For this year level we identified a Key Concept, Communication, a Related Concept, Composition, a Global Concept, Time, Place & Space & a Matauranga Māori Concept, Tūrangawaewae: A Place to Stand.
Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua
I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past.
Through the Visual Arts we respond to the present, preserving the traditions of the past.
The Arts link us to our cultural identity, providing us with insight into our histories, enhancing our vision to focus on what we value now and guiding us to look forward into the future. The MYP programme uses an Inquiry approach, developing an Inquiry Statement that introduces the topic and then identifies specific tasks to make artwork in response. Artists investigate constructed landscapes through composition to communicate ideas.
All the projects for Year 9 reference our school site as a constructed landscape. They take photographs to document the gardens, landscaping, pathways, steps and buildings exploring visual elements including pattern, textures, viewpoints, scale, colour, tone and perspective. The photographs are then used to create digital compositions. From these, the students produce drawings, prints and paintings.
Creative intentions are realised through the use of visual language & signs or symbols, to communicate meaning to others.
Digital print by Lauren Ng.
Within the borders of this place, the buildings bookmark different times in our history, each one representing an aspect of our culture and heritage. School House, the hall and chapels are links to our past. Connected to these, Centennial, containing most of our learning spaces and our latest landmark, the Performing Arts Centre, dominate the skyline, but at the heart of this place stands the Chapel. School House and St Barnabas have beautiful stained glass windows. Each of these windows are designed to tell a story. Looking at how, over time, churches have used stained glass not only to provide a spiritual experience, but also to teach, Year 9 Visual Art students were invited to create a design for a Stained Glass Window based on this place.
The objective for this project was to develop students’ understanding of Art as a Visual language. Visual Literacy refers to the use of images to communicate meaning. It is the ability to make sense of a whole range of visual information. Students learn how to ‘read’ visuals, & through these, they are able to interrogate or analyse both literal and inferred meaning.
Digital Composition & Drawing by Sophia Ng.
For Criterion C: Creating, students create an artwork that responds to a chosen site exploring composition using a selected media. The design brief located the source for their creative intention within the context of the school site and the special character of the school.
Compositions were based on research & visual inquiry into Stained Glass, including the examples found within the school & two famous window designs of their own choice. These watercolour paintings were developed from designs developed either freehand or from photocollages, translated into line drawings & printed onto water colour paper using the photocopier.
Sophia explains her work as follows:
My stained-glass window drawing depicts the Dio culture. It includes many unique features of Dio, which make it unique and special. For example, ‘Ut Serviamus’, which is the Dio motto, is incorporated in the top section of the stained-glass window. Beside the this, there is two symmetrical 4 leaf clovers, representing good luck. These shapes can also represent the cross, which is very important to the Anglican culture (Dio’s culture). The korus on both sides of the top section are symbolic to New Zealand culture, and since they are in the shape of a heart, it represents love to one another.
The middle left panel on the stained -glass window has a pattern from the outside of the performing arts building in Dio, which is unique to the school. On the right side panel, there are many cracked stained glass pieces scattered around, and inside of these pieces, there is the word ‘Dio’ hidden inside. In the middle of the stained-glass window lies a beautiful peacock resting on a branch. I chose to add a peacock because it shows beauty, protection, self-expression, and new beginnings, which are important values to have as an individual. Lying next to the peacock on a branch is a small dragonfly, which represents wisdom, strength, courage and endurance which are also values of great significance. Beside the dragonfly, I incorporated two lotus flowers on both sides of the branch to represent strength and resilience, which also relates to the Dio values.
The diverse range of responses by this group of students can be seen in the following examples. From top left: Lauren Ng, Emily Whitburn and two by Izzy Olding.
