Around the Senior School
Visual Arts and Textiles HSC Showcase 2024
From Mr Andrew Orme-Smith, Head of Visual Arts
The show this year was, as always, a huge success in showcasing the incredible talent, time and effort that has gone into these two complementary subjects. There was a huge turnout despite the chilly evening, and it proved to be a lively and enthusiastic audience. For everyone involved it is an incredibly rewarding experience to see the diverse, refined exhibition as a culmination of many months of effort and emotional commitment. Likewise, the stunning Textiles works engage with thought provoking themes outlined in their folios as well as beautifully crafted objects that come to life during the wildly popular fashion parade!
The themes for Visual Arts this year ranged from personal stories of homesickness, wellbeing journeys through more general themes of domestic violence, the fragility of marine environments, medical conditions, changes in hormones over time, travel photography, journeys of the imagination and even celebrations of childhood memories and the beautiful intricacies of bee behaviour. The concepts were widely supported by the material choices made in the artworks, and the methods augmented these links. For example, in Alice Keirle’s work “Still, Life” the ghostly impressions of fish were taken from real fish and an octopus using the traditional Japanese technique Gyotaku where the fish are painted with ink before rice paper is carefully pressed over the top. Ivy Hawker’s “Deadly Brews” will get you out of every tricky situation! A selection of drinks, choose between Tetanus, Bubonic Plague or Rabies for the perfect excuse to get out of any work! Matthew Davis’s “Moments of Stillness, Stillness of Time” displayed his extraordinary photographs taken in Cambodia and Vietnam using a variety of vintage cameras. The results focused on moments of peaceful stillness in the hustle and bustle of these communities, while also celebrating the history with monumental temples and fig trees as a backdrop to monks in meditative spaces.
Textiles and Design
The HSC major projects this year included two Textile Art pieces: Maggie Anderson’s intricate quilt inspired by the fairytales of The Brothers Grimm and Georgia McIntosh’s triptych of hand felted and stitched birds and flower-hammered fabrics based upon Celtic mythology. Costume and apparel pieces hand-crafted over the last nine months were paraded at the exhibition. Elke Sweetapple’s summer flower themed dress was adorned with hundreds of laser cut, hand-dyed and CNC embroidered blossoms. Scarlett MacKenzie’s cool linen ensemble embodied the style of Jackie Kennedy and European summers with hand-dyed fabrics and reverse applique waves. Prue Whitaker’s dress personified the delphinium flower with sublimation printed ombre blues, crush and sunray pleated petals and a sculpted and beads stamen. Tessa Lawson’s garment of bone-coloured merino gaberdine lined with gold satin and faille was darned, embellished and piped to represent the concept of Wabi-Sabi from Japanese Culture.
A huge message of thanks needs to go out to all the parents of the students who assisted in their journeys of creativity. Also, the patient assistance of our wonderful technical assistant Mr Matt Thomas, and the selfless generosity of our teaching staff, Ms Penny Chandler and Ms Beck Wansey. For my part, it is always a privilege, albeit very time consuming, to teach Year 12, but it is hugely rewarding to be at this stage of completion and to see such a high standard of work. For those who were not able to make it to the show this year, hopefully you will be able to attend next year. It is not something to be missed!
Epic Economics Incursion
On Friday 2 August we hosted a guest speaker for our Senior Economics incursion. Once again, we were very spoilt with the excellent Eddie Fang, who topped the state in Economics in 2012. Eddie came to Orange straight from his overnight flight in from Hong Kong and regularly expressed how much he enjoys presenting and discussing Economics with the Kinross Wolaroi students.
The day offered something different to all who were involved. Our Year 12 students were provided a clear and succinct summary of the HSC Economics syllabus, while the Year 11 students were provided a window of what is to come, being introduced to some of the key concepts and how they play out in the real world. We also hosted a Preliminary Economics class from James Sheehan who were extremely grateful for the experience.
We are so lucky to have Eddie as a regular visitor. Thank you so much to Mr Andrew Ryan and the library team for making the day go off without a hitch, and to Mr Liam Callaghan for supporting Social Science fieldwork, and well done to all the students who so actively engaged throughout the whole day.
Henry Adams
Dracula Excursion
On Wednesday 31 July our Year 9 & 10 English Scholars classes and Year 10 Drama class had the good fortune to travel to Sydney to see Kip Williams' production of 'Dracula' for the Sydney Theatre Company. It was a breathtaking show that enriched our students understanding of live theatre and the Gothic genre. We were fortunate enough to be in the audience for both the pre-performance and post-performance discussions with the cast, crew and directing teams. A very big thank you to Ms Dunkley, Mrs Keir and Mrs Proudford-Nalder who were up bright and early to accompany our students to Sydney for this event.
The Players Excursion
This week, we have been very lucky to host the incredible Bell Shakespeare 'The Players' who are a touring group who deliver performances all over Australia to different schools. Years 7-9 had the good fortune to see a production of 'Shakespeare is Dead' to enrich their English studies and they thoroughly enjoyed their journey through Shakespeare's collected works. Year 10 were able to see 'Shakespeare - The Human Experience' which is more targeted at Stage 6 students preparing for their final years of schooling. We were so impressed with the engagement, participation and clever questions from our Years 7-10 English students and look forward to having Bell Shakespeare back in 2025.
Mrs Kate Callaghan