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Name: Lauren Dark

School: Harris City Academy Crystal Palace

Town: london

County: london

Year: Year 13

Inspiration: My inspiration over the past two years has mainly been process driven and has focused more on the aesthetic qualities of my studio pieces. I started my IB art course exploring how to present my anxieties and neurosis as a way to deal with them but found it difficult to have an audience judge my work and ultimately, my insecurities. This was when I decided to focus more on the aesthetic properties of materials like colour, form and texture instead. This meant a more lighthearted approach to my work which involved a strong element of chance. I experimented with different materials including dried acrylic paint, plaster and a mix of PVA glue and Poster paint. Each material had different qualities. However, I found that each material evoked a nostalgic feeling of childhood as each have a strong resemblance of sweets. This focus on the purely visual qualities extended to my sketchbook which used to be a Barbie Encyclopaedia. The plastic physique of Barbie herself complemented the plastic qualities of my acrylic paint and PVA/Poster paint pieces whilst the pastel colours of the plaster were reflected through the clothes that Barbie was dressed in.

Title: Barbie's Rollers

Description: I named this piece "Barbie's Rollers" due to the point in my sketchbook that I had reached when experimenting with this material. I had reached "Barbie in the Swinging Sixties" meaning every page was full of psychadelic colours and patterns which also resembled the vibrant colours in the sheets of plastic I made from PVA and paint. Unlike the plaster, each colour dried with its full potential which meant that more excitement was conveyed. I always preferred to work in 3D as it means that a piece can be experienced at different angles, levels and light intensities. This is why I chose to form a collection of tear drops and suspend them so that the piece can be viewed at almost every possible angle. Whilst making this particular piece, I had to find a way of stopping the teardrops from folding under their own weight as the sheets were still flexible. This is where I introduced the circular discs to maintain the shape. The beauty about this material was that I learnt about its properties as I went along. I discovered that it is self adhesive, brittle after a week, translucent and moved by air conditioning when wet.

Medium: PVA and Poster Paint

Width: 21cm Height: 60cm Depth: 30cm

Keywords: PVA/Poster paint, Barbie, Suspended, 3D