Mona Gallery
On Friday 17 March students from the Senior Visual Art & Design classes visited MONA in Tasmania, an Art Museum notorious for confronting and bold creations. The pieces viewed ranged from live performance art, sensory immersion, sculpture, painting, photography, architecture and creative feats that, often defied description. MONA is a public access gallery yet is privately owned by David Walsh. The day was absolutely filled with activity, beginning at 5.30 am at the Tintern bus bay and several hours of plane and ferry transportation. MONA itself is an incredible gallery built into the bedrock of the Derwent River, with a spiral staircase descending into the hull of the gallery. Returning at 9pm, the group, including staff Trine Ord and Ben Horton, were weary but full of awe and wonder at the experience of MONA, eager to share their experiences with others.
Here are some highlights/reflections from the Senior Art Captains –
Mimi – ‘My favorite feature of MONA was the galleries’ ability to fully immerse the audience into the pieces. This was achieved through aspects of sensory deprivation and manipulation of lights, sounds, smells and textures that made me question what I believed to be my original interpretations of Art‘.
Mia – ‘Once descended to the lowest level of Mona, there is a dark and brooding feeling as you are walking amongst the tall carved out hallways of the bedrock. Towards the end of a corridor there is a dark entry way, and it leads to dimly lit rooms full of encaged spider webs where the light just reflected on them enough to see. This was my favorite piece as you got to walk through and see these spider webs from all angles and it made me wonder if there was such thing as limitations to art’.
A Creative Journey
At the start of every year, the Junior School girls enjoy exploring portraiture to create a self portrait in a variety of different media such as watercolour, grey-lead pencil, coloured pencil, wax crayon and oil pastel. All self portraits are kept in individual folios in the Art room and are given to the students at the end of Year 6 so they can review their creative journey throughout their years in Junior School.
The girls celebrated ‘International Women’s Day’ by creating artworks with a focus on recognising the special qualities of girls and women they admire. The Prep to Year 2 students created a female figure using mixed media materials which are all currently on display around their classrooms. The Years 3 and Year 4 students worked in pairs to create mixed media flowers using food dye, acrylic paint and markers to apply words in their artwork that celebrate the qualities they respect in girls and women. The Years 5 and 6 students created designs using the art of zentangle as well as integrating words into their design to celebrate and acknowledge girls and women. The girls’ approach every task with enthusiasm and these artworks reveal their passion for continuous growth.
Jenny Kerr | Girls’ Junior School Art Teacher
