Scholarship Sculpture exemplars – 2020

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Scholarship


Panel 1 (JPG, 505KB)

Panel 2 (JPG, 573KB)

Panel 3 (JPG, 588KB)
Entire portfolio (JPG, 1.6MB)
Sample workbook pages

Sample page 1 (JPG, 3.6MB)

Sample page 2 (JPG, 3.7MB)

Sample page 3 (JPG, 4.5MB)

Sample page 4 (JPG, 3.6MB)

Sample page 5 (JPG, 3.7MB)

Sample page 6 (JPG, 3.6MB)

Sample page 7 (JPG, 3.3MB)

Sample page 8 (JPG, 3.5MB)
 

Click links to see larger images

This Scholarship submission presents a politically motivated analysis about perception and objectification of women in society from a personal perspective, considerate of the social, ethical, and cultural contexts that the candidate encounters. Observations made, drawing on their experiences at home, school, and in social situations form the basis for research on gender norms, expectations, roles and histories of ‘the housewife’, wife and stay-at-home mums. Of influence also were family and friends' stories of being sexualised (inappropriate cat-calling, etc.). Gender stereotyping is developed as a device and pseudo methodology through a set of performative acts that are unapologetic.

Artistic reference is well-pitched in support of the candidate's desire to make a clear statement, not hold back, and position their viewpoints directly in front of the audience. They want to make their audience think and to respond with different emotions – and, hopefully, insight. A playfulness and prompting occur in the way the sculptures are made, cut out, placed, projected, or arranged. For example, playing cards are utilised in multiple ways, always recognisable but re-shaped, re-formed into vaginas, flowers, and houses.

Objects are used to speak to functionality and gender. A set of themed material objects – such as fruit, vegetables, bread (aka breadwinner), utensils, cars, Barbies, nipples, and houses – are employed to make particular statements. Sculptures arrive in unexpected forms and combinations of motifs, such as the flesh furniture, the nipple house, and wine goblets with stems and bases made from Barbie body parts. In the workbook, the candidate outlines their thinking, how they have interpreted and placed bodies (female and male) in positions and roles that affect the natural order and suggest discomfort, manipulation, and vulnerability to communicate messages of what it feels like to be sexualised – and to make a claim for power.

This project is highly experimental and confident; it owns its aesthetic and is bold in its delivery of these sculptural statements. The making is provisional, and the sculptural objects / arrangements approximate relationships with contemporary society, culture, and other artists' practice that is pivotal to the way the discussion unfolds. This includes making reference to Judy Chicago's Dinner Party alongside Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man through the use of Barbie dolls, patterned plates, and an improvised dinner table, aka banquet, in front of a domestic home. The same performers are used throughout the portfolio work; they are age-appropriate in that they appear to be role-playing the future, and are themselves positioned as objects at times. The ‘tables are turned’ for the final piece, and the male performer returns to centre stage. The candidate makes the deliberate decision not to create a happy ending that she feels doesn’t exist. However, the plates – in true Chicago-style _ refer to the female body, idealisation, and beauty. Again, these are purposeful objects, roughly arranged to provoke attention; to ask the viewer to look closer.

 

 
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