IB VISUAL ART
For my IB final visual arts project, I chose the theme "Survival". My interest and influence in this topic comes from the fact that I have lived in three different countries, including India, the Netherlands and now China. Though these three countries are very different from each other, I have used elements from the children living on the streets in India and China, the concentration camp which is now a museum I had visited in the Netherlands and also cultural aspects from other Asian countries I have visited over these past years. By having a variation of subjects including portraits of young children, soldiers, animals and more, I aim to reproduce the struggles I see in our world and question the way humans focus on their own lives without noticing those around them.
My artworks are inspired by the German artist, Anselm Kiefer, who focuses on the Nazi slogan of ‘blood and soil,’ and the Irish artist, Conor Harrington, who mixes realism with abstract graffiti techniques to portray historical themes through a contemporary style. The two artists have led me to incorporate various techniques such as photography, fine art techniques as well as assemblages in this exhibition.
Title: Daily Routine
Medium: Digital Photography Series Manipulated with Adobe Photoshop
Size: 29.7x21cm each
Intention: This series of photography has been taken in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Each shows the life of a young native girl working. By selling or making items for tourists, they aim to work long hours to help their families. These images intend to show how children should be in school, receiving a good education like we receive. However, this world is rarely fair and some are always luckier than others.
Title: Walk in My Shoes
Medium: Mixed media assemblage containing cardboard, mud, modelling paste, straw and shoes
Size: 29.7x21cm
Intention: “Walk in My Shoes” represents the life of a child after war. He must walk alone in his battered shoes over the rubbles of the earth which may hold the blood of the men lost in war, some his family, a feeling many of us may never understand.
Title: Migrants
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 60x80 cm
Intention: In a trip to a local Chinese migrant school, I realized how unfair life can be to those who equally deserve it. These innocent children are deprived of a good education and future. The animals I have used in this piece are prey and hunted down, showing vulnerability in these children and how the systems are conspiring against them to change their future. These children are victims of the moral and societal laws of the countries they live in.
Title: The Survival of the Fittest
Medium: Pen on paper
Size: 42x29.7cm
Intention: “Survival of the Fittest” is a concept by Charles Darwin and is defined as “The idea that species adapt and change by natural selection with the best suited mutations becoming dominant.” Though Darwin made sure that 'fittest' referred to those animals which were most suited to their environment, I find that humans have a competitive nature which makes them think “fittest” means most highly trained and physically energetic.
Title: The Battles of the Youth
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 60x80 cm
Intention: Though the animals look very innocent, they’re holding guns. In this piece, the two animals represent child soldiers. My intention for this piece is to show how children are not meant to be involved in military conflict. These weapons may be very simple to use, but they should never be placed in the wrong hands. The poorer and weaker children are often sent to war as a mean for survival. The two animals are used to show the innocence and vulnerability of such children. Children shouldn’t suffer from the actions of adults; after all, children should live the lives of children.
Title: Child’s Prayers
Medium: Acrylic and paper origami on canvas
Size: 50x100 cm
Intention: This piece combines origami with painting on canvas. The Japanese believe that a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can be granted a wish. It can be seen as a prayer for peace or health. The small migrant girl is someone I met at the Chinese migrant school. She is a symbol for how they may never get out of the poverty cycle but she still prays to achieve wellbeing for her family and herself.
Title: Internal Conflict
Medium: Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, metal and chains
Size: Canvas size 60x80cm
Intention: Influenced by Conor Harrington’s use of dynamism and the way he provides viewers with a theatrical experience, “Internal Conflict” is a representation of how one may feel when placed in a difficult position. I have used graffiti and also chains to symbolize the dramatic battle within oneself and how it can destroy someone from within.
Title: Steadfast
Medium: Mixed media assemblage series including plaster, mud, leaves, rocks, metals, bricks and paint.
Size: 39x28cm
Intention: With this piece I aim to juxtapose the Earth from before, where nature was clean and green before wars, and the present Earth where we are now firmly fixed in the blackness of our lives, creating wars that not only destroy families, but the entire world around us within minutes and nothing is able to take us back to before the blackness began.
Title: The Freedom Fighters
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 60x80 cm
Intention: Inspired by “The Liberty Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix, this piece. Flags are used to represent a nation as a whole. As Sarojini Naidu once said, “Under this flag, there is no difference between a prince and a peasant, between the rich and the poor, between man and women." This piece helps me comment on how the soldiers do not fight for individuals, but for the nation as a whole, hence, it does not matter who it is, as long as they survive.
Title: Smoke in the Fields
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 80x100cm
Intention: “Smoke in the Fields” represents the aftermath of war, where the sky is no longer clear and the soil is tainted with red. People are left behind, no matter who it is, but we cannot look back and must all move forward towards the future in order to survive.
Title: Inside My Head
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 60x80 cm
Intention: Through the textures and dark tones of the piece, “Inside My Head” aims to bring out the juxtaposition of what goes on outside the soldier versus in his head. He does not fight just for his own survival, he fights for each person he loves, and he fights for his country.
Thank you!
