Last Wednesday, the spotlight was on TISA's DP2 Arts students; Anoushka, Fatima, and Rena - as the school hosted the annual Art Exhibition. The artists received well-deserved praise not only from their teachers, but from all the students and families present at the event. The exhibition was well planned, with great food, music and a brief presentation of each artist’s “corner”, which truly completed the experience.

Each artist reflected the most essential parts of their personality through their artwork. It was easy to identify what pieces belonged to which artist. Each artist found brilliant ways of representing their thoughts and emotions in their artwork, explaining why each artwork reflected the artist personality.

In Fatima’s “Fleeting Memories,” a woman, bearing a strong of resemblance to the artist, is depicted having a kaleidoscope of colourful butterflies on her head, and some are beginning to take flight. These butterflies resemble our childhood memories and how they fly away with time. This clever symbolism was further supported by the background, which consisted of black and white pictures from the artist’s childhood. What I liked about this artwork was that it would be universally understood; the audience can directly relate to the message behind the piece, since we have all gone through the same story. I think this is comprehensive and perfectly captures an ubiquitous human experience.

Another impressive piece was Rena’s “All it Takes is One Click.” The piece sees a revolver, a camera and a ‘comment bar’ painted in black, on a white background. However, the trigger, the shutter-release-button and the “send-button” were painted in pink, this being the only colour used. This colouring emphasises on how their mechanism is similar, and the explanation highlights how they have similar consequences. Paraphrased from her explanation; with a revolver, it only takes one click to end a life, with a camera, it only takes one click to negatively impact someone’s life, and with a comment bar, it only takes a click to abuse someone through the comment. The artist illustrates how three seemingly different objects, actually behave in the same way, in terms of mechanism and consequences. This clever contrast and comparison was truly impressive and quite powerful.

The best example of how the artist created a piece directly relating to their theme, was Anoushka’s three portraits. Anoushka’s theme was “AUMENTAR” the Spanish word for growth. The first of the portraits sees the artist’s little brother at a young age. The background was black to “draw focus to the angelic face,” as the artist put it herself. The second portrait was the artist herself. This painting was the anomaly of the three since it was far larger than the others. In addition to this, the artist did not paint the skin of her colour, but instead the piece uses blue, red and purple colouring, which emphasises the struggle between your head, your heart and the healthy balance. Boldness in our late teenage years and early twenties is emphasised through the size of the painting. The third and final portrait depicts the artist great grandmother. The many layers that make up the painting symbolises the years of experience the women have. Putting all three portraits together, perfectly showcase aumentar and captures “The Story of the Changing Mind.”

In conclusion, the event was great, the artists demonstrated supreme self-expression, and the talent of TISA is ever rising. To the end this, I will leave up with a quote from TISA’s director: