Unit 2. Research and Exploration

Unit 2. Folio Requirements

It is expected that the following tasks will be completed, collated and submitted in the final presentation for assessment for this unit. These expectations are the same as those in Unit 1 however the individual tasks are specific to this unit.

Content:
Students must include personal annotates on their pages discussing the task, materials and techniques, concepts and the effects created. Students are also encouraged to acknowledge areas that need improvement or a change of direction.

  • Brainstorming of spontaneous ideas (double page only) for Ceramic artwork.
  • Photographic records of the production of the ceramic sculpture with technical construction annotations and reflections of its ongoing progress and refinement. This includes the finished sculpture.
  • Inspiration from Observation: Presentation of a collection of significant, original photographs to develop potential subject matter and composition design for the oil painting, annotated with reference to the student’s personal lens and the structural lens.
  • Research of three significant artists, Del Kathryn Barton, Julie Dowling and Blak Douglas, their influences, artistic practice and artworks. Annotations of connections to the creative practices or messages you can make to these artists’ creative process and their artworks.
  • Composition design: several potential compositions created digitally or by sketching showing different approaches derived from the photographic inspiration.
  • Photographic records of the production of the oil painting with technical annotations and reflections of its ongoing progress and refinement.
  • Photographs of the final artworks.
  • Reflection and Evaluation – Comparative

Ceramics – Recording of Brainstorming

  • Your research and exploration for this task will be developed in your visual diary as you undertake it.
  • Build a double spread in your visual diary that records your immediate and evolving ideas with sketches of the forms that will evolve into your sculpture.
  • Add more to these two pages as you reflect and analyse the progress of your sculpture each lesson.
  • These may include research into construction techniques, embellishment techniques such as relief carving, and potential glaze effects as you work.

Oil Painting – Recording of Sources of Inspiration, Subject Matter and Technical Processes

  • Students will source inspiration for their own subject matter and messages through original photographs. These will be presented with annotations that acknowledge their relevance in regards to the areas identified in the Personal Lens and the Structural Lens, identifying the approaches they intend to take with the visual and physical attributes of the work..

Artists of Influence

  • Students will explore the practices of contemporary Australian artists Del Kathryn Barton, Blak Douglas and Julie Dowling, investigating the messages and meaning they intend to convey through their choice of subject matter and unique visual language.

Artists of our time, our world.

Students will research and compare the practice of contemporary Australian and First Nation Artists for this unit. They will discuss their intended messages, sources of inspiration and visual language through the Arts Creative Practice Personal Lens.

Australian Contemporary Artist, Del Kathryn Barton talks of her creative process during her creation of the portrait of Australian actor Hugo Weaving which won her the 2013 Archibald prize.

First Nation artist, Blak Douglas talks to the importance of the source of inspiration for his subject matter and his realisation of his own ancestral connection to the photograph. He focuses closely on the social and historical issues of the invasion of Australia and the Stolen Generation.

First Nations artist, Julie Dowling brings Indigenous history to the fore in her portraiture. Her work draws on the traditions of oral history and she collates and documents her family and community history, in portraiture. In this self-portrait, she reveals her innermost connections to her people’s traditional lands by making her body the vessel that contains the memories and spirits of her maternal ancestors. Her right hand, pale though it may be in pigment, rests comfortingly on her female ancestor’s hand, with her left hand, caressing the hair of a small child. The connections are inherent and revealing.

Dowling’s statement accompanies this work: I painted this self-portrait to express my feelings about returning to my grandmother’s country, which is located near a small town called Yalgoo. My great uncle George Latham told me the story of when white people asked my ancestors to describe gold and where to find it. They said that gold looked like Yalgoo, which is the Badimaya/Budimia word for the fat deposits around the belly of a large goanna found in that area. I am situated [in this painting] as a member of [my ancestors] with time not separating our mutual connection to this country.

Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010