Body of Work: Where you should be

[beatroot]

Hello Class of 2018 Visual Art students (or whoever is reading this). Hope everyone is going well with their Body of Works. Some of you guys are probably doing your proposals or have already started on your actual major! Still confused on where you should be right now or next year? Here are my suggestions on how to manage your BOW throughout your HSC. (*Please note that I had two majors (VA and SAC), only had 10 units and 10 studies a fortnight. This is simply just a suggestion and based on my own experiences. The time dedicated towards your BOW depends on your subjects and studies.)

Term 1: October - December
This is when you should be making your proposal, come up with a meaningful concept, visiting art galleries, filling up your VAPD, figuring out your medium, plan your composition and creating a prototype. You don’t necessarily have to start straight away. You have the summer holidays and Term 2-4 to finish your major. Use this term effectively because once you pick a concept and a medium, there’s no going back. If you keep on changing your plan throughout the year, you’ll just be wasting your time. You don’t have time to experiment with new mediums. Stick with what you know best. Pick a concept, preferably one that isn’t overly used. Pick your artists of influence and an artistic style you would like to appropriate. Usually schools have proposals where they submit EVERYTHING to their teacher. At the end of the term, your teacher has hopefully marked your proposal and has given you a couple of suggestions to further develop your BOW.

Summer holidays:
Please do not be like me and do nothing during the summer holidays. I drew one drawing and thought that was enough for my progress mark in Term 2 (Ended up getting 65% and lost my rank rip). If you already have your materials from your school, definitely get started. It doesn’t matter if it looks shit, your work will be rewarded in your progress mark. However, if you don’t have any materials to get started, just keep on planning, visiting galleries, creating compositions and deepening your concept. By the time first week of Term 2 strolls by, you would have a lot more to present to your teacher. Your teacher will be convinced that you are ready, that they will give you materials straight away!

Term 2: February - March/April
This term is dedicated to getting maximum marks for your progressive mark. Like mentioned previously I ended up getting 65%, so I’ll just use my good friend (who got 85%) as an example. As soon as we all came back from the summer holidays, she had a shit ton of compositions in her VAPD. My teachers saw that she was ready and got a head start in the class. After getting your progress marks in this term, this term should be the term where you put in the most work. Just because this is the term with the least amount of workload in comparison with the others. Your first layer of your work should be done in this work. And what I mean by first layer, I mean the first layer of your concept and the first layer of your physical work. Also make sure most of your studies are spent doing your body of work. During this term, teachers rarely give out homework. So use this term to your advantage and do your body of work instead.

Check out this bar graph I made on how much effort you should be putting in your BOW each term.

Term 3: April - July
At this point your BOW should be 70% done. This is the point where you start to add more layers to your work.  Go beyond the literal interpretation of your work and concept. If it's about your culture identity, discuss globalisation and technology. If it’s about your emotions, talk about a significant place close to your heart. If it’s about music, talk about its omnipresence in heaven and hell. Go beyond your initial medium and its features. Ask yourself, could I add text to my painting? Could I add a sound feature in my sculpture? Can I layer glass over my drawings? To summarise, this term is just all about adding and adding and adding more stuff. In terms of studies, 40%-60% of your studies should be for your BOW.

Term 4: July - August
This term is pretty hectic because your trial exams are your priority. This term is also when your art exhibition is and when it’s submitted to NESA. At this point, 95% of your BOW should be done. Your BOW has to appear done. Final progress marks are given during this term. I got 85% and successfully got my 1st rank back. You can add another layer in your BOW if needed.

Week before submission:
You’ve got one week left till submission, so do not do your BOW the night before. You’re going to be overwhelmed. Plus you had three terms to do it, so avoid doing your BOW last minute. In the final week of submission, it’s just final touches and/or fixing up things. That’s all.

Good luck everyone!