IB Art Final Exhibition Guide 2019 IB Art Exhibition Guide 2019 | Page 20

Rachel Sparkes
Before I found the underlying theme that ran through
my artwork, I found the idea of turning a simple
photograph into a 3D painting captivating. Through
this one piece that took up most of my Lower Sixth,
I realised that I wanted to explore further into the idea
of layering and perception – hence leading me to the
theme of using layering and composition to convey
meaning. Through more buildings and architecture
that I came across in my travels, I was able to create
monoprints and lithographs that expressed depth
and allowed, with a heavy dark tone, a change of
the source itself. With these pieces I was able to
use layering to add expression as well as create
something that had a completely diff erent perception
from what it once had.
With the death of Stephen Hawking, I became
refl ective of his theorems and work, which inspired
my interest to delve into the idea of perception,
as Hawking said, ‘There’s no way to remove the
observer from our perceptions of the world.’ With
this inspiration that quickly followed the inspiration
from the MCU Marvel’s Infi nity War ending and the
artist Yuichi Ikehata, I wanted to express the ideas of
composition of the human body and the breakdown
of that. I tried to portray this in paintings and then
sculpture, both of which created a diff erent feel to
the overall perception. The idea is that the onlooker
themselves can choose whether the pieces are
breaking away from each other or coming together
to form something as complex as the human body.
I aspire with my work to have the onlooker’s
perception changed even if just for a moment on the
body or a simple building.
Imme van der Plas
My artistic journey began with the word ‘sensation’. I was inspired by busy urban environments and wanted
to capture the sensation of movement, chaos and colour within them. Through the expressive and dynamic
manipulation of diff erent media I wanted to create strikingly powerful images that capture the energy in daily life.
I experimented with the middle ground between abstraction and reality by translating scenes from the real world
into something more emotive and expressive of experiences as well as taking abstract pieces and working
reality into them. The high level of detail in my work symbolises the eccentricity of life and makes the pieces
interesting because the longer you look at the work the more you begin to notice.
Artists such as Gerhard Richter, Floyd Douglas and John Piper have been my most prominent infl uences and
are in part responsible for my artistic approach to my pieces. Ultimately my works are intended to act as an
exploration and celebration of life and applying this across diff erent cultures.