Nayland students exhibit pop art

BY CHARLES ANDERSON CHARLESA@NELSONMAIL.CO.NZ

Lindsay Lohan gets her booze from The Mill on New St. Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen gets his literary fix from the Stoke Library and Hollywood heart throb Leonardo DiCaprio likes his chicken burgers super-sized at the Nelson Burger King.

They are unlikely scenarios born in the minds of Nayland College year-10 pop art students.

Their brief: to put a celebrity in a local scene and make it a little bit emotional.

Unsurprisingly, for teacher Stacey McMurtrie, the results were diverse and particularly pleasing.

"We started to produce this work, and it looked so good I thought: `Why not have an exhibition?"'

So she did just that, organising with the Hoddy Road Gallery to exhibit her 25 students' pop creations.

It is not an entirely new concept, but one that "Ms Mac", as her pupils call her, believes should happen a lot more.

"I do think it's important to create that connection with the community.

"It just seems a shame to have this work there and then no-one but us gets to see it."

But now they will, which originally surprised 15-year-old student India Crawford-Scott.

"It felt quite cool to get the finished product framed up. It looks so much better, but I kind of thought adults and artists didn't really care about year-10 art work. But to have it in a gallery shows what we can do."

India has David Beckham next to Nelson's Christ Church Cathedral. Beckham's thought bubble indicates that he "does not know what to say". I ask India why that is.

"Well, it's up to interpretation, you can think what you like about it. It opens it up and that is the whole point."

I suggest it is because Beckham might be two lollies short of a candy shop. Nelson Mail photographer Martin De Ruyter thinks it could be because Beckham is so used to giving comment to frantic reporters that he has nothing left to give.

India doesn't give anything away, but enjoys the exercise.

The pop-art brief wasn't only about getting teenagers to paint their entertainment idols. The pieces are modelled on the work of prominent American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, whose work was heavily influenced by both popular advertising and the comic book.

Ms McMurtrie says by using a model as a starting point, students had to look at the way line, flat colour and shadows are handled.

Kelsey Laulau, 15, starts to laugh. It turns out drawing the line is harder than first thought.

"I have a really shaky hand. I found it really difficult. There were a few blobs along the way."

The blobs cannot be seen now. Only clean lines, curious celebrities, pontificating in some local backdrops. Kelsey has Heath Ledger by the Centre of New Zealand. Soon he will be up in a gallery alongside her peers.

Ms McMurtrie says the exhibition will help the students value their own work.

"When you put your work out there for the world to see you become vulnerable. It's like saying, `Hey, look what I can do', without knowing how people will react.

"We do this all the time as small children and if the reaction is great, our confidence builds and we do it again. If it is poor, we build resilience."

Either way, for the teenage artists, it can only be a worthwhile encounter.

• Nayland College year-10 students' work is at Hoddy Road Gallery until December 12.

- © Fairfax NZ News