The talents of three 2017 Year 12 students have been recognised through the selection of their artworks for the VCE Season of Excellence.
Around 4,200 Victorian students studied VCE Media Units 3 & 4 in 2017. George McGrath (OM 2017) was one of only 14 of these students to have his short film selected for Top Screen – an exhibition of the very best short films from across the State. In the preceding year, George was one of 35 of approximately 5,300 VCE Studio Arts Units 3 & 4 students to have an artwork selected for Top Arts, having completed the subject in Year 11.
Artworks by VCE Art Units 3 & 4 students, Sam Blomley (OM 2017) and Hugo Gray (OM 2017) were selected for Top Arts this year.
Top Arts and Top Screen are part of the VCE Season of Excellence arts festival. This annual event showcases the very best visual and performing artworks by VCE students, through a range of exhibitions, screenings and performances.
George’s film ∆LCHEMY is a music video in the experimental arthouse genre. “The term alchemy refers to the concept of combining one or more minerals to create a superior mass,” explains George. “In my film I’ve tried to combine music, movement and visual art into a unified experience.”
“It was a great privilege to be selected for these exhibitions,” says George. He is currently studying a Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) at RMIT.
Sam Blomley’s artwork Vanitas (or the meaning of life is food) is a digital drawing created by forming objects in a three-dimensional digital space, and adding light and shade to make them look like the real thing. He used many of the techniques used to produce feature animations.
Sam is also attending RMIT, studying a Bachelor of Communication (Design). “I’m super thrilled to be in a course I’ve been wanting to do for five years,” he explains.
Hugo Gray’s artwork is also quite unique. “I’m a little bit obsessed by stadiums and I wanted to replicate the feeling of being in one,” he says. His large installation not only looks like a stadium, it has a hovering roof, four screens with real time video projected onto them, the sounds of a crowd playing in the background and more than 8,000 mini-seats glued in place.
“I was really happy to be selected for Top Arts,” says Hugo. “It was a good reward for all the hard work I put in.” Hugo is studying a Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Arts at Monash University.
