Kisaiah Cassandra Jay Acorio (Y12): IB Arts
What does IB Visual Arts entail? The 2-year course consists of two different parts in which students are able to build knowledge, research, and improve their artistic abilities in the world of Art. Depending on the level of which they have picked - Standard or Higher - students explore and engage with Visual Arts in a meaningful and reflective way for either two or three lessons a week.
First, students are required to do a 'Comparative Study'. Comparative Study is a critical and contextual analysis of different artwork of different artists of different generations that would relate to a single theme. Next, is 'Studio Work'. This component is a significant part of the course since this is where students are required to create a body of work based on their exploration of themes, concept and themes which they pick at the very start of their journey with Visual Arts. They work within a single theme but are encouraged to create works with a variety of mediums. The studio work is assessed internally by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB. Throughout their journey of Studio Work, students are required to keep a Process Portfolio where they document their artistic journey that includes evidence of their visual research, experimentation, and development of their ideas over time. This Portfolio provides a clear insight into the creative process of the students and is also marked internally before being moderated externally.
Recently, the Year 12 Visual Arts class had a whole week of a practice run of the Comparative Study component, to which will allow us to familiarise ourselves with the structure and requirements before we actually do the component for real. We were also able to get ideas for our next studio work and helped us to fill our Process Portfolio at the same time.
I was personally inspired by Brno Del Zou, an artist which I used in my practice Comparative Study. His artworks consisted of different sized square prints of the human face photographed from different angles. My initial theme was ‘Comfort’ and I was able to talk about the ‘Comfort in ones body’ in the sense where you should be proud of your identify and your natural features because everyone is beautiful in their own way.
Kisaiah Cassandra Jay Acorio (Y12)
Expressive Arts subject prefect