A trip to the Rodney Rey Auditorium on Monday 30th March was an escape into the world of the soul – an exhibition of the artistic expression of the Year 5 Visual Arts Class of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School.
The exhibition was an opportunity for the students to display the hard work they had done over the past two years, before their pieces were shipped off to Barbados for external marking. Students are required to produce six pieces of practical work and one journal. Each student’s work was based on a central theme and they had a choice of working in two of the following media: painting and mixed media, graphic design, fibre and decorative arts, textile design and manipulation, and ceramic and sculpture. As part of their exam, they are required to have a ‘reality check’ – prepare for and interface with the public to experience what it is like to sell themselves and their work.
Their work depicted reality and fantasy or a mixture of both. Various aspects of nature and its moods were interpreted in the pieces of art. The artists reached within themselves to cleverly weave a story in their art. A piece named ‘lost’ was a painting of a woman’s head with wildly tossed hair and a vacant eye depicting her state of mental confusion, while in the background is the form of a woman, much smaller than the head – giving the viewer the idea that she is losing herself and feeling insignificant.
Another piece of art shows a woman’s face wearing a prominent pair of sunglasses on which is reflected a white sand beach, sun and coconut palms. Alongside is a glass and a bottle of wine, and a car door through which can be viewed a boat race scene. This depicts fun, relaxation and an anticipation to get to the boat race in a hurry, all cleverly done by combining reality with unreality according to the artist.
Another student had a special touch. He displayed his work like everyone else but, in addition, he made use of technology to show slides of the journey with regard to his work – from conception to final production – as well as other pieces of interest.
The students involved in the exhibition were from different classes, and the exhibition was the first opportunity that they got to see each other’s finished product. It was an opportunity for pride, delight and inspiration for them.
According to the art teacher, Mrs Navene Mairyshaw, the students usually get 100% passes ranging from Grades 1 to 3. After viewing the exhibition it is anticipated that that trend will continue.
