If you want to know what's going on inside the head of a teenager, take a look at the Evergreen Cultural Centre's latest exhibition.
Emerging Talent 18, which opened Monday, has 76 visual art pieces from dozens of graduating students in School District 43.
And, from what they show - and two of the Grade 12 artists tell - young people these days are just as sad and confused and anxious and lonesome as the last class heading off to university, work or travel.
Their artwork - much of it gritty and raw - conveys surreal and abstract images around bullying, depression, body issues and teen angst. "There's definitely a theme of transformation," said Laryn Van Dyk, assistant curator at the Art Gallery at Evergreen in Coquitlam. "It's kind of an outlet of what they're going through in their day to day life."
Veronica Troughton and Justin Yoon confirm this.
Troughton, who is one of seven Port Moody secondary students to have had their work accepted into the juried show by judges (and retired SD43 art teachers) Jerry Pietrasko, Keith Levang and Kelly Selden, has three pieces in Emerging Talent 18 - the most amount allowed for any one student.
Her multimedia sculpture, titled Static, speaks of adolescence and the loss of identity through technology. Her clay teen is sitting on a wooden "ladder" chair that reaches too far up; his face is being sucked off by a melting cellphone, in which the wires are wrapped around his body.
In Untitled Self, an assignment under PMSS art teacher Judi Gardner, the IB student was tasked to interview her friends to visually describe herself with their eyes. Troughton created a clay mask with a candle in the back to show warmth but with half a mime face: the glazed side being her shield; the unpainted side exposing her true self.
And in her charcoal drawing titled Half Empty, Troughton unveils a drowning woman with outreached hands; a pair of hands are coming out of the sky - one holding her leg, the other trying to grasp a hand. The work is intended to represent emotional pains, the artist said, "and the feeling of drowning inside. It's very personal and I feel it's something that a lot of people go through."
Yoon, a Gleneagle secondary student under art instructor Melanie Stokes, who is organizing Emerging Talent 18, also has three works in the show: a portrait of Beethoven (which he painted while listening to his Symphony No. 5); The Game, showing a panda - that is, Yoon - playing chess with the king piece on his head, "to express the difficulties in my life," he said; and Best Friend Jungho Kim, whom Yoon connected with frequently back in his native country of Korea after he immigrated in 2012. The watercolour painting helps to cheer him up when he feels alone and "depressed," said Yoon, who has already been accepted to OCAD this fall, with the intention to be a graphic artist.
For her part, Troughton feels honoured to be part of the group display. "It's just a really great opportunity to have a gallery exhibit and have your work out there for the first time," said the prospective UBC undergrad, who plans to pursue a career in architecture.
Meanwhile, during the Emerging Talent 18 open reception on Sunday between 2 and 5 p.m., Evergreen will also show 10 new and original film shorts for Emerging Talent Festival 4.
Port Moody and Centennial secondary students are the only entrants this year, and each short will be screened three times during the reception. The filmmakers and films are:
Sam Mohseni: The Black Screen
Sam Lai: Awake
Alyha Bardi: Deprived, Bully PSA
John Castrejon: Chances
Jenny Kim: Underrated
Andrew Elliot: Worksafe PSA
Young Lee: Ink
and Rosie Hsueh: MadHatters, When the Words Slips from Your Reach
The opening reception for Emerging Talent 18 and Emerging Talent 4 Festival is on Sunday, Jan. 25 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam). Speeches are at 2:30 p.m. from organizer Melanie Stokes and Evergreen Cultural Centre's Jon-Paul Walden (executive director) and Gregory Elgstrand (visual arts manager).
@jwarrenTC
