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Name: Anna Wise

School: Ardingly College

Town: Haywards Heath

County: West Sussex

Year: Year 13

Inspiration: My name is Anna Wise. I go to Ardingly College on an art scholarship and when I’m older I would like to use creativity in a commercially impressive way. I’ve always had a keen interest in anything remotely creative and to do with aesthetics, from cooking presentation to fashion to painting. I enjoy experimentation in art; I am very inspired by Jenny Saville whose art is jaw dropping to me, her vast canvases and dramatic painting style twinned with the fascinating subjects in which she experiments make her one of my favourite artists. In contrast, I also love Picasso and was very impressed when visiting the Picasso Museum in Barcelona to see the variety of different styles in which he could work, and the drastic difference from his early more academic style of work to his later more abstract and conceptual style. But all in all I would have to say my main inspiration is everything around me and my experiences.

Title: Power Undressed

Description: My inspiration was the idea that when you meet someone powerful and potentially intimidating, you should imagine them in their underwear to therefore make yourself feel less scared. My painting of Obama and the Queen was a response to the title ‘Time and Place’. I first looked at power in society and what makes someone powerful in contrast to what would make someone appear less powerful. I used the story of the ‘Emperors New Clothes’ to lead me to choosing two contrasting but still powerful people to paint with no clothes on. I really enjoyed imagining and picking out the sort of underwear they might wear and after considering putting Obama in Speedos, settled on American flag boxers with his catch phrase ‘yes we can’ on them. I put the Queen in an old fashioned bustier, flowered femininely; I would assume she is more traditional and modest in her taste in underwear. I have found with this piece that people do not know whether to laugh or be severely taken aback and offended. It amuses me to see such extreme responses especially at such a traditional school.

Medium: Oil paint

Width: 80cm Height: 1.25m

Keywords: power, underwear, reaction