London Students Prize 2022

Trompe l’oeil painting of an antique doll head supported by an antique carved bone handle.

This piece is a depicting how harmful eurocentric beauty standards can be, especially for women of colour. I wanted to show how mentally and physically harmful they can be through the scars pierced by images showing said beauty standards. I also included several associated words and phrases that I have heard relating to these beauty standards, as though they are being screamed at the subject. I wanted to present a feeling I and many people have, showing how overwhelming and painful it is.

This piece is an observational pencil drawing of an animation I completed for my GCSE’s. The original animation was comprised of many characters, all referencing the famous painting “An Experiment of a Bird in an Air Pump”. Each of the characters’ expressions was my own personal take on Joseph Wright’s piece.

This Piece is a reflection of the monotonous routine the world was forced to follow during the pandemic. Its highlighting that in some places of the world they are still suffering this repetitive nightmare. Cyanotype photography printing on paper, a collage of repetitive photos but each one very slightly different, not in order or aligned, overlapping from one to the next. Each one slightly disheveled either in its colour, its print or with its paper choice. A state of mind.

My painting comes from the idea of people merging into their surroundings. Like me, my dad was born and raised In South East London. In this painting I aimed to incorporate aspects from both mine and his upbringing, culture and physical surroundings. My painting has different layers, a mixture of markings from records from music we have listened to together and blocks and lines representing the places we have grown up in.

Denial is the refusal to accept the facts of the loss, either consciously or unconsciously. Studying A Level Psychology, Ora has been investigating various mental states, Japanese illustrators and artists such as Hans Bellmer whilst also considering Freud’s theory of the uncanny.

Focusing on the theme of beauty in the ordinary, I reflected on the significance of the houses I have lived in and their impact on making me who I am today. Attaching them to one another in a block is symbolic of how all the seamless memories of my childhood have blended to become the foundation of my identity. I gravitated towards recycling every day, domestic packaging for my template to maintain this idea of ordinary.

This piece resembled a newspaper, documenting the lost events of young people whilst in lockdown. I wanted to show how life stopped for young people.

This painting explores the concept of a “fragmented mind”; in terms of memory loss. The subject is my Grandma who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The person she is has changed and been affected by the disease and the term “fragments” refers to the fragments of memory she has retained, although they are diminishing over time.

Exploring line in light.

The title of the piece, Hydra, reflects both the theme and process of the work. By tearing away at the paper and repairing it, the drawing itself became a sort of hydra, with new heads growing from the wounds. A variety of pottery tools and other methods were used to distress the paper – which also allowed the charcoal to stick to the frayed edges better than the smoother areas. This was at first an inconvenience, but eventually the realisation came that this could be used to enhance the image and create greater contrast. Ideas of identity and this sort of Jekyll and Hide narrative play into the finished image, with this fractured self-portrait with this malevolent entity lurking in the shadows and looming over them unbeknownst to them.

A Portrait of the Artist’s sister Looking up. Completed in response to the topic “Identity” the subject was chosen due to her prominence in Bethia’s life. The use of colour was inspired by the work of Matisse, Bacon and Saville, accentuating visible but subtle colours to create a vibrant portrait that matched the pose of the subject matter caught mid laugh. The use of highlight and darker tones for the hair show an accomplished sense of form, three dimensionality and lighting. While the off-centre composition shows an understanding of the rule of thirds. The piece was Bethia’s final submission for the Identity project.

This painting was completed in response to the topic of “Identity”. This Large scale acrylic painting depicts the artist’s mother. Felt to be an integral part of the Lara’s identity the familial feeling generated in this piece is achieved by Lara’s careful consideration of the framing of the piece. She describes in her analysis how she also thought about the lighting in the work. Using it to indicate a window allowing the subject and viewer to share the act of gazing. Her work was partly inspired by looking at the work of Matisse, but in contrast she portrays the female figure as representative of “female empowerment” through lighting her in a “saint like manner”. Lara also wanted to keep the figure maternal and so made sure to pose her in a natural and familiar way.

Mixed media installation of a doll’s house. Amidst all of its dystopian destruction is a contrasting room that is perfect and flawless. This is the contrast between utopia and dystopia. The white room is completely devoid of any imperfections; there are no objects cluttered around, rips on the walls, splatters of paint, or fallen scaffolding or beams. It is a room from a utopian world, an idealistic world. The red balloon enhances this sense of utopia through its smooth spherical shape which sharply contrasts with the jaggedness of the destruction in the other rooms, and its red colour which symbolises warmth and comfort. The balloon room, as a result of its utopian nature, is a place of safety and security amidst destruction; a place where the viewer can escape from the dystopian nightmare that has left all the other rooms in ruins.

Examining the paintings of contemporary artists such as Claire Woods and Hurvin Anderson this work has Nature at its core. The work has developed from small-scale painterly experiments into a meticulous exploration of surfaces found in more remote settings.

Watercolour of our city.

For my piece on the theme of ‘Identity’, I combined the following mixed media: Canvas, Photography and Textiles. In particular, I wanted to express the idea that people’s true selves are often hidden due to societal pressures. I blurred the features of the model in the black and white photo, and sewed her heart and circulatory system on top, showing that people’s true emotions are often hidden under an ordinary façade.

The art of balance.’ A sculpture that attempts to mimic and reconstruct some of the shapes and forms seen in an urban environment. Inspired by aerial photography of buildings and city skylines. This sculpture also outlines the imperfections of architecture seen in a city.

This piece is a surrealist depiction playing on our ties to the landscapes that shape our lives, our perceptions of places and views that are loaded with and rooted in personal stories, myths and things we see in the shadows. A subjective view that is just as true as any other. We find ourselves at the point where the sun, moon and sea meet, at the centre of a personal world.

My representation on youth culture today in an attempt to break down negative stereotypes of young people. Through photography, painting and drawing I wanted to create a vibrant piece that emphasises the ways in which our youth culture today express themselves.