Reconnecting - GIS Visual Arts 2021

RECONNECTING
GIS VISUAL ARTS 2021

FOREWORD
“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.”
-William Plomer
Over the last two years, we as a community have certainly felt unconnected at times. It is therefore, with
great joy that we welcome you to the GIS art and photography exhibition RECONNECTING, an opportunity
to come together as a community and celebrate the creative achievements of our young artists and photographers.
This year the students have chosen the title RECONNECTING as a playful nod to their time on line and a
celebration of the return to school. That title has added poignancy in a year when that feeling of being
unconnected has been very real and at times very traumatic and where the arts have offered a source of
connectivity.
Whenever we exhibit student artwork we provide a space for young people to have their voices heard.
We allow them to be seen, to be understood and to be valued. In the art room, like nowhere else in a
school, young people are encouraged to engage with their emotions. They are expected to identify and
explore personal interests and opinions. By choosing an individual theme for exploration, they are asked
to connect with the world and explore their reactions to it. In this year of trauma and change there has
been much to make sense of and many of the students have engaged head on with the reality of living
through a pandemic. Other students have explored surrealism as a way of escaping reality and perhaps
inevitably some students have explored our relationship with digital technology. However this exhibition
also engages with some timeless preoccupations of adolescence such as home, growing older, identity, our
relationship with food and our appearance. As you view the exhibition I invite you to explore the connections
between artworks created by different students and reflect on your own connections to these themes.
That ability to see and make diverse connections is often used to define the term creativity. While the creative
industries continue to grow faster than any other sector of the economy, creativity, as a skill, is not
confined to these industries and its importance for leaders in all sectors in a complicated and unpredictable
future is obvious. At GIS we are committed to developing that creativity so that our young people will take
their place as the leaders of the future.

This has been a hard year and the resilience and independence that these artists have had to show cannot
be overstated. Their distance from the classroom and from each other has given them the time to really
engage independently with their ideas and develop as confident young artists. While many of our year 13
students leave us to pursue careers in the visual arts, others will use the skills they have developed to pursue
diverse careers such as business, psychology, pharmacy and medicine.
As Head of Faculty I would like to thank my incredibly talented and irrepressibly positive team for their hard
work and inventiveness over the last year and I would like to congratulate our students on this impressive
exhibition.
MRS. ABBOTT
HEAD OF WHOLE SCHOOL ART
GIS VISUAL ARTS 2021

Memories of two talented
artist.
Sadly the class of 2021 lost two talented in the last year. We would
like to take this opportunity to remember them and celebrate their
talent.

ISABELLA ZHU
Isabella Zhu was a gifted young artist. Sadly she passed away
suddenly last summer. She produced some stunning work in year 10
where she explored her Chinese heritage and her nostalgia for her
childhood in America. She loved to paint and showed strong skills
in watercolour and acrylic. Her self-portraits are poignant in
the likeness they capture and the symbolism she used to convey
her ideas.

JOSEPH LOY
Joseph Loy was another talented artist. He sadly lost his battle
with cancer earlier this year. Joseph had a love of manga and an
interest in digital art. His stylised portraits, a self portrait
and portrait of his sister, capture both likeness and personality
while showing the influence of the comic book style.

GCSE
PHOTOGRAPHY

ABDUL AZIZ Alysha
Malaysian
Throughout the 2 year photography course, I’ve
explored a variety of topics and ideas that
were ideally meant to expand and broaden my
views of art, specifically finding the true
meaning of a photo. All the projects we’ve
done really helped me realise that photography
isn’t just about what’s in the picture but
knowing the steps that reveal hidden elements
like the historical background of a picture.
Never before this, I’ve taken into consideration
the key components of a photo, for example
: how the shutter speed can effect the
lighting of one or how a unique angle can
really change how people see it. Through the
years, I’ve explored the themes of identity,
family, nature and many more. I really enjoyed
having the freedom of choosing my own ideas
and combining it with the chosen topic we had
in class. Who knows, I may use these skills
later on in life!

My experience with photography has been one
filled with lots of ideas and experimentation.
Never before until this course would
I think I would’ve put a lot of thought
into themes such as the past, present and
future, stitch-like editing and the photography
of food, mixed with various analyses
of photographers and inspirations such as
Miho Aikawa and Thomas Florschuetz, it has
proven to be such a creatively worthwhile
journey.
ALANGARI Farah
Filipino

ELAMARAN Priyankaa
Malaysian
Throughout the course, I enjoyed the freedom
of exploring different ideas and themes
that interested me. By taking this course,
I gained one of the most important skill
of analysing and finding deeper meaning to
pictures, which could potentially help me
in my furture career. I loved exploring the
themes of culture, identity and narative.
The projects we did throughout the course
really invoked a passion in me for researching
in deeper implications. In year 10, i
started wiht my favourite project, exploring
cultural idenity. In this project, I
incorporated patterns and cultural objects
to highlight my culture and heritage, as it
was part of my identity. We started year 11
with the narrative projects, and I grew up
reading fairytales, so I used elements from
popular fairytales to use symbolissation.

When I took photos, I usually think of ‘dark’
photos. My first portfolio having a graphic
novel style, would have shades of dark
already. I cranked up the shading to give a
sense of dark imagery. My second work didn’t
follow this idea much with only a few exceptions.
My third project
KIM Biwon
Korean

MENON Ananya
Indian
My photography has always been inspired greatly
by perspective in both a literal and metaphorical
sense. My last project began with forced perspective
and using figurines to recreate iconic
movie posters, it then evolved into exploring the
perspective of a child when playing games. My
final product for that project was a comic book
page using photos of superhero action figures and
drawing over them. For my most recent project
I have been exploring political ideologies and
using subtle imagery and symbolism to represent
them in a sophisticated manner. The medium of
photography I have chosen to use for this project
is vanitas style photography.

COVID and the various lockdowns have in a
weird way helped me with my photography because
it brought the idea of exploring what
quarantine does to ourselves. In my narrative
coursework, I explored the idea of recording
the quarantine routine in an almost
scientific form to show its an experiment
on the subjects. In my final project, COVID
has started to calm down and this encouraged
me to go outside and take more photos. In
my idea, I was exploring the journey out of
COVID and lockdown and using one point perspective
to show we still have a long way to
go.
ADAM Aidi Rafiq
Malaysian

AHMED Raneeya
Malaysian
For the past 2 years I have learnt a lot about
photography as a whole but more importantly,
more about myself and the world around me.
Throughout my photography course, I have explored
themes of culture, family and identity.
Using photoshop, I developed my images using
traditional Batik and cultural fabrics to incorporate
the idea of heritage and tradition.
In year 10, I ventured into geographical landscape
photography as well and experimented with
the emptiness and desolation synonymous with
the lockdown. With my final project, I moved
towards events and documentary photography to
investigate the impact of COVID.

CHOONG Ming Yee
Malaysian
Throughout my photography
course, I’ve explored
a fairly wide spread of
topics. From my foot binding
project at the start
of Year 10 which investigated
the unrealistic
traditional beauty standards
of Chinese women to
my recent narrative project
which consider the
psychological effects of
different colours on people’s
emotions by juxtaposing
different colours
with the same photo. Now
in my current project,
I’m trying to delve into
the idea of nature reclaiming
the earth and
climate change in a dystopian
setting.

GURNEY Lily
British
In year 10 I have definitely learned a lot of
new skills with the camera such as, shallow depth
of field, rule of thirds and many more. Year 11
photography has been an adventure for me with exploring
different feminist artists. Some of the
artists I have researched are, Frida Kahlo and
Sonia Boyce. I really like Frida Kahlo’s work as
it includes nature and animals, and the symbolism
in her painting have a deeper meaning. For example,
the hummingbird in her painting represents
freedom. I also really like Sonia Boyce’s artwork,
as it shows how strong females are, and how
females carry a big part of their familys. With
my final piece I am going to focus on layering my
photos, and fading them out.

Throughout this course, I have explored many ideas of motion
and the ideas of reflection and distortion in my work, which
has helped develop my skills and understanding for photography.
In my Narrative project I explored the ideas of the
hidden or the true nature of ballet through the use of reflection.
I have also experimented with many different techniques
such as using photoshop to create the effect of particle disintegration
and the effect of different motions in the image.
MAC Ai Ling
Malaysian

For the two years I have done
Photography, I found myself
exploring many topics and unlocked
skills such as improving
on how to look for deeper
meanings within photos and
how I could apply that onto
my own work as well. Some of
my favourite themes and ideas
I went through for my projects
were Identity and Past
Present and Future. One of the
most common processes I went
through were brainstorming my
ideas, creating artist analyses,
and having photoshoots.
I enjoyed having the freedom
of what I wanted to explore
for my projects and definitely
liked learning new skills
of taking photos which I might
use in the near future!
SHAFIZAL Irdina
Malaysian

TOH Ryan
Malaysian
Throughout my projects,
I have been following
the main theme
of physical and mental
health, in these
projects I have played
with light and different
ways of capturing
motion. I have learnt
to use photoshop to improve
my final product
either through general
things like contrast
or saturation, or more
project specific things
like layering and distorting.

GCSE
ART

ADAM Cynthia
Spanish/Dutch
Throughout this course, I
have been able to experiment
and push myself with a lot of
new techniques. I used to be
too scared to experiment with
paints, but over the past few
months, I have really enjoyed
the process and outcome of using
them. Most recently, I explored
the theme of nostalgia
through drawing and painting
collages of childhood toys and
photographs. I have loved this
theme as I could explore the
world of portraiture and colour.
In my opinion, my main
takeaway from this course was
how it provided me with the
freedom to try new mediums and
art styles. I have really enjoyed
it and it has been an
extremely fullfilling subject!

I have enjoyed making art for a long time now,
but I struggle to make sense of my ideas and
concepts. Taking this course has forced me to
analyse my work and constantly create new art.
I have enjoyed trying materials and techniques
throughout these two years that I probably would
not have tried if I had not taken this course. I
prefer to stick to my strengths and stay in my
comfort zone but I have now been able to do more
outside of it, giving me an opportunity to keep
on improving. I leave this course with a more
open mind, expanding my opportunities for the
future. Its actually already given me an chance
to showcase my art in the local art gallery here
in Malaysia! That was pretty cool. Now i’m just
excited for what comes next.
BEVERLY Ashlyn
Indonesian

CECCARELLI Martina
Italian/Venezuelan
Over the last 2, I would definitely
say my skills have improved
a lot. I started off not knowing
how to paint realistically with
acrylic and not knowing how to use
different colors with tone and now
these two skills are some of my
strengths. I have explored ideas
such as isolation, belonging, aging
and fragmentation with memory.
In all projects I thoroughly
enjoyed the process of making
the piece but also the planning
and watching how your idea changes
and adapts overtime. By far,
one of the most important skills
I have learnt has to be motivation
and not giving up. Making sure you
keep working on a piece even if it
is not going to plan. This skill
will be useful for me, not just in
art but also in the future.

Since I was a younger child, I had always found
art to be a comfort subject to me, and a way to
cope and escape any of my struggles and stress.
Taking art for IGCSE was helped me practice appreciating
and analysing other artists in a lot
more detail, helping me find new ways to portray
my ideas and different styles to conduct them in.
In the past I have worked a lot with pencil, oil
paint, acrylic paint, watercolours, chalk pastels
and recently I have been trying new mediums
such as clay. Although I have struggled with art
around the course, it as helped me learn to persevere,
developed my critical thinking and evaluation
skills and has helped me improve my art as
a whole. I have explored many ideas, including
feminism, power and control, jealousy and aftermath/destruction.
Overall, I have really enjoyed
the art subject and hope to use the skills I’ve
developed for the future
DEEN Sophia
Indonesian/
Pakistani

KARIM Ika
Malaysian
Art was tough since I’ve been stuck with a cartoony style, but overall
I’ve developed my art skills into a more realistic style of art! Recently,
I’ve been exploring ideas of dimensions and portal, where I use a
mirror’s reflection to demonstrate. Acrylic painting is the most difficult
technique for me as I need to try to use less line-art and focus more
on the tones of an object, which I’ve developed my love for oil pastels
as it’s much easier to blend highlights and shades. I’ve previously also
explored the topics of dreams and food wastages, where my initial idea
was to remind people that life isn’t perfect and will have problems that
still need a resolution. In the end, I will continue to further improve
on my realistic art style so that I can produce animated backgrounds for
my future career as an animator!

Despite being one of the toughest subjects
I’ve done, Art has undoubtedly been the most
gratifying. It’s given me the opportunity to
refine my skills and produce work I never
would’ve created had I not decided to pursue
this course. The practical element is what
I enjoy most - it deviates from the rest
of my subjects in that both creativity and
fine motor skills are essential. I’ve been
able to experiment with lots of different
mediums (my favourite being oil paint) and
I’ve learnt how to cleverly convey meaning
through implicit subtleties such as symbolism
and colour schemes. My most recent project
explores an unconventional interpretation
of birthdays as simply a year closer to
death.
MAHLIL Zetta
Indonesian

Over the course of the GCSE art
and design I have learned a lot.
Throughout the course, I have developed
my skills of making arts
and developing ideas. By doing
artist research I have not only got
to know the styles of the artist
but the history of the artist as
well, which is fun and informative.
My work this year has explored the
emptiness and lonliness created by
the pandemic while my last project
explored the story of the Chinese
zodiacs. This course has allowed me
to really build my painting skills
through figure drawing and stilllife
painting. Art is a course which
is challenging but rewarding.
Throughout the two years, I have
definiy become a better and more
creative personas well as gaining
knowledge and skill.
Yi Hang (William) Sun
Chinese

Art has been quite challenging because we need at
least 3 artists and a bunch of experiments before
creating a final piece. It’s a very new thing for
me. Throughout these art lessons, I’ve learned new
ways to make art, for example, oil painting, ink
drawing with satay sticks, monoprinting and dry
point printing etc. I was surprised by the fact
I could do a digital drawing or create a gif for
a final piece, I thought it wouldn’t be allowed
because it’s online and it’s cheating. COVID has
weirdly helped me in creating ideas for my project.
The idea of COVID has lead me to investigating
quarantine, masks, the covid virus itself and
front line workers. I learnt new visual cultures
and different kinds of artists and styles that
could help me develop my ideas.
ADAM Aidi Rafiq
Malaysian

AHMAD FADZIL Huuriya
Malaysian
Art has definitely not been an easy subject
but it has allowed me to express myself
in an environment where open thinking
is praised. This subject requires lots of
thinking, patience and motivation since it
is not uncommon to feel confused/ lost
when creating your project. Consistency is
key! In my 2 years of art, the teachers
have been very helpful and understanding
when I have experienced slumps and artistic
blocks. I’ve learnt that my art skills
did not matter as much as long I tried my
best. So do not feel inferior to your peers
if you lack in certain areas!

Art is definitely one of the most demanding, yet
rewarding subjects I’ve taken. It has allowed
me to explore with many different styles and
techniques.I enjoyed trying and learning about
different styles of printing as it was the most
foreign to me at the time.While doing my projects
for Art, I loved seeing how the small bits of
ideas evolved and came together to form the final
piece! Out of the many new things I’ve learned
in this course, experimenting with how lighting
works and how it can affect the mood of an
art piece has to be one of my favourites because
of how quickly and drastically it can alter the
feel of an artwork. I also believe the amount
of observational work I was encouraged to do has
helped me improve my observation skills.
COSKUN Ece
Turkish

MANDAL Debvarnini
Indian
Over the past years of taking art I have learnt
a lot of complex techniques and was able to really
push myself out of my comfort zone to try
new skills and develop more confidence in my
art experiments and final pieces.When I first
joined art, I had no idea about the different
steps but as time passed I started learning the
different types of artist copies, artist studies,
subject matter photos, observational drawing
and experiments that were needed to finally
create the perfect final product. Moreover I
learnt more about the different techniques of
creating my artworks through exploring my different
ideas. Lastly, as well as all the struggles
that were in my path of steps I was able to
successfully accomplish my final artworks and
deliver confidently some perfect final pieces.

Throughout this course I was able to develop a
wider understanding of how to use different mediums,
symbolsim and messages in my art pieces. Specifically
I looked into consumerism, capatilsm,
and the environment. I really enjoyed exploring
these topics as I am often drawn to large, complex
topics and ideas. From this subject I have not
only expand my general knowledge about these topics,
but also a variety of skills such as artist
techniques, research and analysis, and learning
how to convey my message vividly. Moreover, I have
developed my character skills such as reselience
and learning how to motivate and push myself all
the while strengthening the creative and expressive
side of me. I feel that art has benefitet me
in numerous ways, and I have improved because of
this subject.
PERKS Alyssa
English/Dutch

THOMAS Abhy
Indian
Art encourages my self expression and
creativity. I discovered that it helped
to also build my confidence and sense of
individual identity. In this course, I
have learned a lot of techniques. This
subject has encouraged me to ‘go for it’
because I used to be really scared to
paint on my projects because the chance
of messing up is really high for me, but
in the end I did go for it and I have
made some beautiful art works. I am now
really confident with what I do with my
work.

Throughout the course, I explored the
concept of mark making and shading
to create a 3D principle and deepen
the tone to pop out the features on
my subject matter. I used just the
most simple tools to draw this. Just
a pen. This just proves we can make
art without fancy equipment. I explored
the concept of a graphic novel
expressing my interest in mythology,
superstition and demonology and implementing
it into a concertina book.
My initial idea was to create a journal
about each creature’s context and
abilities but since I wanted to create
a comic-like book I decided to
do both! It was a struggle since my
hands were cramping non-stop. Overall,
I came to know that observational
drawing really helps me understand
the structure of things. From there
I could use that technique to use on
anything, from painting to sculpture.
WONG Emily
Chinese

AS
ART

In my first project I looked
at the lonlines and emptiness
created by the subarban
environment. To push my
work forward I have started
to create abstract pieces
which explore texture,structure
and conflict.
At the beggining of the
course I have sometimes found
it challenging to experiment
and take risks but I definitely
feel I have gained
confidence in this and really
enjoy trying new techniques
and experimenting with new
ways of applying paint.

The urban environment his
now my inspiration. The energy
of mylarger works create
contrasts with the controlled
space of my small
paintings.This links with
how the unplanned chaos of
the city contasts with the
controlled planning of surbarban
sprawl.

The thing I have enjoyed most about
Alevel is the freedom to choose an
idea to explore and the ability to use
the studio and facilities whenever I
am free. This year i first explored
ideas of fantasy. This was because I
was bored with reality and wanted to
escape through my own imagination.
More recently I have started to explore
the imagination of children. I
find the absurdity and ambiguity of
children’s imagination fascinating. I
used drawings and photographs of my
younger siblings and the drawings of
some year 2 students as my inspiration.
I now feel much more confidedent
in expressing my ideas.

Throughout the year I have focused on the interpretation of
my artwork. I initially worked with the idea of childhood
entering the domestic environment of adulthood as we grow
older. Using a dark monochrome palette, I strived to create
an atmosphere of omnisity.
However, I then worked with surrealism, working with a
brighter, more eccentric colour palette as compared to my
previous focus.

In working with surrealism, I have learnt that the
creative process in itself is an art form, allowing
the product of an artistic piece as a result.
I have used multiplet techniques to form new ideas
such as automatic drawing, pareidolia and collages,
generating ideas from my subconscious.

A LEVEL
PHOTOGRAPHY

As I would like to pursue photography as
a career, these past two years in A-Level
have been immensely beneficial to me.
Previously, one of the main themes I explored
was isolation and with the national
lockdown, these ideas were becoming
immensely important to the world around
us. Following this, I created a short
film expanding on this idea but taking it
a step further in showing the fractured
mental state which an increasing number
of people go through. I have explored
new techniques in long exposures and more
recently creating shadows with acetate
allowing me to enhance my images. I have
appreciated the creative process and the
necessity which it holds for planning a
piece and I feel grateful to have been
surrounded by my friends, who are a constant
source of inspiration.
ff
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This year I explored topics that were very
personal to me. My coursework explored an
individual’s relationship with food in
which I photographed negative aspects of
food such as eating disorders, diet culture,
food addiction, and so forth.
I was inspired to raise awareness on this
topic as I saw many people were trying to
manipulate their bodies in unhealthy ways
that impacted their physical and mental
health during the covid lockdown.

In my second project, I explored
the theme of memories as
I was intrigued by the psychology
behind it especially, how
memories change over time.
Choosing photography since
IGCSE and up until A-level has
been one of my best decisions
so far as it was a subject that
never restricted me and allowed
me to express my ideas
and creativity. It also acted
as a stress reliever from my
other three STEM subjects.

This year has been a rollercoaster
with constantly
being in and out of school,
but it hasn’t stopped me
from trying my best to make
the most out of this project
as it is something I
can very much relate too.
My project is all about
how society consumes us
and basically takes over
our lives because most people,
especially teens, are
strongly influenced by social
media. Barbara Kruger
really inspired me this
year with writing about her
in my essay to using her
photos to develop my project.
Her work examines stereotypes
and the behaviours
of consumerism, while her
work is simple the layered
text over mass media photos
creates such a powerful
message.

A LEVEL
ART

This year has been turned upside with Covid entering ‘our world’.
The lockdowns has finally given nature the ability to expand and
grow over creations men have made. However with lockdowns gradually
getting lifted, civilians are out, throwing litter around
AGIAN. With this situation I chose to do a project on Nature battling
manmade objects. I explored and developed using prints as
well as graphite.
This gave me the idea of growing my final piece by continuously
adding my work and joining them together with prints. Within this
project I learnt one piece can be multiple pieces together. I have
also learnt to respect the environment together by improving my
mental wellbeing for doing something positive.

Year 13 has been a year of exploring the topic of
‘family intimacy’ for me. Portraiture wasn’t something
I was very comfortable with before, however,
I am glad it has developed into a meaningful way of
displaying relationship dynamics over the last couple
of terms.

So far, I have had the chance to
paint the closest people around me
at home, to family members I sadly
can’t recognise anymore. I am
excited to see where these last
couple of months take me, I can
say with confidence I know my family
more now than I ever thought
I did.

This year I explored themes of escapism
and the impact of the coronavirus. I experimented
with making assemblages, where
I combined different objects with painting.
For my current project, I made it a
goal to not be a slave to my reference,
and be more adventurous with the imagery
I use. I have enjoyed pushing myself out
of my comfort zone, especially with composition.
I also believe my knowledge in
colour theory has improved a lot throughout
the year.

This year has granted me the chance to further
explore Malaysia’s increasing intimacy
with food during the Covid-19 lockdown. Over
a period of time, it became clear to me that
this has somewhat taken a toll on our health
and finance. I find myself resorting to order
take out rather than cook at home because
of its convenience and less expensive
variety. I want to cook knowingly healthier
alternatives of dishes found at restaurants
but those budget deals are incredibly
attractive. Here I decided to explore the
different processes that go into preparing
meals at home compared to restaurants/food
chains.

Throughout the course of Year 13 I have
learned many invaluable skills related
to critical thinking, perception and
resilience. This year I explored portraiture
and asked questions such as,
‘does a portrait have to look exactly
like an individual?’ and ‘how does the
relationship between the artist and
model affect their piece?’. Working to
achieve the true likeness of a model
I pushed the boundaries of portraiture
by incorporating movement, body
language and an individual’s presence
online. I created pieces to further
reinforce the message that there is
more than meets the eye and ...

During this final year of A-level art,
the detrimental impacts of the socially
constructed beauty standard became very
apparent to me though social media. I
became inspired by Jenny Saville as she
portrayed her rebellion against the unattainable
beauty standard and totally contradicted
the ‘ideal image’ of women. I
then recreated my own rebellion, using
the image of the barbie doll to ultimately
symbolise these oppressive ideals
and expectations that are impossible to
achieve. Also, I then created some pieces
to expose how people feel the need to modify
themselves due to inevitable comparisons
to the perfected and ethnocentric
images of beauty fed to us through social
platforms.

SECONDARY
ART DEPARTMENT
MS ABBOTT
HEAD OF WHOLE
SCHOOL ART
MR.DELMOTTE
ART TEACHER
MRS. DOYLE
ART TEACHER
MS STOCKER
HEAD OF KS3
ART
MS TASHA
ART TECHNICIAN
MISS HASNIDATUL
ART TECHNICIAN

MEMORIES
2021

Garden International School (Main Campus)
16 Jalan Kiara 3,
Off Jalan Bukit Kiara,
50480 Kuala Lumpur
T : 603- 62096888
F : 603- 62015688
W : www.gardenschool.edu.my