BA Fine Art Workshops Sem 2 2024

Workshops

Please ensure you have enrolled in the workshop course in enrolment online before proceeding with preferencing.

Workshops are for both first and second year students. They are offered under the following course codes:

• Workshop 2 VART 3650 (1st year students)
• Workshop 4 VART 3652 (2nd year students)

Preferencing is done through RMIT MyTimetable.

Preferencing is done through RMIT MyTimetable.

MyTimetable Important Dates

10am TBC myTimetable available in read-only mode
10am Thursday 11 June  Preferencing Opens
5pm Sunday 23 June 2024 Preferencing Closes
10am Monday 1 July 2024 Review and allocation adjustment opens (based on availability)
5pm TBC Allocation adjustment closes

Important Notes: 

• Although we would like to offer all of the workshop options below, classes are subject to viability and may not run if numbers are too low
• There is a separate page for Fine Art Studio classes and a separate page for ART: History+Theory+Cultures classes
• These Workshop classes are 12 credit point courses and will require 3 contact hours per week plus associated learner directed hours

 

Course Information

This course is an explorative approach to alternative methods of clay forming. Investigating influences and techniques, you will explore non-conventional sculptural methods to manipulate and develop form and surface qualities using a variety of differing clay bodies. Projects will encourage material experimentation with a focus on practice and enquiry. In response to your own work, you will research and document a series of artists, works and ideas and begin to build an archive of research material to draw on in the future. 

In this workshop you will engage with a range of concepts and material investigation into abstraction and non- objective art practices, leading to an individualised studio practice. Emphasis will be placed on how artists generate and develop ideas that are used to make contemporary abstract artworks. You will produce experimental research work that emphasise the importance of materiality, scale, colour, composition, pattern, structure, surface, matter, Zen, calligraphy, gesture, play and chance associations. The rich legacy of Western Modernist abstraction and Contemporary abstraction will be at the core of your studio work. You will experience a variety of strategies to generate new ideas, concepts, techniques and material process in a variety of media. You may experience the use of abstraction through, painting, print and digital technologies, drawing, collage, frottage, photography, the object, installation and other media.

The use of found objects, photography, nature, urban environments, signs and symbols, ephemeral works, may be stimuli for your production of work. You will experience student presentations, visual lectures, individual and group tutorials and feedback in a supportive stimulating environment.

In this course you will develop practical skills across a range of processes and materials commonly used in sculptural practice in the bronze foundry. You will be introduced to methods and materials involved in lost wax casting in order to make small bronze works. This method involves the completion of a series of steps from wax modelling, plaster and sand investments, melting and pouring bronze, finishing and patination. You will undertake these steps in sequence and as a group and this will require hands-on attendance at all classes. The course is mainly practical but with appropriate tutorial presentations covering theoretical and relevant historical background. PLEASE NOTE: Students must wear protective clothing including enclosed leather boots during this class.

In this course, you will explore the transformative properties of a range of metals and processes used in small scale casting. Processes covered will include lost wax, mould making for multiples and metal alloying. There is a considered focus on creating original models from a wide range of wax processes. You will also experiment with creating metal alloys and understand how these alloys give colour. These processes will be used to develop strategies for the integration of cast objects into the building of new object forms and jewellery. This course will assist you to develop conceptual, perceptual, formal and aesthetic concerns related to the casting of small metal objects. You will participate in interactive discussions in tutorials to help you develop informed perspectives.

In this course you will focus on the dialogue of drawing, space & materiality in contemporary art and its development through your studio practice. You will investigate a variety of making strategies and pictorial systems of visual information that inform how drawing and other practices create individual meaning and cultural engagement.
Through studio research you will explore different forms of imagery embodied and spatialised through a range of techniques and relationships between 2d and 3d. How does drawing operate as a material element informing meaning? What is the role of the viewer experiencing and interpreting artwork in space? What is the “objectness” of image making? You will investigate the material natures of object and image evident in many forms of current contemporary practice, developing a range of experimental works, leading to a self-initiated individual project informed by your specialisation area.

In this advanced painting workshop, you will gain knowledge and experience in established and experimental painting techniques, skills and concepts. You will experience a wide range of materials and production processes to create artworks relating to painting with an emphasis on experimentation, conceptual development and studio research. The course is structured through demonstrations & technical experimentation followed by generalised thematic projects and advanced individual self-directed projects. The technical experiments enable you to produce works that complement your own studio practice. Ideas include: the preparation and use of supports and grounds for a variety of painting methods including oil, acrylic and water colour, working from observation, colour and grisaille, tonal painting and underpainting and glazing. Major contemporary themes may include the relationship of painting to photography, the contemporary portrait and still-life, pop culture, hybrid painting, installation, painting deconstruction and painting and materiality. Individual and group tutorials, discussion and feedback sessions, student presentations, studio demonstrations and studio health and safety complement this painting workshop.

In this course you will explore ways in which contemporary print processes can inform traditional print production and vice versa. Sourced materials/imagery, photographs, historical references and hand drawings will be mediated through Photoshop or collage. You will generate conceptually and visually coherent working drawings, collages and proofs which will, in turn, inform the production of original prints. Notions of appropriation, quotation, recycling and hybridity will be embedded into explorations of the unique possibilities offered by various print generations. You will also investigate the ongoing dialogues between historical and contemporary methods of print production