Students at Carlisle have been exhibiting their work as part of the culmination of their most recent project, ‘Blackout’.

Students have been created art or designing clothes to fit the brief of ‘blackout’ whilst combining elements of fairy tales into their work.

“The students have covered lots of inner themes” said course leader, Wendy Oxley.

“Now when we think of fairy tales, they’re glamourised versions but in the past, fairy tales shed more light on what was happening and were incredibly haunting and distant.”

“The theme of blackout is that the country is in dire straits and students have all chosen themes from political chaos to knife crime to show that life isn’t a fairy tale.”

Talented students, Tamar and Amber both created works reacting to the themes of political instability and knife crime.

Tamar tackled the current political situation by combining the storms of last winter with the current political storms to create her work.

News and Star: Tamar's art representing political and physical stormsTamar's art representing political and physical storms (Image: Isaac Cooper)“The political situation affects everyone at the moment so to combine it with the bad storms creates a mass of bad in the world,” said Tamar.

Amber’s piece is in response to knife crime and represents the vicious cycle of violence found within knife crime, alongside people trapped in the cycle itself.

“It definitely makes a statement,” said Amber.

“Art is a visual medium so it’s good to include a wider message behind it so that viewers can interpret it in different ways.”

News and Star: Amber's work based on the knife crime cycleAmber's work based on the knife crime cycle (Image: Isaac Cooper)Students have also been creating works of fashion on similar themes.

Georgia created her outfit based around politicians lying and the sirens of Greek myth, incorporating barbed wire into her unique outfit.

Amy Palmer made her outfit based on hair, having been inspired by the hair exhibition at Tullie House and the bravery of female protesters in Iran.

She said her work represented “new growth” as we “need to grow to become a better society at large.”

The exhibition at Carlise College on Tuesday, represented weeks of hard work by the students and teacher, Wendy Oxley is proud of her students.

“The outcome of the hard work the students have put in is incredible and certainly highlights the darker side of society.”

“I’m incredibly proud of each and every one of the team.”

 

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