The Arts 

Visual Arts

I am very proud to announce that we will be having an exhibition from November 18-20 at the Red Tail Gallery (many thanks to the gallery and committee who are wonderful supporters of the college.) 

Students are busily completing pieces for the exhibition which will include ceramics, printmaking, painting and a selection of VCE Studio Arts pieces. The gallery will be open on Wednesday 11am – 3pm and Thursday and Friday 11am – 1pm. St Malachy’s artworks are on display this week and the Edenhope Kindergarten next week.

Foundations

Foundations have created instruments from terracotta clay (hand rolled ceramic spheres inside a hollow pinch pot form) and have glazed their textured fish this week. 

3/4 Class

The Year 3/4 students have been creating containers with lids in the style of the Hermannsburg Potters from WA. https://hermannsburgpotters.com.au/about/the-hermannsburg-potters/

Techniques they have used include making pinch pots, changing the shape of hollow forms by tapping with a flat stick, rolling clay with a rolling pin, making elements to create a small form or figure and joining elements using scratching and slip. After drying out and firing, the students will paint the outside of their pots. 

Ceramics Elective

In the Ceramics elective students have been glazing their work created in Term 3 and we have been using the pottery wheels to ‘throw’ some simple forms. 

Students have been demonstrating great persistence in centring clay, wedging on the wheel and creating bowl forms.

Community Arts Elective

In the Community Arts elective the class have been working on self-directed projects for display or installation in the school. Jadeen is creating a painting for the library.

Kitana has been designing a piece of wall art for the locker bays and Suha is making a sculpted figure to welcome students to the library.

Makers Shed

From next week, we will be having ‘Makers Shed’ activities in the Big Barn at lunchtimes for primary students.

In the Big Barn from 1.00pm – 1.30pm.

Drawing available at all sessions.

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Performing Arts

Students in Years ½, 5/6 and 7 Performing Arts classes are preparing pieces for end of year performances.

Students in Year 7 are working in small groups to create plays, skits and pieces of choreography for their chosen audience. These photos are from the end of week 4 when students were working on character development and scripts and blocking choreography.

NAIDOC WEEK

NAIDOC Week begins on November 8 and there are many performances available online. https://www.naidoc.org.au/get-involved/naidoc-week-events

Spinifex Gum - Sydney Opera House

I would also highly recommend watching Spinifex Gum which is free to stream as part of the Sydney Opera House’s Digital Season.

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/digital/season/first-nations/spinifex-gum.html

I saw this piece performed at Womadelaide in March this year and the singing and performance of the Marliya Choir blew me away. 

A summary from the SOH site:

The voices of Marliya from Gondwana Choirs – young Indigenous women singing in English and Yindjibarndi – come together with The Cat Empire’s Felix Riebl and special guests Emma Donovan, Peter Garrett and Briggs for a powerful collaboration of voice, sound, movement and change, in musical snapshots of life in the Pilbara, north Western Australia.Commissioned to write a song cycle for the choir, Felix Riebl spent several years visiting the Pilbara to build relationships and gather stories. He and co-creator Ollie McGill went on to write the album Spinifex Gum about the region’s local tales and characters, true stories of racism and injustice, and the legacies of colonisation with music production that’s staunchly modern, built from found sound samples of the Pilbara – rustling leaves, bouncing basketballs and chugging trains. Marliya’s lush choral vocals are performed with exuberant energy, blended with hard-hitting urban rhythms and uncompromising lyrics for a fresh sound that is built from the ancient culture of the Pilbara but is totally the music of today.

Victoria Brennan

Visual & Performing Arts Teacher