Year 9 Visual Arts 2019 collaborated on creating this work using the text of 'Environmental Justice' a duo poem by Kenya Newsome and Nesha Ruther.
This unique form of animation is inspired by Richard Lewer's 'Never Shall Be Forgotten – A Mother’s Story' 2017.
'Chimera' - mythical creatures
Year 9 Visual Arts - Chimera Etchings
In Semester 1, our Visual Arts class created two series of etchings of a chimera as subject matter. A chimera is composed of two or more animals. Some chimeras combine human features with other creatures. Chimeras are derived from mythology, legends, fairy-tales, and modern fables.
Initially we incised the chimera on an acetate etching plate. These were traced from original images that were made using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Our second chimera was much harder as we had to redraw our first image straight onto an aluminium plate, so there was no room for mistakes. The etching plate was dipped for eight minutes into a diluted bath of ferric chloride. The acid bites into the engraved lines, creating visible marks.
Learning to ink the plate and creating an edition of prints on rag paper took a lot of practice. Once our series of etchings were completed, we wrote a poem that described the attributes of our depicted chimera. I loved etching, it was so calming, relaxing and beautiful.
At the end of 2019, the then Year 9 Visual Arts students completed a ceramics unit based on the works of Finnish artist, Maija Liisa Vasenius. Students created conceptual links through an expansive study of abstraction and drew upon Elsworth Kelly’s Cite and the influence of John Cage and Jean Arp’s ideas about chance. The introduction of William Burrough’s ‘cut-up and fold-in’ literary techniques inspired the title of this series, after his 1961 novel Soft Machine. This series of artworks explores the relationship between machine shapes such as cogs and wheels, and their connectedness to the human form.