IB Visual Arts: An Insider’s Perspective

Misha Johnston • March 18, 2025

Visual Arts is one of the most demanding but also creatively liberating courses offered in the IB, and is a favorite subject of many students. As a student in this class myself, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the works of my classmates in Ms. Hirao’s IB Visual Arts class. As some of you may know, our class is currently doing our sculpture unit, where students are able to use a variety of materials to create their own 3D artwork. The final sculptures should be on display in two weeks.

Creating and justifying the use of a theme is one of the key components of IB Visual Arts, and the sculpture unit is no different. All of the sculptures must follow a political theme chosen by the artist, but the interpretation of this theme is completely open. Some examples of the topics chosen by students include: the alienation of society by political differences, the effect of political conditions on the manufacturing of beauty standards, the binding of women to social roles through marriage, and the consequences of election interference.

Below are some images of the sculptures currently being worked on by students:

This sculpture by Nadia Pilacka depicts the desire for wealth in countries facing economic instability.

This sculpture by Zoey Ying uses the practice of footbinding as a representation of women’s changing status in society.

Here, Yelin Byeon uses an aquarium setting to show the “drowning” of political freedom in a society with corrupt voting practices.

This sculpture by Jungi Kim uses the symbol of the bald eagle to represent Korean-American political dynamics.

This rope-based sculpture by Yerim Nam symbolizes how political alienation creates chaos.

This papier maché sculpture, created by Crystal Lee, uses the image of a man eating his own limbs to represent the all-consuming nature of corporate greed.

Another interesting part of these sculptures outside of the theme is that all students are required to include a paper cube in their sculptures. Once the sculptures are finished and on display, take some time to look at them and see if you can find where the artist has incorporated their cube into the sculpture!

IB Visual Arts is an incredibly time consuming class, and sculpture requires especially careful attention and hours of work, so if you know any Visual Arts students, please give them the opportunity to talk about their work and show appreciation for their art.

If you notice any artworks in the hallways that stand out to you, take the time to reach out to the artist that made it and let them know, I promise it’ll mean the world to them.