TOP ARTS
VCE 2008

The Exhibition

Silk organza waves swell and recede in an exquisite seascape garment, light and ocean converge on a Mallacoota sandbar, waterlogged fishing boats bob alongside a weathered, ceramic vessel referencing both the sea and prolonged drought. Humanity’s concern for the looming environmental crisis is reflected in themes that recur in many of the exhibited works. Images of ancient forests remind us of our global responsibilities, as do closely observed drawings of birds and microviews of plant forms. Tattooed trees shine in acrylic resin, contrasting with the impasto-rendered bark from silver birches, the majestic panorama of the Yosemite Valley, the endless variations of cloud formations, and the energy of a hurricane metaphorically captured in gesso and ink. Environmental destruction is expressed in a series of abstracted images representing toxic invasion and in a charcoal rendering of a human machine.

The vitality of Top Arts reflects the exhibitors’ responses to, and reworking of, traditional and contemporary art practices, and the challenges and opportunities they face in life in the twenty-first century. The VCE Art and VCE Studio Arts curricula encourage investigation, problem solving and developing new skills. These works reveal the level of conceptual sophistication and mastery of media that students can achieve.

The approaches and techniques employed by exhibitors are thoughtful, energetic and diverse. Feathers, beads, pearls and petals are used to create imaginary garments, and then scanned and bound in an artist’s book. Another volume holds anatomical drawings in the style of da Vinci. The body and the absent body are also explored in translucent photograms, in collages interrogating the fashion industry’s obsession with perfection, through animation, clay, portraiture and photography. The complexity of urban life is represented in works contrasting the constructed and the natural worlds, a reworking of Brack’s Collins Street, 5pm, and in a work using Metcard tickets to symbolise the interconnectedness of busy commuters.

Submission to Top Arts is open to all VCE Art and Studio Arts students who are confident of achieving an A+. Thousands of applications are submitted by the due date in October. They are then considered by a six-member panel.

Applications, comprising photographs and a brief paragraph about the work, are divided according to media – painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, digital and analogue photography – so that each can be considered separately. The short-listing process takes place over three to four days. The Multimedia Department of the NGV assists with the viewing of screen-based works.

Applicants who have been short-listed are invited to bring in the selected art works and the developmental work that led to their creation so that the final selection can be made. Preparatory work may include documentation of research and influences, annotated trialling of materials and processes, maquettes and models, life drawing or other preliminary sketches. Exhibitors are represented by only a small part of the work they produced. As with all art students at this level, the exhibits shown indicate hours and hours of production.

The panel seeks works that demonstrate strong conceptual development, reveal skill in the use of media and processes, display imaginative and individual qualities, and where the media chosen best expresses the intention or ideas behind the works. One hundred and seventy-one artists were short-listed for the exhibition this year and fifty-seven made the final selection.

The design brief and developmental work required for Studio Arts, and the body of work essential for Art, can be recorded and arranged in many ways: in note books and visual diaries, on reams of paper, in series of paintings or drawings, or in proofs and contact sheets for printmakers and photographers. The progression of ideas, exploration of materials, documentation of mistakes, resolution or completion of works must be clearly visibly recorded. This year four folios are being exhibited on screen in the exhibition space to provide an insight into the journey a student takes from development to resolution.

Students often demonstrate their understanding of art-conservation issues when preparing and presenting works. Applicants record wearing gloves when dealing with fragile materials, list the ways they handled large or delicate works, and demonstrate ways of protecting works against the detrimental effects of light, humidity, dirt and dust. This reflects both the focus in the Studio Arts curriculum on these issues and the benefit of students having access to conservation staff through gallery visits and education programs.

The educative role of the exhibition cannot be underestimated, and its strength is the opportunity for current students to see the outstanding work of their peers. Exhibitors speak of how seeing the exhibition in previous years acted as a springboard for their own creativity and experimentation and of being motivated to ‘work harder’ or state how they ‘realised the standard needed to achieve excellence’.

MERREN RICKETSON
Coordinating Curator, Top Arts