IAA Arts Exhibition: Review
I know, I haven’t posted in a while, and I don’t think I will be posting for about another month while I finish my school examinations. Nonetheless, I am doing this post because I promised my friend to review his art exhibition at his school International Academy - Amman. I will not be assessing every student, but I will mention some of them. Here goes as I take you step-by-step into my experience there:
As I reached the school, I noticed the high amount of security around the perimeter, and even though I expected something more…fun (can’t find another word), and less dull or closed. However it did not come as a shock for me taking into consideration the people that go there and that the school was created(?) by Her Royal Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. At the front door, there was a guard who I asked for the directions to the art exhibition. The following conversation happened:
Guard: “You’re not from this school are you?”
Me: “Uh..no”
Guard: “Which school are you from”
Me: “Amman Academy”
*Guard thinking for a second* Guard: “Okay, the art exhibition is down the stairs over there”
And me and my friend (who I brought along with me since she had no other ride) thought that, if we were in some other lower-standard school, would they have not let us in? Other than that, the school is huge, but in a wide-sense where everything seems to be at the end of the world.
Moving on, let’s get into the art exhibition. Going in, I just totally ignored the other art pieces in my way as I went to my friend, and he started explaining his artwork for us…until of course an adult came a long and he had to go to explain to her. My friend’s theme is (in a nutshell) “Adult VS Childhood” and how children are influenced by the ‘dark side’ at their young age. I liked many of his artwork, and loved others (which I cannot explain or elaborate on without pictures, which I lack right now, but hopefully my friend will upload pictures of his work and others’ work and I could link this post to them). One of his pieces titled “Censored!” was ironically, censored and it caught the attention of many and garnered buzz amongst the visitors. It was not my favorite, but it was still creative. I think the one I liked the least was one where he created logos of children icons like Mario or Pac-Man or Superman out of tiny beads(?). I found it to be the least meaningful, but it certainly was interesting and a lot of effort was definitely put in there. However two of my favorite pieces were set next to each other with one showing the different phases of age and how our bad deeds at the end of the ‘day’ become worse and worse. The other one had two cast hearts and one of them had a knife struck through it while the other was locked with a chain showing what happens if you open/close your heart to others. Another one of my favorites showed Minnie Mouse with bloody hands, and even though I do not appreciate the tarnishing of my beloved Disney characters, it was still very cool! As for my friend’s stop-motion video, it was creepy, but still cool. It definitely baffled many, but its an interesting approach with an interesting idea.
I’ve talked enough about my friend, and so I will be moving on to the others, but I will talk more briefly about each. I do not remember all their names or the exact theme their using but I’ll try to remember as much as possible (the Facebook event being unavailable right now is also not helping matters).
While my friend explained to other people about his work, I went deeper into the exhibition. The first we came across was that of a student named Sarah and her theme, if I remember correctly, was the affect of media and fame and all that. Her theme is interesting, but her works are even more interesting. Sarah has used a lot of different media to work with and one of the outstanding ones was titled “Contrast” which cannot be explained here properly (hopefully my friend uploads the pictures soon). I especially loved some of the work that show the effect of Hollywood on the innocent.
I then entered the work of another student which I cannot remember her name, but her theme was about the variety of cultures, and I thought most of her work was mediocre, with only a few pieces that stand out, like a mannequin whose shadow resembles her culture, but her work never reach the potential of her theme.
I think my favorite artwork was that of the next student I will review whose name is Samiha and her theme, if I remember correctly, has something to do with the effects of war and hardships. Her work was really outstanding and amazing as she used a lot of different media (more than Sarah) to create her work and I think all of them were very relate-able and even though they are abstract, you can still feel the theme and the idea from the work itself. And you can tell that a lot of hard work has been put! Especially regarding one of the pieces with probably a hundred flowers, each hanged from a wire and forming a prefect structure and is very organized.
I then went to see Dina’s work which was about women, especially Arab women and the stereotypes they are in. Her work was also good, but nothing stood out. Her work did not reach the full potential of her theme as did the other student I talked about, but it was a great effort, and I did like some of her work.
As I made my way back to my friend, I remembered all the work that me and my friend have missed as we made our way in, and so went to see them. One of the students is named Farah(not sure), and I forgot what her theme was, as her work was not really memorable (I mean one of them was just pictures of the same mouth posted next to each other…a 6-year old with access to Google Images and a Printer can do that!). However I do still remember a video she made where she acted out drinking and taking drugs and getting high and how this destroys a person in the end, however I thought something better could have been done. (On a side note, I did not really like this person’s work and thought that she’s annoying as seen by her pictures and video, but as I was leaving the exhibition, apparently she was just coming in, and her friend was telling her that in her video at the beginning she looks ugly, which made me sympathize with her, and I think was the reason why I still remember that video). There was however one of work of hers that I really liked which showed the different imperfections and body image issue that women may face like big butts, love handles, etc.
There was one more work left which dealt with “Jordanian culture” which I thought was not creative at all, and absolutely none of this person’s work really caught my attention to the extent that I barely remember any for me to review. So this was one was quick…saved you some more reading.
Finally, I returned to my friend as I provided more support for him and watched as people stared with awe at his “Censored!” piece. One of my classmates actually had her jaw wide open as she looked at it, and then when moving to the stop-motion video, I can see that her mind has been seriously disturbed. Of course, I laughed about the whole thing (in my mind). I thought my friend’s work is one of the best I’ve seen and I think deserves the place of second-place best as I think Samiha has outdone herself with her work and deserves the first-place (sorry).
In conclusion, and in comparison to what I have seen from my school’s exhibition, well this one was REALLY good! And from the pictures I’ve seen of other schools, I think its the best! My school had only three students, and even though some of the pieces stood out, none of them stood out like the ones in this exhibition! Congrats to my friend and his classmates, as they have done a great job with this art exhibition!
RATING:
Variety: 7.5/10 - a lot of ideas have been cross-used between other students, but there was still enough original material for each.
Ideas and Themes: 7/10 - a lot of the ideas are great, while other have been mediocre which ruins the score for the whole exhibition, but there are still enough great ideas that reach beyond their potential (like my friend’s and I’m not saying that just because he’s my friend).
Use of Media: 9/10 - Great use of media by everybody as they have not limited themselves with the use of paintbrushes and paper, but expanded to ways that may not have been thought of!
Visuals: 9/10 - The exhibition was very colorful and lively (unlike the depressing tone of ours), and the use of colors are very effective).
Lasting Appeal: 8.5/10 - This is the first year that the school has an exhibition, or even an IB art class, and what they have done is truly artistic and fantastic! It may be the best exhibition in Jordan (however, I cannot truly decide as I have not seen all). Art exhibitions are in many cases boring, but going there, I am sure that you will enjoy yourself as you look at the different creative art pieces and listen to the artist’s interpretation of them.
Final Grade: 8.5
On an unrelated note, as I am not posting as regularly as many (that’s you houseofimmite) would like, I will start posting meaningful glyphs with the posts that deserve them by posting the whole (hint) word.
that out over time throughout my blog. And always keep a keen eye as you may never know when I may drop a clue or hint here or there that will provide some insight. So if you see something like the picture here to the side…well, I left it there for those who like some mystery-solving and think they can crack some insightful codes.