Around the Secondary Classrooms

Year 8 Theology & Spirituality

In Year 8 Theology & Spirituality classes with Mrs Blythe-Cooper this week, the students were talking about rights and that justice is not like a pie - if you give one group more rights that does not remove rights from another, the pie gets bigger and we all move forward. 

The students happily turned this discussion into a meme.

Year 9/10 Art Elective

Tug of War

For our installation we chose to portray the tug of war between logic and emotion, and how those two forces can be manipulated to antagonise each other. Manipulation does not conform into one category, it has many, many facets, and in many relationships, manipulation can cause internal conflict. Freeing yourself from a manipulative relationship can bring personal and social liberty. We are portraying the betrayal, hurt, and confusion that comes before that liberty. The challenges and obstacles that determine strength in character are shown in this installation. We show this strength through the wire; the head and the heart are fighting for what’s right. The wire alludes to strength and tension. We wanted a minimalistic style and a monochromatic colour scheme that does not detract from what we are communicating to the viewer about unhealthy relationships.

Brigitte Nolan and Amelia Olencewicz

No Justice No Peace 

Exploring the word ‘liberty’, allowed me to realise that injustice is hidden in the most trust worthy places. For my installation I have randomly selected some African Americans, unjustly killed due to police brutality. For my installation, I researched artist’s also striving for a change, such as Kara Walker who created stereotypical African American cartoons as silhouettes, focusing on the history of racism and a Guerrilla artwork, which is an artwork made by multiple artists, the artwork put attention towards migrants and refugees who have died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Both artists focus on the injustice of the minority. I wanted my installation to be a negative space and spreading heart ache which leads to conceptual thinking. When analysing the song “Black Bird” by The Beatles I found out the song was written due to injustice of coloured people due to the justice system. Learning this, lead me to using this song over my installation to manipulate the viewers to have a strong emotional response to encourage change. Bullet holes in the photographs allowed me to explore the idea of; ‘even the brightest smiles are targeted.’ People have been fighting for justice for centuries. I want my installation to motivate people to understand and strive to create change by spreading awareness.

Keeley Tanner

The secret under the sea

The secret under the sea is an art installation showing the themes of liberation. The art installation includes six different breeds of sharks. These sharks are murdered for a Asian type of soup, called the shark fin soup. This soup included 6 different breeds shown throughout my art. I have chosen to spread awareness from this tragedy by having a black silhouette of the different breeds of sharks. Though having silhouettes, it will symbolize that the sharks have no identity, or liberty. The materials used for my artwork are, a standby knife (to make the outlines of the sharks nice and neat), 12 pieces of paper A3 size, all back (this is for the silhouettes) and a white pencil (I had to use the pencil for the outlines). The process of hanging the art on the wall was harder than expected as it was similar to doing a jigsaw puzzle. Since not all the sharks could fit on the wall together. I had to cut around two millimetres of some fins smaller.

Grace Haas

no 

Our art work is about equality, police brutality, and violence against black and LGBTQI+ lives. The typical 'murder' tape symbolises the death and loss of those killed by police. We set these figures on the floor for people to deliberately walk over/avoid, referencing how racism has been ignored for hundreds of years. How come this still continues to this day? The objects we chose are all linked to the deaths of several, out of thousands of lost black and LGBTQI+ lives. They highlight how small things, like buying Skittles, can be a death sentence for minority groups in a society of white/ straight supremacy. With the audio we wanted to make it quite overwhelming/emotional compared to the tragic and almost silent atmosphere of the installation. We want to emphasise that even though this artwork, and the BLM movement will be forgotten, racism/homophobia won’t cease until people start standing up for one another; not just because of a trend, or because you feel bad, but as human beings supporting each other, and fighting for what’s right.

Amy Hall, Ella Jones, Freya Birley

A Game of Luck 

We wanted to create an installation to show how life can be a game of luck and how some people can be dealt better luck or preferable opportunities. We thought of the game, Monopoly where a roll of a dice decides your fate. Our idea eventually evolved into using a board as our base. Our idea changed to using the individual aspects of the board and placing them in a trail like way to symbolise following the journey of life. We thought about the really famous Monopoly symbols, like the go arrow, the bright colours and sharp lines, and added our interpretation to make them fit with the theme of liberty and made it more relatable, realistic and similar to everyday life. Our idea on liberty is that some people have more from the opportunities or events in their lives; the Monopoly board depicts this as a game of luck. We tried to make it as stereotypical as possible to show how the opportunities for liberty are showcased through our society as are the lack of luck or opportunity for so many. In using these stereotypical symbols we are emphasising how luck and opportunity are showcased in our society. The lack of liberty and freedom of opportunity is often a hidden, darker aspect of our society.

Mishae Dalco and Summer Bennetto

Words that grow and liberate

For our installation we created our interpretation of liberty. To us, liberty is freedom and finding yourself in and amongst the world. We have based our installation on the use of words and how people can flourish and be inspired by them. We have used books as our symbol: Words define us, but what we make of those words is who we become. We have used the books as a base around the tree. They represent society and the laws and stereotypes that have been placed on us by our culture. The books are painted with muted colours to express how all words can shape and inspire us regardless of genre. As you look up the tree you will see tiny ripped out words, each word has a meaning of its own but they all connect to the idea of growing; expressing yourself and breaking free from society’s boundaries. The words start to separate as they move up the tree demonstrating how someone can break free from rules; how identity is defined, and how a single word can branch out into a community and effect change in people in different ways. As you reach the top of the tree and the tree starts to branch out it also represents branching out and making your own decisions. Pages and words from books are scattered throughout the branches of the tree and they show the evolution of someone taking what society has given and evolving it to become something that represents them and what they stand for. As we go through life we create many chapters and memories, each page is a different part of our life. There are difficulties, boundaries and setbacks but we have to overcome them and in doing so we grow. We grow and flourish into the person that we want to be, finding our freedom and creating our own liberty.

Reese Noye, Thaniscia Patricio and Isabella Lowe

Be a Lady They Said 

My art installation Be a Lady They Said is inspired by the history of women and the liberty we rightfully deserve from objectification, sexualisation and the oppression we encounter living in a ‘man’s world’. The purpose of this piece is to challenge, influence and educate the viewers, as well as empower the girls to stray from the domestic sphere of our male dominant history. I was influenced by my strong desire for change in society, which I gained as of my personal experiences and the experiences I have heard from other women. I wish to portray the misogyny that is still prominent in today’s society, in a negative, controversial and confronting light. I will show the objectification, sexualisation and oppression through my use of metaphorical materials such as a female torso, painted hands, harsh words, measuring tape, domestic cook and cleaning ware and so on with a hidden meaning behind each.

Anna Cosentino

Lost History 

We as a group went through many ideas about what we should do to resemble the word ‘liberty.’ We talked about many controversial issues throughout society and came across the topic of race inequality essentially about the Black Lives Matter movement. As our idea, we decided to use black string that is hung from place to place attached to the walls, creating a tangled mess around a chair holding a pile of black books. The tangled string resembles the black race being discriminated against, tangled up and held back from their full potential because of their skin colour and how they have to struggle to get through life and are faced with many obstacles within their lifetime. The books on the chair tangled in the mess resemble the idea of the history of black discrimination and inequality, and how throughout history they have to face many issues such as slavery, segregation and inequality with the police, which is a major issue at the moment. We used the walkway from the library to the studio as it is a very open area which means it is easily seen and the installation can really be engaged with. As an open space we want to show how racial discrimination is an issue in plain sight and even though it is an important issue many people choose to ignore it. We had many influences such as artists that use similar materials e.g string; Lauren Berkowitz is one of these artists who make walls of string and recycled materials. We really enjoyed working on this project and hope you love our installation.

Maggie Bulkeley, Sarah Wake, Mishel K.D and Amelia Mansfield