1 Scholarship – 2010: Sculpture (93308) Examples of Candidate Work

2 OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP This submission is noteworthy for the manner in which this student has embraced a strategy that has a high risk factor in terms of how the submission could be read and interpreted. Taking a simple subject like ‘commonplace rocks’, a variety of different situational scenarios are suggested through image and text. The value of this sculptural investigation is understood in the portfolio submission and workbook as a holistic entity rather than any case made for the worthiness of a specific work. The workbook significantly reveals the intelligence and knowledge the candidate has in regards to contemporary sculptural concerns, using a broad ranging discussion and analysis to identify and comment upon the variety of different genre within the field. In this regards, the submission reads as a somewhat wry commentary that uses a sense of humour to convey the depth of understanding the student has of contemporary sculptural practice. A great deal of this understanding has been conveyed through analysis and discussion within the workbook, providing depth and substance. The candidate has begun the portfolio by thinking around different types of plinths and modes of presentation that playfully deal with conventions surrounding the collecting and displaying of art. Similarly the candidate exhibits a consciousness around ‘aesthetics’ as philosophy, dealing with judgments of sentiment and taste and using such analysis to inform the various experimentations and outcomes demonstrated on the portfolio. Citing of Immanuel Kant and the subsequent sculptural provocations of Marcel Duchamp has provided the candidate with historical precedence and context. The introduction of text through a consideration and understanding of semiotics has allowed the candidate to play with different modes of presentation to convey the substance of their ideas. The workbook is used in a manner that has not only allowed the candidate to evaluate decisions made for individual works but is also an investigative tool in itself. The candidate has canvased a range of possibilities from Internet interactivity, animation, through to ideas around performance. The synergy between workbook and portfolio is complete and demonstrates excellent studentship in terms of understanding the programme and the individual project undertaken.

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14 SCHOLARSHIP The portfolio begins with a close observation of the micro within the natural world, which is in part motivated by the candidate’s interpretation of the work of the Belgian Sculptor Wim Delvoye, who is concerned with questions about human dependency upon technology and how in the future, material life could/will be increasingly dominated by technology. The candidate has begun their discussion by questioning what we understand the ‘organic’ and the synthetic’ to be. This is further supported within the workbook by appropriate research into ‘the golden ratio’, an irrational mathematical constant that is purported to be found in all natural systems. In this instance the golden ratio provides the candidate a formal equation by which aesthetic and material considerations can be determined. This has been played out through various different manifestations that reference natural phenomena, but continually play on the ‘organic’ and the ‘synthetic’. This provides the overall conceptual framework from which each iteration of work has been developed. The developments within panel 2 consist of a variety of mechanical contraptions, some that are fully articulated, crafted principally from balsa wood, wire and micro-circuitry that describe and illustrate movement. These experimentations have led the candidate to expand the format from object-making to envisaging a diorama as the vehicle for an animated narrative sequence and finally concluding with very delicate small scale works that could equally be understood as jewellery. The deliberate use of ‘green’ and ‘red’ throughout gives a visual coherence to the various explorations that have been undertaken. Throughout this submission, the candidate displays a fluent understanding of how to work on a diminutive scale, defying normative assumptions that sculptural practice need be large in order to be worthy. There is also a notable value given to the handcrafted/assembled and ‘attention to detail’. This candidate shows effortless control and enthusiasm for model-making and appropriately cites references to handcrafted jewellery (and in particular the art nouveau jewellery of Lalique), within the workbook. An understanding of this context in sculptural terms is what distinguishes this Scholarship submission as a highly inventive and individual interpretation of sculptural concerns, particularly, issues to do with scale and materiality. Within the workbook a number of other parallel investigations take place that have not been included within the portfolio. Collectively, the evidence contained within the workbook and that which is demonstrated on the portfolio panels adds up to a comprehensive understanding of sculptural practice. This has continually been developed through new ideas, avoiding this submission from being repetitive and making it worthy of the Scholarship award.

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