranging from
William Hogarth, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin to
the classical surrealism of Max Ernst, to the
contemporary British sculptors, Jake and Dinos
Chapman and the New Zealand painter, Bill
Hammond, provides the student with a scaffold to
draw together various threads of research in
order to fashion their own personal journey. A
distinctive rationale and aesthetic sensibility
has been developed and informs decisions made on
the portfolio panels. A high level of technical
fluency and a sophisticated awareness of
compositional devices appropriate to style and
genre has been demonstrated throughout the
portfolio. This culminates in panel 3, where the
candidate has produced extremely accomplished
multiple plate dry-point prints that utilize
subtle changes in monochromatic colour and
various devices of framing that provide tension
around notions of containment and
protection. Overall the most distinctive
characteristic of this submission is this
candidates consummate capability with a variety
of printmaking processes and technologies. They
have skillfully combined silk-screen printing,
soft ground etching and dry point etching,
solvent transfer printing, paper embossing and
intaglio, without losing any sense of pictorial
coherence. In the best conservative tradition of
printmaking, the subtle soft changes in tonal
contrasts to the increased dramatic effects of
deep blacks against white are arrayed throughout
this submission.
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SCHOLARSHIP The strength of this submission is
demonstrated by a willingness to take risks in
the expressive use of gestural qualities that can
be harnessed within print media and processes.
The portfolio establishes its premise at an early
stage and demonstrates a systematic investigation
of concept and exploration of pictorial concerns
and media use. The first panel explores scale and
a variety of image making. The notion of
exploration and challenge to printmaking process
is clearly evident in this panel. Different print
surfaces and appropriate drawing into and
over clearly signal later development within
the portfolio. Further printing of different
plates over existing prints has been used with
purposeful intent without lapsing into needless
repetition. The expressive quality and thus raw
appearance of the work is in keeping with the
urgency of communicating the perils of lung
disease. Panels 2 and 3 further this
investigation but become clearer in terms of
resolve and purpose. Where text has been
introduced, it reinforces the conceptual intent
but in so doing is also considered in terms of
the pictorial concerns. Clear decisions have been
made with the prints that communicate the decay
and dissolution of the image obviously in
keeping with stated premise of the concept. These
concerns are deliberate and can be seen through
the use of colour, surface/texture, the layering
and bleeding of images. The tarry effect of the
print surfaces appears to reflect the notion of
residue associated with lung disease and the
effects of smoking. The often deliberate ripping
and tearing of the surface of the prints
themselves further emphasize this. The increase
of print scale has been clearly accounted for in
the studies and written text within the workbook.
Another aspect that establishes the success of
this submission is the interplay between a
variety of scales within production. The
deliberate use of large areas of mass is
counter-balanced by finer pictorial images, e.g.
the understanding of line and mass. This
investigation has been synthesized in later works
where figure/ground elements show successful
engagement. Panel 3 suggests that the programme
undertaken has potential to continue to develop
and reinvent. The workbook reinforces the
portfolio investigation and may also operate as
an independent entity. Rather than substantiating
only what is shown in the portfolio, it contains
a whole additional series of possibilities. One
of the noteworthy characteristics of this
Scholarship submission is that the workbook
operates as an independent drawing tool.
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