Photoality: Irving Academy Public Artwork Unveiled
Irving Academy Students’ public work titled Photoality features large-scale photographs of their realities. Photo by Kaela Hoskings.
Students from Washington Irving Academy presented their work Photoality to friends, family, and Artpace and Irving Academy Staff on May 30, 2012 during an after school pizza party and awards ceremony.
Students unveil their public artwork Photoality at Irving Academy. Photo by Kaela Hoskings.
This public artwork, which is permanently installed outside of Washington Irving Academy’s cafeteria, is the result of Artpace’s Semester Program led by artist Mari Hernandez.
Their wall of pictures reflects highly personalized views of their neighborhoods, families, and community. To create Photoality students built a portfolio of film photographs using cameras they built themselves. They decided to emphasize the unique, albeit serious permanence of film—which they compared to aspects of life and school—by using a film strip as the backdrop. One student stated: “Film is like life. If you make a mistake in film, like life, you can’t go back.”
Artist Mari Hernandez awards students. Photo by Kaela Hoskings.
Students will keep the cameras they built and are encouraged to continue taking photographs and thinking like artists.
Lindsey Smith
Lindsey Smith is the Assistant Curator of Education at Artpace and helps create tours, workshops, and education events for all ages. A native Texan, she enjoys drawing mermaids, fishing or floating in rivers, guacamole, running, and making up improvisational dance moves.