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NCEA Level 2 – 90482 Sculpture 2009

Examples of Candidate Work

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Achieved

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This sample is placed comfortably within the Achievement grade range.

This candidate has been rewarded for the numerous ideas generated using shelter and the art of nest building from eclectic objects as the premise for sculptural experimentation. There is obvious engagement and ownership of the project and the sculptural outcomes display a connectedness and genuineness that is sometimes lost in higher order submissions.

Ideas have been developed through the exploration of a variety of approaches to the same proposition. Additional attention to presentation, by displaying a more coherent series of work, would have benefited this submission.

Although the use of processes, procedures, materials and techniques are limited, they have been demonstrated with appropriate control and purpose with regard to the established practice. The candidate’s line of enquiry has successfully used low cost materials to develop ideas.

Artists who have worked within similar issues include Joseph Beuys, Mario Merz, Kazuya Morita and Fiona Hall. This submission presents sufficient evidence to fulfil the expectations of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 2000, Level 7.

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This sample is placed comfortably within the Achievement grade range.

Ideas have been generated around subversion and paradox of objects and their functions, including performative elements using the body. The proposition conveys the notion of a city on the go. These ideas have been communicated by the use of scale interchange and metaphor: the city crammed into the shoe; soft buildings stuffed into the suitcase; people on the move. Domestic, personal motifs and individuality have been suggested in the use of patterned fabrics on the soft buildings. The lighting on the buildings also suggests a sense of time; as they would be at night - the city never sleeps.

The photographs clearly describe and inform the sculptural work and are sequenced in a cohesive manner, which demonstrates a systematic approach to learning.

This submission is reliant on a limited range of ideas and relies heavily on the initial sculptural forms (the cardboard city and stuffed cubes), that although technically demonstrate control, have been repeated continually throughout the board. This limits the submission’s opportunity to move beyond mid Achievement.

Additional opportunities to extend these ideas further, for example illumination, have not been considered in the final works.Artists who have worked within similar issues include Claes Oldenburg, Carole Shepheard and Mike Kelley.

This submission presents sufficient evidence to fulfil the expectations of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 2000, Level 7.

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Merit

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This sample is placed comfortably within the Merit grade range.

This submission deals with narrative and takes on a comical approach to the topical issue of nature recolonising space or taking back what once was its own. With echoes of Steven King and B grade horror movies, the grass begins to creep through the cracks in the beehive, the pavement and the woods, eventually to take over Sir Ed on the five-dollar bill. Several sculptural issues have been explored, such as scale experimentation and interior/exterior metamorphosis and interchange.

There is evidence of some clever appropriation of formal models early on panel one, such as the Meret Oppenheim grass cup. This indicates that the candidate has thought about paradox, soft/hard, objects that are human-made taking on natural characteristics.

Although the research/photographic images dominate panel one, the initial drawings and Photoshop studies do inform the later work. The limited consideration toward the layout on panel one, between the candidate’s actual work and their own generated research of artist models, offers confusion and lacks the necessary critical analysis to move beyond Merit. Variations of the same ideas have been explored on panel two.

The purpose and understanding of processes, procedures, materials and techniques is clear in the second panel and offers options to develop and extend ideas around invasion, opposites, scale, and artificial environments. The final constructions demonstrate understanding in use of processes, procedures, materials and techniques.

Labels, titles and scale are a critical point in the interpretation of the actual sculpture, and would have aided in the communication of this submission.

The portfolio shows consistent building upon the theme and manages to develop and extend ideas within the initial narrow proposition. This submission presents sufficient evidence to fulfil the expectations of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 2000, Level 7.

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This sample is placed comfortably within the Merit grade range.

Ideas have been generated around life cycles and recycling trash into everyday objects, such as shoes made from plastic bottles, referencing models that make toilets and armchairs from recyclables, indicating perhaps a sense of irony in using waste to engineer more waste; human and time.

Environmental artists such as Goldsworthy have been woven into this mix early on panel one. The spiral of life gives clues to how the major work on panel two should be read. The interpretation of the massive bottle being given back to the ocean from where it came as silica, is wishful thinking and adds a melancholic conclusion.

What holds this submission in the middle of the merit range is an over reliance of documentation of research as a generative mechanism. This allows less room on the portfolio for the candidate to extend further and regenerate ideas.

There are passages of insight and understanding of artist models on panel one, however this is not so evident on panel two.

There is an appropriate use and understanding of processes, procedures, materials and techniques within the constraints of the materials used and the established practised nominated.

This candidate’s submission has been rewarded for the extension of ideas throughout the two panels, however a lack of consideration of the layout of information, as evidenced by the presentation of the time-based sequence on panel two, and the need to demonstrate critical analysis within a systematic approach keeps the submission in the Merit range.  This submission presents sufficient evidence to fulfil the expectations of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 2000, Level 7.

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Excellence

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This sample is placed comfortably within the Excellence grade range.

Ideas have been generated around subversion and paradox of objects and their functions, including performative elements using the body. This submission’s premise is private things in public spaces. The toothpaste as mud exemplifies subversion as does the fingernail brush’s bristles being made of matches.

The use of schematic drawing outlines the proposition with clear intent with small sequences of performance clarifying the sculptural intensions. The photographing of these sequences utilises viewpoints effectively to enhance readability and clearly builds on previous ideas.

This candidate has been rewarded for their innovative and inventive approach, evidenced in the addition of another layer of excitement and fear, the domestic art of cleaning being potentially fatal.

Performative elements have been cleverly introduced and thereby the body adds substance to an anthropomorphic reading of the final works, the toilets growing hair. This resolution suggests that this candidate could have continued regenerating ideas further.

Artists who have worked within similar issues include Rebecca Horn, Robert Gober, Ann Hamilton and Jennifer Maestre.

This submission demonstrates fluent control of processes, procedures, materials and techniques and a definite sense of purpose, presenting sequences of performance that have been strategically interspersed amongst static works.  This submission presents sufficient evidence to fulfil the expectations of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 2000, Level 7.

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This sample is placed comfortably within the Excellence grade range.

Ideas have been generated around collecting and cataloguing with reference to museum practise. The candidate has used ordering, labelling and messaging, acting out decision making as the focus for sculptural inquiry. Although the submission tracks a relatively linear direction, it manages to regenerate a depth of ideas using a combination of construction, performance, static imagery, projection and installation, which pulls the submission into the Excellence category.  A fast paced, clever beginning on panel one allows the candidate the opportunity to generate a sequence of temporary, playful sculptures that extends ideas using text to create an installation. Choosing to work with positive/negative and a variety of fonts has enabled the candidate to expand ideas further than the initial proposition of wordplay.  The candidate’s consideration and arrangement of the board layout is exemplary, particularly on panel two where ideas have been extended into four regenerated works, integrating the ideas based on installation and projection. The implied intention of working with moving image with the use of a laptop presents possibilities beyond the initial proposition. The submission demonstrates facility with processes, procedures, materials and techniques and a depth of understanding within the context of the established practice.

Artists who have worked within similar issues include Erwin Wurm, John Reynolds, Barbara Kruger, Christian Boltanski and Ceal Floyer This submission presents sufficient evidence to fulfil the expectations of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 2000, Level 7.

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