Best of the Week 2022-2023: Excellence in College Prep
ST. ED'S HOSTS SECOND ANNUAL IB ART EXHIBITION, A FREE-FORM EXPLORATION OF CURATED WORKS
This week, St. Ed's visual artists and filmmakers put their best pieces and creations on display for the second annual IB Arts Exhibition. From sketch work and 3D modeling to photography and poetry, IB students displayed their works in free-form exploration. The exhibition invited community members to enjoy the installations and get the opportunity to speak directly with the artists to better understand their works and celebrate their creative expression. Audiences were also invited to watch two distinct short-films selected by a jury of graduating film students at St. Ed's as part of the exhibition.
"Each exhibit has a mix of several digital and physical elements. My exhibit, 'The Elusive Desk Man,' is a mixed-media installation piece comprised of a school desk surrounded by branching vines and foliage. It was inspired mostly by all the work I've been doing in my senior year, and my time in the IB Diploma Program. It's not only about persisting through large workloads, but also growing as a student and a person during the process. I'm hoping to have created an exhibit that conveys a message they can relate to," says Wesley Piai '23.
"The project I shared is the generational love and labor exhibit which includes photos, installations, linocut prints, and a video all surrounding the generational love and labor within a family," says Shawn Sams '23. "The inspiration for this exhibit came from thinking about how I could visually show emotion and behavior as strong as love, more specifically love within my family that has both directly and indirectly built me up into the strong young man I am today. I hope audiences look at all my work and realize that everyday actions and activities within a family contain love, and that love flows through generations to build up those within its circle."
"My exhibition, which mixes 2D and 3D pieces including art video, photos, paintings, linoleum block prints, and resin castings, is inspired behind the central theme of stoicism, particularly the stoicism required of teenage men," says William Plavan-Masters '23. "The IB Arts Exhibition has encouraged me to take art, what I often consider to be a staple in my life, and mix it with an obstacle in my life, the need for stoicism, and create something which I consider to be a reflection of life."
"What's impressed me most is that these students really thought early on about their coherence for their exhibition, what they wanted their work to mean, and how they wanted to create that feeling. We really push the idea that art is communication and that every feeling that's evoked by a piece is the result of a choice made by the artist as well as by the associations, experiences, and images the viewer brings to the art when they look at it," says Film Department Chair Lydia Munnell. "The other way our students impressed me was with their initiative and willingness to try new things! Students sewed, block printed on clothing and even used resin for the very first time. All of these Edsmen tried techniques they've never done before and jumped in with a real curiosity and enthusiasm for their work. And they really made their work come from a personal place. They talked about their struggles, their experiences growing up, the stuff they've learned in high school, and more. It's hard to be vulnerable, and even adults keep those kinds of feelings at arm's length, too distant to do something hard and personal like making art. These students embraced vulnerability and really supported each other."
