ARTEXPRESS EXCURSION
On Thursday March 2nd, both Year 11 and 12 Visual Arts students, escorted by Mrs Hume and Mr Peters visited the Art Gallery of NSW to view the ‘Artexpress’ exhibition and Case Study talk. In conjunction with this, the students visited the new North building of the gallery; The Sydney Modern Project. ARTEXPRESS is an annual exhibition of exemplary artworks created by students for the HSC in Visual Arts. The works represent a broad range of subject matter, approaches, styles and media including painting, photomedia, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, documented forms, textiles and fibre, ceramics, time-based forms and collections of works. ARTEXPRESS represents the high standards and diversity achieved by Year 12 Visual Arts students in New South Wales schools and is a joint partnership between the NSW Education Standards Authority and the NSW Department of Education. Both Year 11 and 12 were amazed at the exhibition and grateful to hear the curator Louise Halpin and three Artexpress exhibitors in the case study talk in the auditorium.
After lunch, we went to the Sydney Modern Project. This new, open and accessible home for art, is sensitive to the beautiful parkland setting overlooking Sydney Harbour with its huge glass windows and monumental interior space. It is Australia’s first art museum to be awarded the highest rating for sustainable design. The $344 million Sydney Modern Project is the most significant cultural development in the city since the opening of the Sydney Opera House nearly half a century ago. Inside this amazing space students were part of South Korea conceptual artist Kimsooja’s monumental interactive and immersive work Archive of mind. It forms the centrepiece of Making Worlds, featured in the large column-free gallery on lower level 1 of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new North Building. This is the first time that Kimsooja’s participatory installation will be on display in Australia. Our students were invited to collaborate in the creation of clay spheres. Amassed together, these spheres form a gestural echo of the way in which artists create diverse new worlds. This echo reverberates throughout the exhibition, where ideas of mapping, creation, connection and the passing of time further bind the art on display. Thank you to all the students on their exemplary behaviour and Mrs. Hume who greatly assisted our students on the day.
Mr Stephen Peters
Creative Arts Leader of Learning
