Connections Showcase 2024

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Connections Showcase 2024

Connections Showcase 2024

Connections Showcase 2024

North Sydney Boys High School – My World

North Sydney Boys High School is located in north Sydney on traditional Cammeraygal land.

Students in the autism unit at North Sydney Boys High School each created an artwork unique to themselves.

The 8 street art paintings are a depiction of ‘my world’ and offer an insight into the student's daily lives and experiences as inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The vibrant colours, abstract forms and expressive lines reflect Basquiat's influence, capturing the complexity and individuality of each student's perspective.

The final 2 artworks are drawings. The first represents the student’s world with minions, and the second is a self-portrait.

Artworks

My World

Artist: Joshua

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘Excellent use of layering and limited palette.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘I enjoyed using spray paint to make this work.’ – Joshua (student, Year 9).

My World – long text description

My World is a painting about Joshua’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This abstract artwork features a large yellow skull with a crown in the centre towards the top. It has pink eye sockets and teeth. On either side sits a pair of tall, thin buildings with black windows. In the background of each is a large white blob.

In the bottom right is a large, pink stylised face. The background of the artwork transitions from bright orange to purple.

The overall style is loose, vibrant and expressive.

My World – refer to the long text description

Faces

Artist: Jude

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘Great, original style and graphic technique.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘I liked using spray paint and posca pens.’ – Jude (student, Year 8)

Faces – long text description

Faces is a painting about Jude’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This abstract artwork features surreal creatures with cartoonish faces drawn in thick black pen against a red-orange background. They are of various shapes and sizes. Some have elongated limbs that resemble tentacles and are mainly coloured light blue. The large one on the right is covered in black dots. Other figures include distorted smiley faces coloured either red or orange. Central to the composition is a large smiley face.

Green accents include a burst of green in the bottom left-hand corner next to a green character from Among Us and the Xbox logo in the top left-hand corner.

The overall style is a vibrant fusion of abstract expressionism and street art, blending chaotic, playful imagery with graffiti-like drips and surreal, cartoonish characters.

Faces – refer to the long text description

Approximately paintings

Artist: Elyace

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘It’s great to see Elyace’s unique and original visual language.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘My work is about characters I like because drawing the names and additional live crew because I want to.’ – Elyace (student, Year 9)

Approximately paintings – long text description

Approximately paintings is a painting about Elyace’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This abstract artwork features a dense mix of colourful elements, with layered shapes and doodles against a red and green background. The names of different people, written in green and blue, dominate much of the canvas, with overlapping lines, circles and geometric forms scattered throughout. The phrase 'Additional live crew' is prominent in the top left quadrant.

The overall style is chaotic and vibrant, with overlapping layers of colour and text.

Approximately paintings – refer to the long text description

My Interests

Artist: Jaxson

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘The use of negative space and limited palette is effective in this work.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘I have always had this major interest in American culture and other things alike. The use of the white ribbon represents the fact that I don’t support domestic violence against women. The dolphin represents my obsession with underwater life and other underwater things like shipwrecks. The skulls represent my obsession with horror from a young age leading up to my teenage hood.’ – Jackson (student, Year 10)

My Interests – long text description

My Interests is a painting about Jaxson’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This artwork features an abstract mix of symbols, images and text over a background spray-painted in red, green and light blue hues. Prominent elements drawn in black include a skull, US flag, ribbon and dolphin. In the top right-hand corner, a phrase in black text reads, ‘We can negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate.’ At the bottom is the phrase, ‘It all makes sense eventually.’

The overall effect of the artwork is chaotic and surreal, blending political, cultural and existential themes into an abstract visual expression.

My Interests – refer to the long text description

The Skull of the Lost

Artist: Yooju

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘Yooju’s work is really engaging and shows a lovely likeness to Basquiat.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘My work is mostly about my work and what I like, including music artists and a Japanese artist called Ado.’ – Yooju (student, Year 10)

The Skull of the Lost – long text description

The Skull of the Lost is a painting about Yooju’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This artwork features a vibrant and abstract composition with religious and emotional symbolism. Central to the canvas is a large, multicoloured human skull-like figure with a crown and prominent teeth. At the bottom sits a church and a tall building with many windows. To the left of the skull are various writings in both English and Korean, expressing Christian thoughts such as ‘Jesus Christ is Lord.’

The piece conveys a complex mixture of religious reverence, personal reflection and fragmented memory, expressed through bold colours and abstract elements.

The Skull of the Lost – refer to the long text description

My World

Artist: Marco

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘Marco’s work shows nice restraint and good use of limited palette.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘My work is inspired by my love for Among Us.’ – Marco (student, Year 10)

My World – long text description

My World is a painting about Marco’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This artwork depicts a whimsical, surreal scene set against a warm, blended background of orange, red and yellow hues. A stick-figure person with a red round head and black top hat sits in the middle toward to the top.

To the left is the blue character from Among Us. A yellow sun sits above and below are spirals painted in blue, white, red and black, the red character from Among Us and other random coloured shapes.

The overall style is playful and lighthearted.

Pink painting

Artist: Evan

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘Evan’s work is graphic and shows his unique visual language.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘My work shows my world and what I see around me.’– Evan (student, Year 10)

Pink painting – long text description

Pink painting is a painting about Evan’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

This artwork features a vibrant and chaotic composition featuring figures and text drawn mainly in black against a deep pink background. The central figure is a human-like blob with large, round eyes. Beneath is a small human-like head with a white face and green spikey hair. Text scattered throughout the artwork includes phrases like ‘Heh heh’, ‘Ha ha’, ‘Let's put a smile on that face,’ ‘Heaven is a place on earth,’ and ‘Jeezy weezy’.

The piece combines elements of humour, eeriness and expressive abstraction. Bold lines, erratic shapes and dynamic strokes evoke a sense of unsettling energy.

Pink painting – refer to the long text description

IDK

Artist: Liam

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘I really like the use of limited palette and the mark making shown in this work.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘This shows references to things that I like.’ – Liam (student, Year 9)

IDK – long text description

IDK is a painting about Liam’s world inspired by Basquiat and street art.

The red character from Among Us with a blue visor dominates the artwork, positioned in the top left quadrant. The background of the canvas is light green, with light blue around the edge. Surrounding this character are speech bubbles with words such as ‘ten’ written repeatedly, ‘IDK’ and ‘E’.

A black-and-white tic-tac-toe grid appears on the right, with x's dominating the grid. Elements at the bottom include a black silhouette of a house, a red dog-like figure and the Xbox logo.

The overall style is energetic and abstract, blending playful imagery with surreal undertones.

IDK – refer to the long text description

My Islands of Personality

Artist: Roman

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘I really like Roman’s drawing style and unique way of representing his world.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘This is my world with minions.’ – Roman (student, Year 8)

My Islands of Personality – long text description

My Islands of Personality is a pencil drawing inspired by Roman’s world. It features a series of 16 floating ‘islands’, some larger than others, connected to a central base, representing different interests, values and personal traits of the artist. Each island is labelled with handwritten text and contains simple cartoon-like figures or objects that reflect its theme.

The islands named from left to right are Honesty, Food, Friendship, Train, Arcade, Family, Screen, YouTube, Car, Storybook, Dad, Hokey, Minion, Goofball, LEGO and Television.

My Islands of Personality – refer to the long text description

Self-Portrait at 16

Artist: Kayden

What did the teacher and student have to say?

‘This is a sensitive and refined self-portrait that’s captivating to look at.’ – Miss Walker (teacher)
‘I enjoyed making this portrait because I love to draw.’ – Kayden (student, Year 11)

Self-Portrait at 16 – long text description

Self-Portrait at 16 is a self-portrait of Kayden from the chest up, drawn using dark pencil on a white background. He has short dark hair, dark eyes, a strong nose and prominent lips. He looks directly at the viewer with a neutral expression.

He wears a dark school blazer with a vest, tie and white shirt. On the blazer’s lapel are pinned 3 small badges, and on the breast pocket, the school’s emblem is partially visible.

Self Portrait at 16 – refer to the long text description

Participating students

Image

Congratulations to the following students from Years 8 to 11 at North Sydney Boys High School for their wonderful submissions:

Elyace, Evan, Jaxson, Joshua, Jude, Kayden, Liam, Marco, Roman and Yooju.

Third-party content attributions

All student artworks and images courtesy of the respective schools, student artworks © the student artists, 2023, reproduced and communicated with permission.
Congratulations banner, created using Canva, 2021.

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