One of the school’s annual highlights, this year’s Art and Photography End of Year Show was a visual feast with some spectacular artwork reflecting the creativity and talent of the class of 2024.
The End of Year Show is the culmination of two years hard work from A-level and GCSE Art and Photography students, showcasing their projects on a kaleidoscope of themes.
The exhibition encompassed a wide range of work in many mediums, including painting, sculpture, mixed-media, films, lithographs, etchings, installations and photographs. Every inch of the department space was filled with exhibits, with even the photography studio transformed into a nightclub recreating the underground music scene complete with replicated vintage tour posters. Topics for Art included power, fragments, re-imagining tradition, femininity and symbolism, love, nature, and corruption, politics and the media, while in Photography subjects ranged from memories, home and time to football, skateboarding and scootering, while a lens was also shone on everyday objects such as a table.
Artworks varied in scale from a huge bold painted canvas right down to a cabinet of miniature curiosities containing tiny sculpted insect and fairy figures within. The personal was made public with artworks providing a glimpse into students’ sense of identity: powerful feminist statements; an open suitcase spilling over with childhood artefacts; a montage of newspaper headlines of the war in Ukraine; a portrait splintered as the sitter gazes back at the viewer through a magnified lens. Texture, light, colour, shape and structure was explored in multiple formats: textiles, sculptures, screens, clothing, an etched 3-D cityscape, even a printed wedding cake.
Design & Technology students also exhibited some of their work in the foyer of the Beardwood Centre for guests to enjoy on their way to the Art show, with a display of products designed and created by GCSE and A-level students alongside photographs by Year 12 Photography students. Products ranged from an adjustable dog bed and golf club cleaning kit to a battery bank charged by energy generated through cycling. Textiles included GCSE book bags in an impressive range of designs, alongside A-level pieces including a skirt, waistcoat, t-shirt and a gown representing bleached coral reefs.
Naomi Gudge, Head of the Visual Arts and Photography Faculty, said: “As ever, we were so impressed with the creativity and commitment shown by this year’s A-level and GCSE students. This year’s show contained a huge variety of pieces and the students displayed so much imagination in their interpretations of the set units. I am extremely proud of them.”
Selected pieces from the show can be seen in the gallery below.
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