Megalo Print Studio Graduate Residency Award.
Open Bite Travel Award for high academic achievement in third year.
EXILE
Declan Monaghan is an emerging artist from Melbourne/Naarm, who works, studies and lives on Wurundjeri Country. Declan is a printmaking practitioner who works predominantly with intaglio etching. His practice involves exploration of the relationship between analogue and digital printing, combining photogravure with hard/soft ground, drawing techniques and collage of both captured and found imagery. Drawing from a variety of sources, Declan enjoys creating contrasts between historic and contemporary imagery. Declan’s conceptual interests currently focus on human behaviour, semiotics, masculinity and place. In pursuing these themes, Declan is informed by his experiences as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and often draws from his experiences when producing new works. He enjoys collaboration and learning from the experiences of others, incorporating new insights and different perspectives into the creative process. The artist further acknowledges other Traditional Custodians of Country in Victoria and pays respect to Elders past, present and future.
EXILE, is a series of print-based works that explores my experiences and feelings towards masculinity. The works are framed from my own perspective, drawing attention to characteristics in our society that remain patriarchal, exclusionary and/or ‘toxic’. Works depict the alienation felt towards my own gender identity and place in contemporary Australian society as a gay cisgender man. This series challenges viewers to connect feeling with action, furthering the deconstruction of binary narratives and normative masculinity.
This project is really about my experience as a man in a society which ignores the nuances of what men/masculinity can be. In my opinion, femininity and masculinity can coexist in an individual irrespective of gender; they are not mutually exclusive. Gender and sexuality can be a sliding scale. This work challenges the human tendency to categorise and label. I would like to depict androgyny in response to this theme of masculinity – to provide uncategorisable imagery and challenge the binary thinking encouraged in our society.
My hands feature in many works, often interacting with different subjects. This references reclamation of personal power, harnessing objects and energy. Ultimately, the series is constructed through a self-referential lens, and is intended to be read almost as a series of visual journal entries. The narrative loosely depicts the journey of someone going from being cast aside to finding power in solitude and returning with a stronger sense of self.
instagram: @declanmonaghanart