Exhibition Date: October, 2022
Class 113
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BOND
- Chi Ehigiamusoe
Nsibidi scripts are an ancient system of ideographic communication to the peoples of Igbo, Ekoi, Efik, Bahumono and the Cross-river region of Nigeria.
My introduction to Nsibidi scripts was through history books because it became endangered due to colonization. This project is a tribute to the people who have kept and passed on Nsibidi through generations.
My maternal side is Igbo. Cultural knowledge is shared through mundane-yet-intimate moments. In this piece, I situate a mother combing her child’s hair in the center, surrounded by Isi-Agu (lion head) and the Nsibidi scripts as the background. The Isi-Agu is a symbol of PRIDE and AUTHORITY in the Igbo culture. Each script in this represents a name in the Igbo language.
This piece represents a pillar of pride for me, pride in my identity, pride in my culture, and myself.
Materials: Print on canvas
Exist
- Andrew Wang
Most people have probably experienced some sort of mental health problem. After failing to pursue a career in coding I locked myself away and lived in solidarity for two years. The isolation made my mind delirious and turned me borderline schizophrenic.
How does the world look like to someone when they are the only being left existing? I wanted to capture that image through a short two pages of manga panels and express those feelings of despair experienced when the mind breaks and rots from isolation. I used animation in the final panel to enhance the sense and evocation of the coldness and loneliness to the reader. My project was inspired by the work of my favorite manga and animation artists, and it helped me discover my passion for drawing.
Materials: GIF video, digital drawing
Fraser River Harvest
- Brad Sparrow
Fraser River Harvest, is an 18-inch by 32-inch canvas painting done with acrylic paint. My very first ever painting at that. A male and female sockeye salmon swimming upriver. I wanted to challenge myself to do something I've never done before and at the same time represent where I come from (Musqueam). In my community, we have a number of talented artists and hardworking fishermen/fisherwomen/fisherpeople. I've been a fisherman my whole life so the net and fish represent what I do and what I've been doing for years, fishing! The painting itself represents an "artistic" side I never knew I had in me until I came to VFS. I wanted to tie both aspects together to create something different.
Materials: Pencil, sketch book, computer, projector, paint(acrylic), paint brushes, canvas
Emotions
- Penny Ye
The photos were taken during models were telling stories to the camera. The stories were told in a way I couldn't understand. To achieve this, they told me the stories in a language I could not understand. If they spoke English, I would wear my headphone. Without actually listening to the stories, I can only get emotional portraits based on my vision.
This project tries to capture the fact of emotional flow. It will visualize that either positive or negative events contain emotions other than the most obvious and strongest ones.
This project includes three 12*18 portraits. Each portrait has a flip book that the audience can flip and see some moving footage of the stories they tell.
Materials: Photo, interactive moving image
Shattered Identity
- Erika Harris
Shattered Identity is a surreal take on the regular portraits you would see done through painting. Using surrealism, I was able to explore and express my subject in ways that I wasn’t expecting. My main goal for this project was to explore the feelings that come with being a multiracial person. Growing up being biracial has always left me confused as I didn’t really feel like I fit in with being black or Indian. Since then, I have been told multiple times how ambiguous I am. After doing research for this project, I realized I wasn’t alone. People around the world described being multiracial as lonely and disconnected. This portrait represents the ambiguity as well as how there is more to us than what people may assume.
Materials: Acrylic Paint, 24 x 30 canvas, slow drying medium
Dayuhan: A 1.5 Generation Immigrant Story
- Rain Solleza
"Dayuhan" is the Tagalog word for "Immigrant". A 1.5 generation immigrant is someone who moved to a different country at a young age, retaining memories from their home country, and transitioning to a new country in their adolescence. I moved to Canada when I was 10. I couldn't play the games that the other kids played during recess and I struggled to fit in. So, like the kid on the graphic, I, too, sat on the benches and watched from afar. I interviewed multiple people for this project to properly convey other experiences of 1.5 generation immigrants, hence the split screen, and finding a community despite the differences because we all have one thing in common — feeling like we don’t belong.
Materials: Adobe Creative Cloud, Procreate
The Huntsman’s Daughter
- Brandon Mecas
For a long time, I have been interested in the medium of comic books, and have always wanted to try making one that was more than one page.
With this discovery project, I decided why not take the plunge and give it a try now.
I wanted to do a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood but in a more modern noir-like setting.
The process of this project was sketching the rough composition on a sketchbook then scanning them into my PC and drawing digitally over it on my drawing tablet. I then had my pages printed and bound by Club Card under the recommendation of one of our mentors.
A word of advice for future students, don't let your work for this pile up. You will regret it.
Overall, I think this was a very important lesson in work ethic and time management as well as research for what kind of project you plan to do.
Materials: Digital drawing on comic print.
Prayers From Space
- Oriana Theo
Recovered from a crashed spacecraft, long thought lost to time; unearthed during an excavation on a lonely planet discovered in a far-flung corner of our universe.
“Prayers from Space” is a meditation on religion, science, courage, faith, and the unknown. These paintings are inspired by Orthodox religious icons, and science-fiction, and space imagery. I wanted to explore a future world in which space travel has become common; it is not done by just anyone, though. The dark and dusty corners of our universe are explored by a few courageous souls whose curiosity about what lies in the dark between stars is stronger than their fear of it.
What mantras might they recite to themselves as they cross the new frontier? What words of comfort are whispered in that eternal dark? What imagery and icons can capture their journeys?
This is an attempt to answer those questions.
Materials: Acrylic on canvas
Caterpillar
- Dalton Chalk
Caterpillar is a painting based on a quote by Buckmister Fuller, saying "There is nothing in a caterpillar that says it will be a caterpillar."
The three canvases have separate pieces, that when put together, will form a caterpillar in a "womb" made from the blueprint from a Buckminster Fuller structure.
This picture shows that everyone is born a "caterpillar" and each one has the potential to become a butterfly.
Everyone is special even if they don’t believe they can create something beautiful.
Materials: Canvas and Paint
Reach Out
- Carlos Castillo
In more than 32 countries, men are committing suicide 5 times more often than women, with this number only increasing in communities below the poverty line. In a recent study, it was observed that throughout society men often live isolated lives where they feel separated from others and are not able to share what they are experiencing or communicate previous traumas that they may have faced. Reach Out is made from chicken wire to represent the feeling of emptiness that is often described when people are facing severe mental health issues. The tags are meant to be hung on the sculpture. As they are hung, they add volume and define the shape of the figure, symbolizing the impact even a small interaction can have on one another. Reach Out hopes to inspire you to reach out to your loved one.
Materials: Chicken wire.
Clam Garden
- Shakoia Antoine
Clam Garden is a celebration of my home territory the Nuu-Chal-Nulth Nation. Our territory’s name means among the mountains and the sea. Clam gardens are significant because my people are hunters and gatherers. I visited our own clam garden this past summer and reconnected with my heritage. This reconciliation of our knowledge fed my soul and I wanted to bring light to these gardens. I chose to incorporate elements of surrealism for this landscape painting. For this project, I decided to try and capture what life was like pre-colonization on my ancestral lands. Along this journey, I came to an understanding that raven was among the first men. According to oral history, Raven not only discovered The First Men but also brought light to them via the sun. Raven was tending to the beach long before my people got here and will be here long after I leave this earth.
Materials: Acrylic on Canvas
ARTificial Implications
- Pasha Stierle
ARTificial Implications is my excursion into the world of AI art generation, a series of images made using computer code. Even though it's often joked about, I believe AI will become a very useful if not important part of the creative process of future artists.
I was inspired to do this project after the public release of Stable Diffusion and seeing the fidelity and flexibility of the AI model. It not only blew my mind but got me thinking about a lot of the questions I pose within the written portion of this project, and with many of them still unanswered or in a grey area, I wanted to convey that and invite people to join the discussions. These tools will only get better and more prevalent, so I think it’s great to have stuff like this on your radar.
Materials: AI art tools (Stable Diffusion) , PowerPoint
Before
-Niah Marriott
Things are beautiful, even with no beholder to see them.
The never-ending pursuit to capture moments to make them last forever is futile for the things left behind to create something of their own.
Materials: Interactive digital artwork.
Reconnections
- Leticia Tavares Silva
Open letter to my Inner Child:
Thank you for never giving up on us! Letter to my inner child!
I thank you for never giving up! I thank you for identifying different ways to remind me of the present that is life and recalculating my route! I ask forgiveness for all the times I didn't hear you, I love you and I love your way of smiling, your dimple, and your passion for life!
Often, an adult who hits, hurts, or mistreats someone, may have been a victim one day. And deep down, all our inner child needs is to be heard, welcomed, validated, and loved.
In honor of my inner child, I thank my family, ancestry, and all the spirituality!
Materials: Acrylic on paper
Unlucky Dive
- Dorothy Kim
Unlucky Dive is about the magical character Quari who has been cursed. The only way to break the curse is by helping many people. The short story follows Quari’s path as she makes best friends, helps her teacher and solves problems between her parents.
Presented in a dreamy mood and inspired by city-pop music, Quari’s story is a reflection of the artist’s person experiences with bad and good luck.
Character
- Lee Hiebert
Character design is something that I have been passionate about since I was in elementary school. I remember going on a trip one summer as a kid and I spent the entire time drawing characters. That trip really sparked my love for character design.
I always feel like there is a part of me in each of my characters. In this project, I have become one of my characters, pushing myself to make something more complex and realized than any costume i have made in the past.
