Task  details 

For the exhibition task students at SL and HL should select and present their own original resolved artworks which best evidences:

• SL - 5-8 Pieces

• HL - 8-11 Pieces

• technical competence

• appropriate use of materials,  techniques,  processes •  resolution, communicating the stated intentions of the pieces

• cohesiveness

• breadth and depth

• consideration for the  overall  experience  of  the  viewer  (through  exhibition,  display  or  presentation). 

Students will be assessed on their technical accomplishment, the conceptual strength of their work and the resolution of their stated intentions. To support their selected resolved artworks, students at SL and HL must also submit:

• exhibition text which states the title, medium, size and a brief outline of the original intentions of each selected artwork

• two photographs of  their  overall  exhibition.  While  the photographs  will not  be  used to  assess individual artworks, they may give the moderator insight into how a student has considered the overall experience of the viewer in their exhibition.  Only the  selected  artworks submitted for assessment should appear in the exhibition photographs. 

Students at HL must also develop a curatorial rationale which accompanies their original artworks (700 words maximum). This rationale explains the intentions of the student and how they have considered the presentation of  work  using curatorial  methodologies, as  well as  considering the potential  relationship between the artworks and the viewer.

Exhibition text (500 characters maximum per artwork) 

Each  submitted  artwork  should  be  supported  by  exhibition  text  which  outlines  the  title,  medium  and  size of  the  artwork.  The  exhibition  text  should  also  include  a  brief  outline  of  the  original  intentions  of  the  work (500  characters  maximum  per  artwork).  The  exhibition  text  must  contain  reference  to  any  sources  which have influenced the individual piece. Students should indicate if objects are self-made, found or purchased within the “medium” section of the exhibition text, where applicable. Where students are deliberately appropriating another artist’s image as a valid part of their art-making intentions, the exhibition text must acknowledge the source of the original image. 

Collective  pieces 

Students are required to submit individual artworks for assessment. Where students wish to submit portions of work in the form of one collective piece (such as diptych, triptych, polyptych or series), this must be clearly stated as part of the title of the submitted piece in the exhibition text, presented in parentheses. For example: Title of the piece (diptych). The requirements for capturing and submitting collective pieces is the same as with other standard submissions, however students deciding to submit collective pieces need to be aware that there  is a compromise in  the size  an image can be  viewed  when submitted as part of a  collective piece which may prevent examiners from taking details that cannot be seen into account. Collective pieces that are presented without the appropriate exhibition text will be considered as distinct artworks and could lead to a student exceeding the maximum number of pieces.

Writing a Curatorial Rationale

How to write your curatorial rational.

This where you explain to the examiner the context to your art. Refer to your visual art journal to write this.

• Provide a context and vision for the work to help the examiner to understand the exhibition.

  • • This will include artists, ideas, & themes that have influenced you.

• Describe how particular issues, motifs or ideas been explored, or particular materials or techniques used.

  • • Explain the connecting threads that link the ideas in your exhibition.

• You can explain any challenges, innovations, initiatives that have impacted on your selection and presentation.

• You will explain why you have chosen to exhibit these artworks and why you have shown them in this way.

  • • This should include connections and relationship between artwork presented

• You will explain how your exhibition fulfills your intentions and communicates thematic or stylistic relationships across individual pieces.

• What strategies did you use to develop a relationship between the artwork and the viewer; for example, visual impact?

If you are taking HL you also need to explain:

• • How the arrangement and presentation of artworks contributes to the audience experience.

  • How will the viewer interpret and understand the intentions and meanings of the exhibition.

Avoid

• Giving a chronological account of the development of your artworks

• Duplicating the exhibition texts

Ensure that you consider the audience:

• How will the audience approach the works?

• What will they see first?

• How will they engage with the artworks?

• How have you used the space?

• You might discuss: Scale, lighting.

• What do you want the viewer experience to be? How have you achieved this?

Start with a short sentence that tells the examiner what is going to happen and engages their interest.

• Examples:

  • • “My exhibition considers the nature of portraiture with specific focus on my family.”

    • “My exhibition explores identity and divide, within my personal life and then confronting global issues”

    • “In this exhibition, I explore architectural forms with emphasis on the intersection of line in combination with simple, undisturbed forms.”

    • “The theme of my exhibition is identity and exploring what makes one self.”

    • “My exhibition has been through changes in thematic intention but has gravitated towards the human form as a recurrent motif.”

    • “Growing up in Hong Kong, I found inspiration in the back alleys and by observing buildings from obscure points of view.

Word toolbox:

Audience, viewer, the viewer/audience experience, engage, experience, kinetic (as relating to moving around art works), my intentions, the focus, display, present, show, contrast, juxtapose, link, make connections, draw the audience in, make people look closely, shock, surprise, challenge.