GCSE Art topic - Barriers [Ideas needed]

Nitrojan

Nitrojan

Nitrojan

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Ok, well our topic is 'Barriers' and I'm struggling for ideas.. We're not limited to any kind of barriers however I'm starting to base my ideas around the following:

- Prison
- Isolation
- Seperation walls (Nazi Germany Ghetto etc)
- Life and death

Anything to do with barriers.. As I said, I'm struggling with ideas and I'm wondering if any of you could help me out ;)

Can you think of anything I could relate with the word 'Barriers'? Another idea is like, old fences.. gates... barbed wire fences.. etc. They are my ideas, but I cant think of any more! :O

Also wondering, do you think It'd be asking too much If I posted in the photography section a little thing to see if anyone would be kind enough to take some shots of a few topic related images near them so I can obtain a wide range of images relating to the topic from different places? I just thought about it but dont want to sound rude hehe :P

Thanks,

Adam
 
you could go with the whole "barriers of life" referencing personal struggles, constraints of your own insecurity and/or mindset /pressures caused by society.

Or is that too outside the box?

First thing I thought was "prison" though, to be fair.
 
Social barriers springs to my mind. Remember seeing a news article on the London news a while ago about these gated communities for rich executives springing up in the middle of deprived council estates.
 
Berlin Wall?

would be a pretty good thing to do, i remember when i did my GCSE art, really wanted to pass so i put all sorts of effort into it, in the end i got a D and told my art teacher to stick it where the sun dont shine haha.
 
they're probably looking for some right-on awareness of the "barriers" that partially-sighted lesbian coloured people experience in accessing the benefits system in modern day england.

How about a set of stairs with a wheelchair at the bottom and a $ sign at the top?
 
Haha lol.. Yeah, we're not too restricted as it's meant to be 'open ended' or whatever they say..

But yeah, this is what I have come up with so far..

- Umbrella’s (Temporary barrier)
- Divorce (Barrier from moving on)
- Nazi Germany (Ghetto)
- Life and death (Fine line between them)
- Isolation (Barrier from the world)
- Sanity
- Illness/Paralysed (Barrier from moving on – people getting on with life.. helpless)
- Grieving (Looking at someone’s photograph, trying to reach them.. barrier between)
- Palestinian Israeli wall
- Breaking free (Ripping/Lock and chain)
- Speed Barriers
- Prison
- Armour
- Limbo
- Angels and Devils

Some of that may sound rubbish.. but yeah.. Just trying to think..

As I said I need some secondary source images, and also I need to produce an A2 drawing sheet full of observational drawings.. thing is.. what the hell do I draw! A wall?! Great.. And I dont think I have a prison cell in my house anywhere lol :D

Also, what do you think about my question about the photography forum? Asking too much?

EDIT:

bottletop said:
they're probably looking for some right-on awareness of the "barriers" that partially-sighted lesbian coloured people experience in accessing the benefits system in modern day england.

How about a set of stairs with a wheelchair at the bottom and a $ sign at the top?
Click to expand...

Nice idea..
 
Why don't you do something about spirituality? In many ways, it's a barrier in my opinion. People use it to console themselves, a barrier between them and their loved one (dependant on how you view it). Also, spirituality can be seen as a barrier in terms of empiricism and finding the truth (I don't want to argue this point, it's just my opinion).

The best art imo is usually abstract enough to create duality and parallels but not so ambigious that it transcribes little meaning to its intended audience (i.e. modern art).
 
When I was at school Art meant drawing/painting pictures and carving images out of lino! Sounds way too boring these days.

Art: A barrier to a good education!
 
Ahh Barriers came up a few years ago as a theme in Photography. Dont forget you can do something relating to the breaking down of barriers.
I did some aerial skate shots and put them on decks then illustrated them, that related to breaking the barrier of mavity.

DSCF1885.jpg


Or you can take the title Barriers at face value. Last year i just did a load of promotional design stuff for a made up skate magazine called Transformations when i was give the brief with the title of Transformations.

If your still stuck you can email me.
 
Thanks for the replies.. yeah, I'm still stuck.. I need generalised things relating to barriers.. I think im going for the prison/isolation wall theme.. So I need things like, great wall of china, barbed wire prison fence etc. so that I can find some pictures of them for my secondary source images ;)

Also, no one has answered my question about posting in the photography forum :P lol
 
I remember doing Art GCSE at school, I think I'd rather die than do it again, my teacher was the worst ever. She made me stay behind to make my work 'A star level' on the very last day of school and was making people come in during study leave..
 
It's a pity that you can do the art as part of a design within an environment.

For example a brick wall or painting across a doorway. Its a barrier - even if you painted the best landscape on it it becomes even more of a barrier. The first in the physical sense due to it's positioning, second in a artistic sense (ie you can never become part of the picture, nor sense anything in it) and lastly the emotional because you can hear people behind it without being able interact at a basic visual level (people talk as if you're no there... perhaps they know you're there but choose to ignore you? What do you feel if that was a daily occurance??).

Art for me is very much something that can be situational as well as the created piece of hardware itself.. have a look at Full Stop Slipstream for example.. (the walking people are the stream, the fullstop actively makes people stop and walk around it)
 
I think doing something involving walls/prisons is a little to obvious. You should definitely pay attention to the suggestions relating to barriers in society.
 
I think it's far too easy to do the negative barriers thing. Stuff like social barriers and Berlin wall type stuff is trite and overdone.

The word barrier automatically summons negativity so why not go against that and focus on positive barriers. Your umbrella idea is a good start. Somebody mentioned the Thames flood barrier. You could do stuff like level crossings and safety barriers around roadworks and stuff like that.

Negative barriers are too easy and not very original in my opinion.
 
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