A Level: Fine Art & Textiles
A-Level Fine Art & Textile students have produced projects covering a Personal Investigation piece of work as well as an Exam project that is directed by a single term stimuli. Students work very independently to explore and navigate their themes applying all practical skills developed across the study programme.
Amelie Evans
Personal Investigation
This conceptual outcome is a representation of the significant individuals who have impacted my life as I have grown and developed shaping me into the person, I am today. The objects within the outcome are my own personal association of the individuals through inanimate objects in order to provide a stronger conceptual output and leave the people anonymous to an audience enhancing the personal aspect meaning of the piece. The ways in which the string intertwines and encircles itself represents the ideology that life is not a straightforward journey combined with the objects of those who significantly impacted or changed my individual red string results in a conceptual outcome of my existence.
Exam
This outcome is a response to the stimuli of “protest” in which I have encapsulated my personal direction exploring feminism and the roles in which women play in society. The piece demonstrates an unrealistic ideology of the “perfect woman” portraying the impossible standards and expectations placed onto women in society in a way that also makes a mockery of the mysogenistic viewpoint and the “male gaze” as a whole. The Riot Grrrl movement was a particular influence to the visual imagery within my outcome with aspects also reflecting on stereotypical domestic associations with women in the home.
Finley Kidner
Personal Investigation
My Personal Investigation explores experiences of perfectionism and the struggles associated with constantly striving for perfection. Through three self-portraits created using stippling, biro, and etching, I intentionally selected permanent mark-making techniques where mistakes cannot easily be corrected. This reflects the pressure often linked to perfectionist thinking, where even minor errors can feel permanent. The plinth beneath the portraits, filled with crumpled failed attempts, symbolises the frustration caused by pursuing unrealistic standards and highlights the long, repetitive process often required to achieve a “perfect” piece of work.
Exam
My exam project explores communication through the theme Messages & Messengers, focusing on how methods of communication have evolved over time. Using two telephone poles connected to a landline phone through thread, I wanted to represent the journey of communication and highlight how interconnected these systems are. Different sizes, colours, and materials symbolise progression and development, while the thread physically connects each element of the piece to reflect connection and dependence between each stage of communication. Overall, I wanted the outcome to show how communication continuously evolves while remaining an essential part of everyday life and human interaction.
Rhian Sully
Personal Investigation
My work explores the spread of AI in our lives, and how it is now in social media, education, and everyday jobs. I chose this theme because I feel strongly about the use of AI and how it negatively impacts our lies and the planet. It damages the planet through its extreme water use and overuse of it for everyday tasks which can damage critical thinking skills. Processes like 3d sculpting, modelling and projection influenced me as it uses AI to make the 3d model and projection links in the theme of technology. I hope to communicate the negative effects of AI to spread awareness about the use of AI.
Exam
I chose the theme journey for my investigation my concept was moments that you cannot go back to. I chose this theme because all through out our lives we reflect on good memories from our lives and I wanted to show some of my favourite happy memories from my life. Astra Kulikauskaite’s colouring style influenced my work as to me the style reflected memories and happiness. And Liu’s work influenced me to experiment with how colours can reflect different emotions which is why I used the colour yellow to reflect happiness in my final piece. I hope to communicate nostalgia and a range of positive emotions to the viewers.
Molly Phippen
Personal Investigation
This investigation is based on my dads’ struggles with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and how this disorder can trigger a range of negative emotions which interrupt some of his favourite hobbies such as cleaning cars. I chose this as a focus as my dads’ struggles are felt strongly within my family and are recognised as a unique part of him, feeling incredibly personal to all of us. My final piece aims to show the process of cars being cleaned by him but showing how stress and anxiety can build through these cleaning motions by becoming more aggressive (caused by the disorder recognising small mishaps which affects his cognitive thinking). This work was strongly influenced by Kazuo Shiraga and his ability to create art using paint across his whole body, expressing similarities within relation to stress and frustration.
Exam
This exam project was all about exploring how visual scale could make us feel within interior spaces, particularly looking at how artists manipulate perception through colour and composition. As an aspiring interior designer, I wanted to use this opportunity to dive deeper into how scale within an interior space can be styled and arranged differently to spark a variety of moods. Artists such as Catherine Yass influenced my work in terms of editing hue and saturation within photos I took to stretch the appearance they offered. Amongst this, I carried out research through surveys as to how people’s perceptions of different colours are varied, as well as experimenting with composition and use of shape to minimise recognition of a space, inflicting a more uncomfortable and uncertain feeling when viewing my final piece. My final piece aims to show how art can be represented through different sizes to inflict different emotions: larger being overpowering and intimidating and smaller being more intricate and submissive.
Isla Webb
Personal Investigation
A range of artists inspired me to create this series of pieces based of my insecurities and distorted body image. Anna Teresa Barbosa informed my photoshoot which then led to me landing on some of the images where I have either got fabric hiding my face and have string on my legs. I then further distorted these images as-well as my other images to highlight how I view myself. Dominic Beyeler, Barbara Kruger both influenced the red colour theme and typography seen in the mirrors. Elly small wood is my main inspiration through the acrylic painting style, pallet, and distorted element of the images. The mirrors allow the audience to view their own insecurity and question themselves while looking at my insecurities.
Exam
I chose the theme of shadows to represent the traumatic memories that we try to forget but that continue to follow us, like shadows. To develop this idea, I carefully selected my colours and materials. Allison Sommers inspired the black-to-white gradient, inspired by the use of exposure which suggests the of fading memories and emphasises shadows. I screen-printed the images to create a classic representation of shadows. Artem Rohovyi and Sari Shryack inspired the gouache to add colour. Symbolising that the memory isn’t completely gone. The cluttered print reflects my mental state, while the organised composition represents specific traumatic experiences.
Toby Addison
Personal Investigation
Inspired by Richard Billingham, Tracey Emin, and Bill Viola, “Experiences as a Non-Human Being” explores themes of Domesticity, Fear, Innocence, and Childhood through a metaphorical and symbolic lens documenting trauma and childhood neglect.
Derived from personal experience, this piece is inspired the experiences and neglect I found myself in at a young age, as well as its impact on my world view, and the long term consequences of exposure to domestic trauma. The medium of projection, sculpture, and videography enhance and emphasise the domestic horror genre, and the use of kittens emphasises the naivety of a child perspective.
Exam
Influenced by humanities ties to the natural systems, the art of Polly Morgan, Ellen Anderton, and Mire Lee, this piece aims to confront ideas of decay, death, control, and the material nature of the human experience.
Inspired by the cycle of decomposition and food webs, this outcome is a metaphor for the self inflicted disconnect humanity has towards the natural world and its inner workings by showing the physical inner workings and of the human body being returned back to the ecosystem as a transfer of energy from the protective and unwilling human cage.
Niamh Halliday
Personal Investigation
The theme I explored was the way the different types of media is constructed and, and I chose this to explore how the media is able to influence people’s beliefs. I explored artists that used composition, colour and typography etc to inform the way they influence people into following their ideologies, with my experimentation mainly consisting of digital art to capture the techniques used in mainstream media. This informed my final outcome, of looking at how big cooperation's use advertising to influence people into buying their products, and exposing corruption involving multi-million companies.
Exam
My chosen theme was skeletal, and I was interested in a metaphorical sense of the skeletal theme, in the deterioration of mental health, relating to personal experience. I explored artists that had visual themes of surrealism and neo expressionism, connecting to my theme of expression in art and how it portrays an unstable state of mind within my art. I experimented a range of colour imagery and materials, that informed my theme by exploring the complexity of emotion and mental health. This informed my exam by the use of colour and material that symbolised the darker side of mental health.
Becky Old
Personal Investigation
For this project I investigated the effects of climate change on the ocean and the ocean’s living eco-systems. I chose this project because it allowed for my interest in this subject to be taken further and then explored within the artistic field. The idea of a garment piece and ocean inspiration worked well together and allowed for me to create something heavily inspired by both the ocean itself and the pollution we humans put into the ocean directly and indirectly through climate change.
Exam
I investigated the emotions of the 5 stages of grief and remembering a person after they have gone. I chose this project because it allowed me to explore further within work by being able to explore ideas around emotional loss and journey’s which allowed for so many more pathways within a project. The materials I used always leaned into using fabric and stitching to achieve a textiles piece. I wanted to convey the feeling of how the 5 stages of grief is a journey and wanted to create a visual of how a person was perceived during their life.
Monnisa Cardonzo
Personal Investigation
My work explores memory & identity, and the traces people leave behind over time. I was interested in how memories can change, fade and become distorted while still shaping who we are. Through experimentation with digital editing, layered photographs, acrylic and sound, I created a memory box containing images from different stages of my life. I was influenced by Christian Boltanski’s exploration of memory and absence. My final outcome aims to communicate how identity is built through personal memories, family connections and experiences that remain with us throughout life.
Exam
My work explores the theme of ‘shadows’ through schizophrenia, focusing on the contrast between a person’s internal and external state. I was interested in how shadows can represent paranoia, hallucinations and emotional isolation. One final outcome shows the internal state of a schizophrenic individual through fading features, charcoal faces, and circular stitched thread suggesting entrapment and overwhelming thoughts. The second outcome presents the external state. The face is more recognisable, stitched zig-zag lines suggesting confusion and instability. Through experimentation with ink, charcoal, and stitching, I developed layered portraits influenced by Lisa Kokin’s use of thread to show connection and emotional tension.
Josh Marchant
Personal Investigation
For my personal investigation, my work explores the theme of escapism in which I explored the worlds of artists minds to see how they escaped from their personal problems and what they created to do so. I chose this focus because at the time of the project I was in a bad place and when I thought of personal investigation, I thought about me and how much I wanted to escape from that bad place, the bad place being depression and how much it messed with my emotions and how much it messed with my views on myself and everything in my life and how much I just wanted to numb that depressive feeling, how much I wanted to just leave it all and just feel free and at peace for once without the pressure.
So, I looked into various artists, not necessarily surreal artists but artists that focus on escaping problems through their artwork, how they dealt with their troubles and pressures of reality and what they did to escape them and what they created to escape into or to represent their escape.
I wanted to communicate the main task of escapism, I wanted to show it in a sort of form, looking into a different world through a portal/doorway/gateway, I wanted to make sure I'm looking into a world where everything is somewhat way better than the one you are already stood in.
Exam
For my exam I decided to move from the escapism and surreal aspects of artwork, I instead decided to look into shadow, how the balance between shadow and light changes emotion and feeling as well as thought, I chose this theme because this theme in particular captured my attention, it made me move away from my constant focus into the surreal world and it helped me explore something new for once, something that I can explore, a branch separate from the ones I keep on hanging onto.
I also experimented with new techniques, in which I traced over physical existing shadows with charcoal and pencil and also the strongest skill I obtained in the project which I ended up using for my final outcome, which was screen printing, and this process helped me add more to my palette of skills and this helped me create these monochrome artworks to display different emotions in each one.
What I hoped to communicate was the idea of shadow as well as light and the balance between them, how colour in addition to the two factors changes emotion when you mess with the balance between them, the more shadow the more gloomy and eerie, the more light the more happy and nice though those two points can change if you change the colour of the light.