MYP Personal Project - Darcy Beynon

I am Darcy Beynon, a Year 10 student and as my final year of the MYP I was asked to undertake the Personal Project. My project is a sculpture of the Joker and on the topic of mental health.

I have always been interested in Marvel and DC characters and am an avid fan of both franchises. I am particularly interested in art, and being able to draw many characters from the movies as well as replicating props seen on the silver screen. In previous years, I have created replicas such as the Infinity Gauntlet and Thor’s Stormbreaker. For my Personal Project, I was keen to learn a new skill in sculpture that would enhance my ability in replicating items from film.

I have chosen to sculpt the Joker as his character emulates my chosen Global Context of Identities and Relationships and the subset of mental health. It is quite compelling that both Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix have both won Academy Awards for portraying the troubled villain. I chose Heath Ledger’s portrayal for my sculpture as he began the trend of highlighting the extreme end of mental conditions that raises awareness in modern society.

I have spent many hours over the holidays getting the sculpture to the point where I am about to mould the piece over the next week. It has been a journey of learning so many new techniques. From working with clay when sculpting the eyes, the mouth and ears, to spending countless hours texturing the skin- adding in pores and folds, it has been a very rewarding experience.

I still have a number of processes to work through but I am extremely satisfied with the results so far.