Visual Arts – Sculptural
Introducing the Visual Arts – Sculptural category winners of our first ever Sydney Catholic Schools’ Lockdown Arts Festival.
The meticulous attention to detail by our category winners and highly commended sculptors – including the creators’ descriptions of their own work – is sure to impress.
Early Primary (K-2)
School: St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Oatley
Title: House Friends
Emma loves doing art and clay work. With lockdown, Emma has found a new appreciation for how lucky she is to live in her house and have her own room to play. She decided to create some clay art to show her feelings. When lockdown is over, she want to help other kids less fortunate than herself who may not have somewhere to live so they can be live in a happy house too:). Move to scultpueral
Title: Free like a Balloon
My paper machie balloon floats freely
Middle Primary (3-4)
Title: Christmas Wonderland Origami
Origami is a Japanese art of creating paper sculptures. It’s a very creative form of art which requires lots of patience and perfection. Reyansh is very passionate about this art and has made some very complex origami. His favourite Origami artist is Jo Nakashima, he has learnt a lot from his videos.
School: St Michael’s Catholic Primary School, Lane Cove
Title: Old Mr Crocodile
I recently found a piece of driftwood on the beach that I thought looked like a lot like a crocodile’s head. I looked around for some other things to use in a sculpture, like shells for its teeth and eyes. Then later in lockdown I started collecting some more pieces for the sculpture to give the croc some different features, like casuarina pods for its nostrils and other leaves and seeds for its green textured skin. It even has eyelashes. A crocodile fits with the competition’s life in lockdown theme as not only have I felt constantly hungry, sometimes I have also feel snappy and frustrated when things like my class zoom calls haven’t worked and I can’t see my friends or play sport. I am excited to go back to school!
Upper Primary (5-6)
Title: Freeman
The material is packing peanuts recycled from online shopping. The sculpture is a man wearing a mask boarding a plane holding his luggage and passport. I haven’t seen my relatives for 3 years now in LA and my interpretation of Lockdown art theme life after lock
Title: The Hug
Hugging is something that can bring many things, comfort when we are scared or sad, a feeling of well-being that we are safe and protected, happiness knowing someone cares for us. My art piece is a clay sculpture representing the thing I am most looking forward to as I look outwards from a life in lockdown, hugging my grandparents. We are meeting for the first time at the park for a picnic. My sculpture is my Nana and I at our picnic. Our masks are off, we are standing on a love heart on our picnic rug. The heart is a symbol of the most important thing in our world, our love for one other.Although this is my Nana and I, my sculpture is meant to represent an embrace between anyone. A hug reunites us after a long time of being apart, it is one of the first things we receive in life and is an important connection that unites all people everywhere.
Lower Secondary (7-9)
School: De La Salle College, Revesby Heights
Title: The Hustle and Bustle of Bondi
During the first few weeks of the Lockdown Arts Festival being introduced to me, I brainstormed and created a mindmap of the many ideas that related personally to me and the theme of “looking outwards from lockdown.” Through the thought process, I pondered firstly on household items I could use to even make an artwork and the style of art I wanted to focus on, whether it was painting, sculpture or photography. Finally, I came across the idea of a tropical beach scene because I have always wanted to go to the beach, especially Bondi Beach, with friends and family after lockdown had ended. As for the style of art, I wanted to showcase my ideas through painting. But then I remembered in primary school when I had fun doing a diorama for a science project. This sparked the inspiration of doing a mix of painting and sculptural work. In the first few photos, you can see I painted a scene of what Bondi Beach looks like during lockdown through the use of acrylic paints. I used a Nike shoebox that I cut out into a diorama shape as my canvas and stuck cotton balls in the sky area to make some clouds that looked more realistic, 3D looking and soft texture-wise. In the sky area, I used different dark shades of blue with some black, outlining the emptiness of Bondi Beach on a gloomy day and creates a sense of dullness and being trapped, during the lockdown. In the after lockdown photos, I made a palm tree out of coloured paper with the palms being hand-cut and the tree trunk being hand folded and rolled into a tree trunk. The tree represents the growth of new life and the coming of age of a new day after lockdown has ended. As for the sculptural element in this artwork, I use lego figures placed around the beach to signify the “outwards” life of lockdown, with mass gatherings and no social distancing or mask-wearing. I even added white pebbles that I collected from my backyard and put them at the very back of the diorama which resembles the rock formations and rock pools in Bondi Beach. A lego hotdog food truck can also be seen on the right side of the image, showcasing the normality of food trucks being open again after lockdown end. This is because lockdown has badly impacted the closing of many restaurants and food truck business. From all these photos, you also can see that there is that photography element being used in this artwork showing a story board of Bondi Beach from different angles and lighting through all the stages of during and after lockdown . My artwork explores the theme ‘Looking outwards from a life in lockdown’ as the photos depict the two perspectives of life in lockdown and life after lockdown. Through the use of painting, sculptural and photographic work, I was able to capture what I vision as people “outwards” from lockdown and free from staying at home. The photos are like a freeze frame of the “hustle and bustle” of what life looks like after lockdown starts and ends. The composer/author that inspired me to do this sort of style in my artwork was Tatsuya Tanaka. He is a professional photographer who has been creating playful miniature landscapes and scenes that he puts together using common objects and diorama figurines to then capture the scene through photography. Through this Tatsuya Tanaka inspired me to do that same with my artwork which blends the use of painting, sculptural work and photography of a scene of Bondi Beach as my landscape using regular household items and lego as my diorama figurines.
School: Brigidine College, Randwick
Title: Fruit Salad
Title: Swan Family
I have made three origami 3D Swans. One of them is big, white and purple and the other two are smaller. One of the small swans is white and blue and the other is white and red
Upper Secondary (10-12)
Title: Just One Chance
My sculpture is based on the healing of the planet after covid as society is in much need of natural restoration. I have used a recycle globe model and sculpted mushrooms and the frog. I used synthetic plants and leaves along with stone and fairy lights to bring my sculpture to life. I have created the potential of nature If it is given a chance and how it can restore the ‘hole’ in our planets ecosystem. Covid has inspired me to look forward to the positive outcome as whilst we are locked down and factories/manufacturing
School:La Salle Catholic College, Bankstown
Title:Together we survive the first of pain
It represent the family and issues, where family can resist any issue when all its members stand together. In this the hand represents my family and the flame represent hardships
Staff Member or Group
Title:Blooms Where you are planted
Lockdown brought new challenges, but more time to create and reflect. This artwork grew slowly, it was like planting seeds for a future garden and imagining days freely spent enjoying the vision. Making the most of the situation, I collected boxes and packets from supermarket items in the pantry and online deliveries as art materials. With a pair of kitchen scissors, cardboard was shredded and rearranged to create swirling, organic forms, bursting with life, multiplying and celebrating the beauty of God’s Creation. This meditative art practice was powerful, prayerful and calming to the mind. It was Sabbath time. I found joy in creating from what was available, it gave me a sense of hope and purpose.
I was reminded of Saint Francis de Sales’ words, he said that God was “inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence.”
Title:The Cycle of Life
My ceramic wreath commemorates all of the lives lost during the pandemic. The shapes symbolise new life and the yellow circle symbolises hope. The Aboriginal patterns of campsites are linking all communities through these extraordinary times to stengthen our future.