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NCEA Level 3 - Visual Arts 2011

Examples of Candidate Work – 90670 Sculpture

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Excellence

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Excellence

This well-crafted and inventive submission presents an honest, genuine and engaging body of work within Sculpture. The symbolism of materials and their inherent properties are explored in a simple and assiduous manner which allows the candidate to produce a poetic and discursive approach to making work. The use of established practice to test and refine the proposition has allowed the candidate to keep shifting the outcomes towards ever increasingly complex sculptural works. For example the initial proposition of protruding linear elements from found objects leads the candidate to explore the Boyd Webb like theatrical representation of smoke. The logical extension of this notion leads to influence by kinetic artists like Kristoffer Myskja who investigate actual smoking machines. These works are then refined to explore more intense iterations of the idea. The development of ideas are consistently analysed and re-evaluated through both formal and conceptual elements. This allows the candidate to realise lateral steps in the production of work that reach ambitious outcomes. This submission is also a good example of how three-dimensional drawing can inform the sculptural process. The candidate consistently takes intuitive and logical decisions about moving ideas along based on a rigorous testing of materiality that informs the central proposition. The candidate also displays a determination to keep working through ideas until the idea is resolved to a point that suggests other areas for investigation. This is evident in the way in which the candidate persists with the nature of the protruding materials on the found objects in panels one and two until the recognition of these materials as smoke is arrived upon which allows for a whole new area of investigation.

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Excellence

This candidate employs a rigorous and comprehensive approach to investigating colour spectrum in a range of sculptural procedures. The work simply and logically builds upon a range and depth of sculptural ideas which are constantly reviewed and refined to expand the intent and scope of the work. The final installations realise ambitious extensions of the ideas generated throughout the submission.  The submission starts with a number of simple colour organisational drawing ideas that expand playfully into different modes of sculptural investigation. The candidate also employs a strong evaluative process to clarify which modes of practice offer the best steps to move forward. The submission has a sense of constant reflection at each step that allows the candidate to have failure which then generates new possibilities for investigation. For example the difficulty of the lamp structures at the bottom of panel two generates the translucency of colour and light issue that when combined with the geometric logic of the drawing works on panel one give rise to the ambitious layered spatial installations on panel three. The candidate also understands the role of documentation in the sculptural process and uses it to emphasise important point within the body of work. Lastly this candidate is clearly not afraid to undertake ambitious projects that are well researched, planned and executed.

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Merit

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Merit

This submission steadily and confidently explores assemblage and installation processes and procedures. Well understood arrangements of found objects are explored and then clarified in a logical and yet linear manner. The purposeful development of ideas is thorough and yet predictable. The candidate has a command of the formal quality of materials to articulate formal properties at both small scale as well as large installation. 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 practice that would have helped this candidate synthesise a range of ideas within the central proposition. In order to gain achievement with excellence this candidate would need to apply a greater range of attitude to assemblage from both recent and established practice. 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 created a narrative driven body of work that deals with the subversion of traditional notions of refuse management and recycling. The candidate understands well the relationship between the kinetic sculptural work and performance. The use of fans as the mechanical form of air flow is augmented by performance that deals with human air flow and filtering that alludes cleverly to the management of waste. Although a range of options are investigated the understanding of how to build upon particular sculptural ideas or devices negates this submissions ability to explore these ideas in depth.

This candidate has allowed the narrative or desire to communicate a political idea to obscure the sculptural proposition in the work. This is the danger when operating in such a narratively overt manner at the expense of the sculptural content of the work. In order for this candidate to achieve with excellence they would have needed to employ a more critical approach to relating and evaluating ideas to enable the synthesis of a range of ideas and methods in the production of work.

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Achieved

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Achieved

This submission starts with clearly defined sculptural outcomes derived from distinct established sculptural practice. The logical arrangement and reconfiguration of something as simple and readily available as shoes allows this candidate to work logically and quickly through ideas that include the transformation of materials towards a number of successful works. The use of artist models such as Brian Jungen on panel one set up rich and culturally astute possibilities for the work that are not followed through in the remainder of the submission. Deconstruction and reconstruction of readily available materials continue the investigation and yet run out of momentum when the candidate struggles to regenerate ideas from the first half of the submission. The burning of objects does not engage with the same proposition that the rest of the work on the folio deals with. The potential kinetic or performance elements of the work are abandoned to engage in an arbitrary combustive process.

 In order for this candidate to achieve the standard with Merit they would have needed to use a systematic approach to evaluating ideas and methods as well as recognising successful properties within the materials being used to further ideas.

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Achieved

This submission uses easily manipulated and readily available materials which are put to good use in working quickly through ideas. The candidate has a good understanding of the role that different kinds of spatial drawing has in developing ideas. Three-dimensional drawing is also used as a means to generate and regenerate sculptural ideas.  Simple geometric arrangements are explored to develop ideas with a range of success. The development of ideas is simple and yet inconsistent. Potential ideas are dropped at the expense of other less convincing experiments. Some confusion also exists about the sculptural proposition that the candidate is engaged in. The idea of the deconstruction of the rectangular cuboid forms is dealt with haphazardly. In order for this candidate to achieve the standard with Merit they would have needed to use a systematic approach to relate and evaluate ideas and methods in the production of work. This candidate would have also benefited from investigating a wider range of established practice to inform appropriate processes procedures materials and techniques.

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