Visual Art News

Year 9 Art - Calder Inspired Wire Sculptures

Our Year 9 students have been undertaking a folio of portraiture drawing, leading ultimately to the making of some 3-dimensional wire sculptures inspired by American painter and sculptor Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976). The final sculptures themselves were based upon the contour drawings they produced within their extensive drawing folio.

The sculptures of Alexander Calder are famous for showing character expression or whimsical movement, adopting a minimalist style using wire and metal shapes. His sculptures also relied on the Art element of light to cast interesting shadows of these sculptural forms on the walls of the galleries in which they were displayed. 

In emulating his style students have learnt a new approach to making art, considering the importance that the thin and thick wires they used and how the joining techniques they applied could affect the visual impact of their artwork. They also became aware that sometimes “less can reveal more” when assembling an artwork – that the negative space (or emptiness within an artwork) is also something that has value and visual power. 

They also had the additional challenge of translating a 2-dimensional drawing into a 3-dimensional form, which flummoxed some students for a time, but they showed excellent resilience to build their skills here. The final results speak for themselves regarding student tenacity to deliver what they had planned within their original portraiture drawings.

Please enjoy the following images of student Calder-inspired Sculptures by:

Sihana Jonuzi (9A),  Simon Akras (9A) , Jiwon Lee (9A) Jeslyn Yeung (9E), Anthony Pavlidis (9E)

Warwick Bennett

Visual Arts Coordinator