Recipient of the Composite Moving Image Agency and Media Bank Award and the Jack Willet 1301SW Honours Award. _________________________________ HERE/THERE (AND ME IN-BETWEEN) Just like walking in an alley, looking to see what will happen, then walking into another alley
Mary Oliphant Prize. Seventh Gallery Award. BESTOWED: EXPLORING TRAUMA AS A FORM OF INHERITANCE THROUGH CERAMIC SCULPTURES AND RITUALISED PERFORMANCE Reimagining heirlooms from the artist’s Javanese heritage to create ceramic sculptural work, Bestowed challenges the persistence of filial piety in
Project executive summary Name: Adrienne Cameron, s3996963 Title: So, you want to be a collector? Outcome: Pamphlet Collector pamphlet Abstract: This project explores the parameters of creating a valuable contemporary fine art collection over a lifetime. Extensive academic research has
The imagery in my work is akin to a form of assemblage and is intended to challenge notions of totality. Through relations of exteriority and emergent properties, these works may be understood in terms of material, expression, stability and coding.
MY BODY, NOT MY RULES centres on creating a series of paintings that investigate themes of sexual violence and ‘The Gaze’ while seeking agency as well as explore the female body and reclaiming authority. My eagerness to confront women’s issues
Recipient of the ACAE Gallery Award. _________________________________ PAINTING AS AN ACT OF TRANSLATION Through painting, I aim to echo musical forms into the visual. The resultant body of work explores the kinetic symbology of music, linguistics, hybridity, and inner worlds.
FROM YOUR BIRTH TO THE ONE YOU GAVE ME Within my work I aim to explore notions of rebirth and queer femme identity, utilising text and humour. In the digital age, I am surrounded by constant sources of stimuli, which
PAST LIVING: Memory is a Monster/KUTIS I work fluidly in my studio, constantly experimenting and researching materials and methods to find the best ways in which to express two main ideas. The first being the exploration of mental
Recipient of the The ADFAS (Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society), Yarra Branch Award _________________________________ ISOLATED FACES metaphorically explores anxieties of isolation and belonging. This project is a self-reflexive study that utilises non-traditional portraiture by shadowing the faces of loved ones to
instagram: @notawizard_yet www.alexanderpugwilliams.com GLYPH OF NON-ATTACHMENT My 2023 capstone project is the Glyph of Non-attachment (GON-A). GON-A is a non-static assemblage composed from sculptural objects I have created over the course of my degree. These sculptures are made from industrial
Drawing Studio Award for excellence in drawing-based practices. BETWEEN YARN AND A HARD PLACE is an ongoing exploration of mother-daughter relationships and, by extension, the complex interaction between the maker and the made. In my semi-autobiographical practice, I explore the
IMPRINT & IMPRESSION An exploration of the materiality of fabric through the print medium. How one material can be transformed through the matrix, and furthermore, the print itself. A print-based triptych that explores the nature of fabric in its form
Sculpture Workshop Prize. THE RABBITS is an assemblage of found materials transformed and altered, arranged to echo an imagined agricultural or domestic garden exterior landscape and at the same time an interior domestic setting, similar to a sitting room. As the
Recipient of the BDS Sculpture Prize. _________________________________ BENEATH DAPHNE I am an aspiring sculptural and installation-based artist located in Kulin country, Melbourne Australia. I will soon be graduating with my Bachelor of Fine Art, specialising in Sculpture at RMIT. I
VEGETAL DIGITAL: Exploring vegetal thinking, digital gardening and post-human neuroqueer phenomenology through the affordances of expanded photography, artist Alison Bennett considers Australian native flowers as celestial encounters. Slowly rotating 3D point-clouds of floral forms coalesce and dissolve – the authenticity
ADDITIONAL VALUE A series of matchbox sculptures to explore material and consumerism. In the wave of consumerism, commodities are taking over our lives and defining everyone. I am hoping to expose this power and draw attention to the power of
My work is a wide-ranging entanglement of found imagery and intersecting concepts that manifest in chaotic and often psycho-surreal narratives. Ultimately, I see my practice as a form of sensation seeking and psychoanalytical tool that speaks of the human condition
WEATHER PAINTINGS These works are about the sensibilities of past upper classes, and the cyclical growth of vegetation. I am a painter and draughtsman based in Melbourne and was born on a farm in New Zealand. In my work, through
MAKING SPACE FOR DETAIL Reflecting the adolescent urge to document everything, my work is an act of noticing, collecting, and giving attention to the minute minutiae, the detritus of our culture and the beauty of the mundane, transforming each detail
FOUND MOVEMENT IN FOUND SPACE Dance as art and choreology are the foundation of my current practice, looking at the relationship between personal movement style and visual aesthetic as the remnants of an artist left in their work. Starting with
THE DIVINE EQUINE. Amy Gagnon (b.2000) is an artist residing and practising on Wurundjeri Land in Naarm (Melbourne). She is currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) at RMIT University. Recent exhibitions include the group
Firestation Print Studio Exhibition Prize for high academic achievement. Sunshine Print Artspace Graduate Award for high academic achievement in Third Year. MEDIEVAL AND THE MODERN Through a practice of print and illustration my work engages with the ways history and
111 WAYS TO FORGET ̶Y̶O̶U̶ MYSELF This project emerges from Ana’s lived experiences and the dynamics of emotionality and shame. Ana creates pieces of participatory art and ritual performances using her body as a test subject to discover how
Chapman & Bailey Award. A WALK AMONGST NATURE. My practice relates to New Materialism, a philosophy that allows me to open up to an intimate, reciprocal engagement with my materials and immediate surroundings. My current work sits between painting and
THE SYMPHONY OF JOCULARITY: UNVEILING THE JOURNEY FROM CHILDHOOD TO ADULTHOOD is a project that explores the harmonious interplay between craft and childhood by weaving together found objects and metals in an effort to explore connections between past and present
The Moat Bar Awards for excellence in Video and Drawing. DRESS YOU UP IN YOUR LOVE explores the body, identity, and sexuality through a queer feminist lens. Viewers will enter a boudoir-like space to experience an immersive installation comprising
ETERNAL LOOP~REIMAGINING THE BUCKLE In this project I explored contemporary buckle making through the lens of intuitive making. This work seeks to create discussion on the functionality of different buckles by abstracting their form, scale and function. I’m interested
COMMUNITY is an installation of eighty-eight wheel thrown vases. I view each vessel that I make as a person – individual and unique. In physical form a pot is like a person with a neck, shoulders, belly, hip and foot. When
REFRACTIONS OF REFLECTIONS is an exploration of the inner self channelled through the waves of water—an embodied experience of fluidity within my identity. The extensions of water, and the structure it holds is as transient as our flow with life
SCENERY FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS A subconscious exploration of memory and place through the use of intuitive marks and abstraction. This multi-media project explores the artistic potential of the subconscious mind and its relationship to place. More specifically, the natural world
OF AIR , LIGHT AND WATER Shifting colours move through bands of blues and violets with a shimmer of red. The atmosphere becomes dusky as the large fabric installation lights up: iridescent silky silver-blue flows from above, mingling with
GOOD VS EVIL I am an artist with a practice that focuses on sculpture and installation. My practice is a constant exploration of history, religion and the vast realm of the human condition. As a sculpture student at RMIT, I am
BODY VERTICAL My video installation uses advanced editing, special effects and compositing techniques to interrogate patriarchally-skewed cinematic codes embedded in mainstream film. Crucially, it responds to feminist screen theory in seeking new ways to represent the material female body. By
OBJECTIFIED SWANS Through the lens of a sexual fantasy featuring the feminine within a 70s kitsch-pornographic-inspired environment, Objectified Swans attempts to undermine female binaries and expose them to be patriarchal weapons adopted to suppress a woman’s sexual
Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Sanders’ work addresses the body as material, meaning and muse. Her origins begin with self, yet through analogue manipulation the familiar becomes augmented and re-assembled. Her work spans a multitude of disciplines including, but not limited
Recipient of the Drawing Studio Award. _________________________________ THE NATURE OF LOVE ‘Trauma and shit going down in childhood is [not] inherently interesting…it’s chronic, commonplace, sometimes dramatic and often tedious in its stranglehold of repetitions, daily struggles, and predictable and
CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH. The Currawong bird call repeats as dusk approaches and a warm spring air is present. The sun sets over the top paddock as the kangaroos graze on the grass below. My fingernail beds are coated
THE SENSATION OF CONNECTIVE CHROMATIC ENERGY: Lyrical abstraction and the metaphysical in painting. My Master’s project investigates lyrical abstraction through the medium of gestural, embodied and immersive painting. My inspiration is expressed through an intuitive process that explores spiritual
Reds, Greens, and White. They remind me of Christmas, an American one. A clown mask. The colours on a Liverpool Football Club scarf, a big bushel of Red poppies or a traffic light if White replaced the orange light. Red,
CHERCHEZ LA FEMME! My work is concerned with how women are viewed both in an art world setting and in other narrative forms. We see images of women covering the walls of galleries, so we assume they are present. We
OUR REGRETTABLE PROPHECY A sculptural installation that calls into question our future under current social condition. It questions society’s cause of climate change and its radical effects on everything, reinforced through the showcase of mundane elements. A portrayal of a
THERE WON’T BE ANOTHER TIME is an exploration of childhood. Looking at both the universality of childhood experience, and the differences in my and my parent’s upbringing, I consider the question: What would it be like to meet our parents
GIRLHOOD, WOMANHOOD AND THE SPACE BETWEEN This body of works investigates stages of girlhood through to womanhood, and what each of these moments of rebirth might look like from a personal perspective. Each of these moments are driven by periods
The Wayne Conduit Memorial Prize. My main area of interest is in contemporary still life painting. My works are observational, using traditional painting methods and working from life. The works often begin by moving, organising and arranging objects before building
THE FEMININE ART OF SHOOTING: the collision between fine art and firearms My shooting is still. Not violence, not fervour. My shooting is controlled breath as I kneel in the grass, surrounded by trees. Millimetric adjustments of my cheek and
Recipient of the Emily Hope Award for a figurative work— Donor Professor AD Hope Endowment. _________________________________ DOMESTIC RITUAL My practice explores the domestic space and the mundane with a focus on the processes and objects involved in food preparation. The
Koodak Award for Enamelling Prize for Technical Excellence. WHIMSY IN THE ORDINARY: AN EXPLORATION OF THE MUNDANE, ROUTINE AND PRECIOUSNESS THROUGH JEWELLERY. My practice explores the domestic space and the ordinary with a focus on processes and objects involved in
Recipient of the Experimenta Internship Award. _________________________________ EXPLORING COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH MOVING IMAGE AND MUSIC PROJECTS SITUATED IN PUBLIC SPACE In my Master’s research, I have been using the moving image and music to explore collective consciousness, dreams, and time.
Bo Pang is a multidisciplinary artist who is currently using weaving, casting, engraving and other forms of handmade contemporary jewellery and installations to communicate with herself. In the process, she analyses and reflects on herself and brings the materials closer to her
Dean’s Award for Excellence Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art). YELLOW CORRIDOR ‘Look into yellow, feel immersed in colour, anchored when close. The plane of the wall intersecting through my bodily matter to secure, tether me to site.’ My practice involves
Lowenstein Arts Management Prize. THE JUNK PILE draws upon Bonnie-Jean Whitlock’s relationship with material, image and process. “I call the accumulation of experience sustained within my own body my ‘junk pile’, it contaminates everything I say, do and make. I
Analyze the practice of immersive theater in small cities of China ——Case study “Youjian Pingyao” The Chinese performing arts market has been developing at an unprecedented rate in recent years, providing more choices for people’s spiritual life. Many performance groups
THE SOUND OF A PAINTING OF A SONG: EXPLORING HOW SOUND AND IMAGE MAY GENERATE AND ENHANCE EACH OTHER. Over the time of my Master’s study I have made a series of explorations to open creative connections between my concurrent
PEER PRINCIPLES IN ARTS MANAGEMENT AND PRACTICE Artists are change agents, agitators, activators – of spaces, places and people. As change agents, today’s artists often work within other frameworks and systems, questioning power dynamics and often leading from
Recipient of the Chapman & Bailey Award for Excellence in Contemporary Painting. _________________________________ LANDSCAPE / ESCAPE ‘As an artist I’m trying to reflect something back to myself. A feeling, understanding, sense of the world…’ —Kiki Smith Exploring the silent language
THE GOTHIC NURSERY An exploration of childhood spaces through immersive art. From one world you will stepinto another yet unmetShadows rising in the corners,are you one of the mourners?The child no longer seeninto a world in betweenEverything left to
APHOTIC APOTHECA: OPENING SOON. Come one, come all and step inside, you never know what one might find. An immersive installation allowing visitors to travel through to an undisclosed time and discover the curiosities the little shop has to offer.
Recipient of the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence and contribution to the program, Master of Fine Art. _________________________________ TOWARDS REPOSE An exploration of materiality and ephemerality through the use of organic matter and geometric patterns. This multidisciplinary research project frames
CATHERINE’S REEF Through ceramic hand-building, I create sculptures that are heavily textured, painted with bold, bright primary and secondary colours. My ceramic outcome often consists of an installation of sculptural objects grouped to create a larger work. Present-day environmental issues,
LESS OF AN INTERNAL MONOLOGUE MORE A PATCHY CONFERENCE CALL is a body of work that seeks to understand and connect with others, through the exploration of my own inner workings. As a woman with ADHD, my works are inevitably a
ART AND MUSEUM MANAGEMENT DURING THE COVID-19 DIGITAL ADAPTATION Most of my research projects are written with reference to the situation of Covid-19. I have been living in Melbourne during my study. I have seen so many ways that art
DIGITAL SKIN (she/they)Charlie is a Naarm-based artist working on the land of the Wurundjeri people. Starting their practice as a fine art painter, Charlie now explores new media with a focus on hybrid retro-future technologies, creating installations that consider feelings
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands we live, work and learn. I would also like to
STILL WATERS RUN DEEP explores the existence of a ‘safe space’ in response to personal sufferings of anxiety and insomnia. The large acrylic paintings on calico material are designed with intuitive, unconscious gestures as a means of healing through the
As an artist who loves nature and walking, nature is often the subject of my work. I am accustomed to observing the details of things and depicting them in my works, which is reflected in the sculptural paintings of various
MAKING, BREAKING, MAKING: REFLECTING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF COMPLEX TRAUMA. This project investigates the multifaceted nature of traumatic memory through the making and breaking of handmade objects grounded in feminine roles. By creatively exploring the process of forming and fragmenting domestic
Recipient of the 44 Frame Factory Graduate Award. ___________________________________ IN/VISIBLE: FEMIN-INE/IST RESPONSES TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE This project uses hand-made textiles and print-informed media to explore women’s responses to domestic violence. It is informed by my developing understanding of trauma theory
Recipient of the Journal of Public Space Prize. _________________________________ APOCALYPTIC THERAPEUTIC A speculative journey into the future of our climate vulnerable ecologies through virtual reality and participation Apocalyptic therapeutic is a laboratory of drawings, writing, virtual renders, and participatory
WUNDERKAMMERN OF OBJECTIFIED SIGNIFICANCE – WOMAN CLAIMS THAT A LEFT FOOT BOOT IS HER DAUGHTER AND HER HUSBAND IS A DIRTY COUCH I am a Naarm (Melbourne) based multi-disciplinary artist, who makes installations, video and sculptural works as well as
IMMORTAL CLICKSTREAM IMMORTAL CLICKSTREAM uses my browser history as source material for a series of mixed media works exploring meaning and identity in a world overburdened with data and indiscriminate visual noise. Images related to my internet search history are archived
LOSING IT: An exploration involving feelings of loss through Installations with ephemeral sculptures. Losing It consists of three works – Drop, Knocked, and a video work (with sound) titled Pearls in Rain. Each work captures hesitation and anticipation with the use
Christine Murray (she/her) is an object-based artist trained in gold & silver smithing with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) at RMIT. She has also completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts majoring in Animation and Digital Culture (Deakin University). Murray
Koodak Award for the Highest Academic Achievement in Third Year Gold & Silversmithing. CONTEMPORARY TALISMANS is a body of work exploring the involvement of jewellery and objects in everyday rituals. Ciara’s practice explores the idea of the talisman, informed by
claire.mcvea[at]gmail.cominstagram: @clerliv
SEX: EVERYONE AND YOU Sex education plays an incredibly important role in the development of early sexual experiences and sexual behaviours into adulthood. The absence of adequate sexual health education leads to the prevalence of several health and human development
Internal dialogue, self-image, grotesque, gothic, infested, decay, temporality, memento mori, bodily and paradox are words and phrases that could describe my work. Through a self-reflective lens, I use oil painting, drawing and sculpture as a visual language to explore themes,
COSMIC SALAD: DE-FIGURES AND UN-SCENES life’s about hazard and fate. – dad I think there is a structure to chaos, and a divinity in the absurd. Through visual experimentation and the re-contextualisation of found objects, my work explores
BDS Sculpture Prize for outstanding portfolio. TETHERED By temporalities, I am always tethered, but forced to move forward despite it; these opposing internal conflicts causes loss of presentness, how am I to exist? Tethered is a multimedia artwork that investigates
[1] FUTUREFOUND BUTTON:A dialogue between C (she) and F (the plant) C: They say regrets are based on wrong premises. What do you think.F: I think very little.C: Why are you here.F: To fill in the silence. F: What’s Sam
FEMINISM & THE OCCULT attempts to challenge the viewer as to whether or not their pre-conceived ideas as to what a witch is have been informed by, and/or contributed to, the misogyny, ageism, racism and violence that often overshadows the
44 Frame Factory Graduate Award. AM I ENOUGH? is a personal expression of emotion, identity, and societal reflection. The portrayal of athletic body ideals as symbols of masculine health is often amplified by social media and Hollywood stars resorting to
CENOZOICA is a physical record of a conceptual self. A sculptural work dedicated to the changing and shifting idea of what makes us who we are, and the experiences that change us. Immortalised in 60-million-year-old igneous basalt mined in Victoria,
CHAOS AFTER SORROWS Dan Su’s intuitive abstract painting explores the tensions that stir as we enter and pass through heightened emotions and states. Beginning with a linen or canvas substrate, and employing the visual language of abstraction, Su uses broad
THE WAY FORWARD IS BACK The world, the universe, began in energy, in light. The first thing recorded, whether it is the Big Bang or Genesis, is light. Light is the finger marks of the creation of the universe. When we
ARTIFACT 7 explores the lines between documentation and artwork through the installation of unorthodox print, video, and painting. I paint on hard surfaces over long durations, and then pour PVA adhesive over it and peel it back as a pseudo monoprint.
THE VERY STATE I am Darcy Lazarus and tonight, you are my voyeur. They are listening to you. While you’re on the phone to your Mum, engaging in half-whispered pillow talk or speaking to your cat in a nauseating
POINT OF VIEW (musing from previous years of art school) I can see the internet as a machine that has already swallowed us all whole. The internet then spews over itself, reformulating its own contents to produce more—feeding itself on
Perry Summers Sculpture Book Prize for excellent in Sculpture Studio: FORGED is a collection of narrative works that seamlessly intertwine two distinct stories. The first story narrates the tale of The Blacksmith and the Devil, while the second story follows The
SADNESS TOWARDS FADED TEARS My name is Deanna Versace. I’m an emerging artist in Australia who uses the pronouns she/her. I have been part of the RMIT institution for four years, completing my bachelor’s degree in printmaking. I had the
Recipient of the NAVA Ignition Prize. _________________________________ WHISPER WAVES This research project grew out of an interest in how our brains work and the different ways that we can influence them by engaging with creativity and the natural world. The
Recipient of the Bold and Beautiful Art Prize and the Wolf Wennrich Award for Craftmanship – Mr Michael Wennrich Endowment. _________________________________ In my creative practice, I have explored the inter-dependency of species using the symbiotic relationships between coral and people
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’.
FLOTILLA OF BOATS In my creative practice I have explored theories of flow, play, and the relationship between making with memory and place. I combine these concepts by fabricating a fleet of vessels, using traditional gold and silversmithing
COUTURE OF DESIRE, which takes the form of a discomforting installation, challenges the conventional notions of beauty and eroticism and explores depictions of the so-called ‘perverse’ in human fantasy. It is within this delicate tension that my sculptural garments find the
WORLD BUILDING AND SPATIAL DRAWING: PLAY THE GAME, DON’T DIE Rooted in modalities of playfulness, my current work spans object-based installation, drawing and painting. These works navigate structures and hierarchies of gender through symbols and the personification of objects. The
My watercolour painting practice reveals and communicates ideas of an ‘inner self’ via imagery that evokes a conscious and unconscious self, along with personal identity and attachment. Each of my paintings focuses on reconstructing something from the past via thoughts
LEARNING HOW TO BUILD THE ULTIMATE MECHANICAL ORGANISM Hello I’m Dougal. I came to uni, made some friends and built some more. \I’ve been learning how to build robots so they can speak for themselves. Being alive
THE THEATRE OF VIOLENCE This project is an exploration of the intense focus on violence in media and popular culture. I am curious about a society that views violence as entertainment and how this is reflective of rape culture. Rape
Recipient of the Troppo Print Studio Graduate Award. __________________________________ RHYTHMIC DISTURBANCE is a creative project that explores the lived experience of traumatic grief under intense media scrutiny and public opinion. The project uses experimental print-informed techniques to reflect how the
Lowenstein Arts Management Prize. MACHINIC ECOLOGIES is a practice-led project exploring the interfaces between humans, technology and the environment through transmedia installation. The installation space stages a re-imagined landscape composed of screen-based works, 3D prints, robotic assemblages and generative sound. These
Recipient of the Wayne Conduit Memorial Award. _________________________________ When people ask, I say I paint pictures of vases. These paintings have been drawn from particularly endearing eBay listings of ‘fat lava’ pottery. Digital images have become so ubiquitous that we
SQUISH Summary: Studying the nature of skin/flesh and its movement. Differing skin types, as in aged, blemished, scarred etc. and what those contexts translate to within the human structure. Skin in daily movement and light, stretched, pulled and squished in
SQUISH: RESEARCHING SKIN WITHIN PAINTING Studies of the human form, with a focus on flesh. Examining the body’s unique movements and malleability. An inquiry into how physical senses such as grabbing and squishing, can be depicted within painting. Finishing my
STRUCTURED BODIES focuses on the never-ending relationship between memory, place and the body and explores these connections through drawing and painting. Driven by the impact of contextual surroundings on the self, the places we choose to inhabit, the places we
AN UNCHARTED PATH To lay down a path, you begin by digging a hole. It can be challenging work. It involves risk. What if it collapses? What if you uncover something undesirable? What if it all leads to nothing, a
Elle Goudis is a female artist who is based in Melbourne/Naarm. She is currently studying in her final year (2023) of a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University with a specialisation in Painting. She explores the concept of portraiture
Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence and contribution to the program, Master of Fine Art. WILD THINGS combines my love of portrait photography with sculpture to counter divisive narratives that arise primarily though bodily differences. Through playful materials, colour and absurdity,
EMOTIONAL! is a children’s picture storybook that explores emotions as they are experienced in all of their new, strange intensity by children and aims to assist them in understanding these feelings. It follows the journey of a young, horned girl
AND SHE WAS LYING IN THE GRASS When sharing experiences with others, it’s easy to assume that people feel or think the same way as we do. However, by simply being alive our perspective will never be the
BUTCH FEMME NATAL I am not obsessed with weddings. Nor am I obsessed with men. My art practice is the opposite. I am interested in sexuality, performance and failure. I do this for myself and for other women in my
I LOOK AT YOU, AND YOU LOOK AT ME: RECOGNISING THE SELF IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. My work explores the inherent power of the natural environment and its ability to be used as a mirror with which to explore the
NAVA Ignition Prize. DIGITAL WONDERSCAPES Exploring the wonder and new ways of seeing natural phenomena through atmospheric colourful light projections I use the ephemeral nature of light to explore and interrogate new ways of seeing, by employing digital techniques and
I WANTED TO BE CLEVER BUT DECIDED TO JUST GO BIG is a large-scale sculpture engaging in witty institutional critique. Crafted from household materials, the work pokes friendly fun at the art world (whilst not being above it). [Note: The
遷移 (SEN – I) This project encapsulates multidisciplinary works that document and embrace transitory and oppositional forces through a combination of scale, medium and colour. This collection of works walks a fine line between abstraction and representation of the artist’s
MATTERFLOW My creative practice is an exploration of material and transformation, and is focused on ceramic-based processes. I draw on traditional ceramic techniques, such as mould making, slip casting and glaze development, which I use in unconventional ways to create
Essay by Jennifer Pattinson as part of Contextualising Practice course. I have spent the majority of my life fascinated – bordering on obsessed – with animals, specifically those which are wild, undomesticated, or otherwise out of reach.[1] Since
Essay by Amber Macklin as part of Contextualising Practice course. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I recognise my own positionality as a settler-Australian with Scottish, Spanish and German heritage. I grew up on Gubbi Gubbi country in Southeastern Queensland and now live, work, and
Essay by Andrew Poduska as part of Contextualising Practice course. The ways in which artists relate to materials and how they are used can offer a great insight into their personal history and the inner sanctum of their mind.
Essay By Alex Cairney for Contextualising Practice The final product will never be as satisfying, as filled with power and potential, as the process of its making. (Grant 2017) Dear Mum, Thank you for clothing, feeding, and nurturing me into
Recipient of the ArtLink Writing Award Year 3. _________________________________ Essay by Lexi Appleby as part of Contextualising Practice course. In this essay, I will explore the growing disparity in cultural capital between rural and urban Australia. I endeavour to
Essay by Lily Baxter as part of Contextualising Practice course. My installation Watching clothes dry (2021-2022) (Figure 1.1 & 1.2) explores the workings of the domestic realm. Through slow and thoughtful making and arranging, the works direct attention to
Essay by Lucas Jennings for Contextualising Practice When artists depict other people in their work, there is an imbalanced power dynamic, and critical ethical considerations arise. As my practice demonstrates, the need for ethical consideration becomes imperative when the depicted
Essay by Amy Gagnon as part of Contextualising Practice course. My figurative painting practice concerns itself with feminist imagery, and in recent years, this has manifested itself through depictions of women engaging with animals, specifically, horses. This essay focuses
Essay by Sophia Liddy for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgment I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which I make, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past,
Essay by Alex Pretyman for Contextualising Practice Introduction Within western archives, be that art-historical, social, queer, other archives, there is a distinct – or to many, not-so-distinct – absence of the asexual and aromantic. Asexuality can be defined as experiencing
Essay by Yvonne Rambeau for Contextualising Practice Introduction The process of art-making can vary greatly from artist to artist. Though many feel the need to exert control over uncertainty through an ordered and planned process, American art educator Erica
Essay by Drey Willows as part of Contextualising Practice course. Content Warning: This essay discusses loss, grief and trauma. On the 16th of April, I spoke to you in text. We spoke about how it would be great to catch
Essay by Maria Flores as part of Contextualising Practice course. Ancient and earthly material in the form of limestone shapes my everyday as a printmaker working primarily in lithography. The crux of my practise is working through my thoughts
Essay by Lara Gough as part of Contextualising Practice course. The objective of this essay is to analyse the importance of sincerity in my artistic practice. I will investigate how sincerity manifests in my creative methodology, cultivation of reference
Essay by Hattie Pervan as part of Contextualising Practice course. Ko Ngongotaha te maunga (Ngongotaha is my mountain) Ko Rotorua te roto (Rotorua is my lake) Ko Te Arawa te waka (Te Arawa is my canoe) Ko Ngāti Whakaue
Essay written by Alexander ‘Pug’ Williams for Contextualising Practice My mother is an artist and a natural dyer. My grandfather was a naturalist, and an engineer. Their passion and curiosity for the world flows through my blood and was
Essay by Ivy Rose for Contextualising Practice So, don’t give me your tenets and your laws. Don’t give me your lukewarm gods. I want the freedom to carve and chisel my own face, to staunch the bleeding with
Essay by Rose Whitlock-Whyte for Contextualising Practice I grew up in a part of semi-rural Victoria outside of a small town, where the bush was my playground. At the age of eight, my family experienced the Black Saturday (2009) bushfires,
Essay by Sandra Flores as part of Contextualising Practice course. INTRODUCTION Contemporary Western thought has been gradually giving the body a more central role (Voparil & Giordano 2015). This somatic turn responds both to recent scientific discoveries and to
Essay by Edie Duffy for Contextualising Practice. The painting Or however many it’s been through depicts the corner of a darkened room, nearly empty, only a solitary bent-steel chair sat against the wall. Projected onto the scene is the
Essay by Odin Strbac Low for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgment I pay my respects to the Traditional Custodians of the land in Naarm (Melbourne), including the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, as well as the Taungurung and Yorta Yorta
Essay by Jade Armstrong for Contextualising Practice Introduction As Fingerhut and Prinz have articulated, the value of art traditionally depended on aesthetic beauty, though over the last decade, notions of value have shifted towards sensory engagement (2018). According to
Essay by Ekaterina (Katya) Ryzhikh for Contextualising Practice The rise in the availability of technology and media as entertainment has had a profound impact on the experiences of growing up. While technology, in particular mobile phones and tablets, were
Essay by Kathryn Ruddick as part of Contextualising Practice course. The ancient spirits are all around us. They awaken from their slumber when someone is willing to listen. They have many messages. To hear them, the student must be quiet
Essay by Jyoti Murray as part of Contextualising Practice course. This essay discusses my current practice that investigates the subtle body as a spiritual-physical system via the framework of Tantra Yoga and Hindu mythology. The inspiration that fuels my jewellery
Essay by Emmica Lore for Contextualising Practice Introduction Welcome to my essay, where humour takes a tumble into the realm of the surreal. It’s hard to shake the feeling that analysing why something is funny is just, uncool. I find
Essay by Ka Yan So (Kelly) for Contextualising Practice The artist transforms the personal into the universal, creating an object that can be experienced and felt by others, that has the power to move and inspire. (Townsend 2019) Creating installation
Essay by Luna Yang for Contextualising Practice According to Stets and Bourke, structured society imparts values that individuals identify themselves with, which form the basis of one’s identity (2000). As a young adult, when it come to the topic of
Essay by Jessica Guo (郭悦娜) for Contextualising Practice When I was in grade two, I was praised by my white teachers for my English proficiency. But at Saturday Chinese School, I was terrible. I hated learning my language. I found
FAST/SLOW WE HOLOMETABOLISE Holometabolism, also called complete metamorphosis, is a form of insect development which includes four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and imago (adult) –Wikipedia Fast/Slow We Holometabolise is a multimedia diary of transformation in the face of illness,
FABRIC PANELS: YOU PAY FOR MY MEMORIES These fabric panels and installations are part of an ongoing series of work from 2021 addressing domestic crafts and labour in both concept and process. The arduous practices of hand stitching, darning, and
‘GIRLY’ AND BODILY is a research project that aims to immerse the viewer in a bodily experience of painting installation that explores excessively bright colours and cute ‘girly’ bubbly forms to reclaim them as a symbol of powerful femininity. I
1994, YEAR OF THE MUTT Evelyn Challinor (b.1994) is a mixed-race Chinese-Australian artist, originally from Gadigal and Yuin Land. She currently resides in Naarm, practising between the fields of fine art and horticulture. Through the process of thinking-through-making, my practice
A REBIRTH. My paintings move between abstraction and figuration, drawing imaginative succour from peasantry and European brides. My work explores the power of melancholia, weaving themes of longing and passing time through transparent colour fields and abstract compositions. I contrast
AHH! MY EYES! Exploration of frames, surfaces, absence, mise en abyme, self reference, eye-brain connection, paradox, distortion of perception. My practice revolves around the interface between the senses and ‘objective’ reality.
TRANQUILO (A VISUAL ODE TO SERENITY) Since the beginning of 2023, my artistic journey has shifted its focus. I originally explored how external influences, such as The Seven Deadly Sins, shape our beliefs and behaviour. This exploration deepened my understanding
THE CHANGING ROOM PROJECT is a research-based investigation on the quest for ideal structural and related processes for a socially engaged arts organisation in 2023. The call for structural change within arts organisations and their funders is made loud
AFTER HOME. Through exploring connections to home, familiarity and nostalgia in conjunction with the ideas of the afterlife, the uncanny and the unsettling, this project merges the two to create a series that not only includes objects from home set
Care | Support | Understanding | Curate | Ethics. I, Freda Drakopoulos, live and work on the unceded sovereign land of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, I acknowledge and pay my respects to Elders, past
FIRST PEOPLES ART CURATION METHODOLOGY AND KEY ANALYSIS OF AUDIENCE INTERPRETATION IN VICTORIA, FOCUSING ON THE KOORIE HERITAGE TRUST, INC. AND MELBOURNE MUSEUM. Wotjobaluk/Djubagalk/Jadawadjali Arts practitioner, Curator and Teacher In 2022, the push for insights into First Peoples lives and
FROM MY MOTHER examines the passing on of knowledge through the maternal line, together with celebrating the female body and their unpaid, unseen, and undervalued labour in the context of Indian culture. Through the framework of contemporary feminism, it seeks to
Troppo Print Studio Graduate Award for high academic achievement in third year. RMIT MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. RMIT partners with weapons companies.Elbit systems, BAE systems, Thales and Boeing Defence (the list goes on) fund research and scholarships, provide internships and work
A HOME FOR LOST THINGS In my creative practice, I have explored the body through drawing and the sculptural medium, unpacking notions of how we host our lived experiences within us, along with what it means to find a ‘home’
BLURRED is an abstract installation work encompassing themes of cultural identity, accidental photography, and liminal spaces. The intersection of these themes is an experience-based work on how blurred identity and layers of the self can become. Accidental photography and the
I AM FEARLESS embarks on the rewriting of self-talk, reconfiguring the internal narrative as a method of post-traumatic recovery. It’s a journey of reclaiming the self through the process of making, reshaping the internal to manifest a better external. The
ALIAS & ARTIST delves into the murky waters of art in the age of the internet. Through layered installations, niche subcommunities are brought out from the ether into the corporeal realm. By merging the online with the offline, the complexities
NOT NOTHING/IT’S SOMETHING explores an embodied approach to materiality to investigate the loss of self and gender politics in relation to creative freedom through a series of metaphorical artworks. Materiality and humour are used to interrogate gender oppression while seeking
Recipient of the Lowenstein Arts Management Prize and the NAVA Ignition Prize. _________________________________ THE SECOND LANGUAGE Navigating Marginalised Ecologies Using a Multi-Disciplinary Practice. This multi-disciplinary project combines ceramic objects, paper, video, and the recorded voice to examine issues of ecological degradation
PURSUIT OF TRANSLATION An exploration of the many transformative processes of casting metal in relation to my automatic drawings. Drawing has always been the cornerstone of my practice. Drawn lines have a magical nature to them, a nature I have
SENSE OF SELF Lover, You Should’ve Come Over [diptych], 2022, ink and acrylic on stretched canvas, 90cm x 90cm. SENSE OF SELF is an exploration of identity through spirituality, symbolism, colour and connection with mother nature. It involves heavily
This project translates the narrative of a person’s intimate life, the moments they find precious by translating casual collections of ephemera and sentimental pictures into permanent formal paintings. Inspired by the seemingly universal way people present their individual collections like
I SHOT MYSELF WITH A SILLY LITTLE GUN, IT WAS VERY EASY TO TALK ABOUT. My art aims to be ‘ultra accessible’ discussing otherwise serious themes with a silly and childish look to it. The use of common material allows
0 to ∞ ‘My painting is not limited at all. I have many possibilities, in terms of approach. And the reason I have that is because I’m not limited by a certain narrative that I want to get across.
FOS”CELL“ISED For this sculptural project, I will sculpt and cast a collection of stylised cells out of plaster, using a silicone-based mould as well as brush-and-pour techniques to create a unique assemblage that represents my themes of materiality, identity and
WOMAN, LIFE, FREEDOM The ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement started as a result of the death of a young Iranian girl named Mahsa Amini who was sentenced to death by the morality police because of not following the dress codes. The
Honours Fine Art Travelling Award. INTIMUS BOUND is a playful exploration of the search for emotional intimacy through imagined, metamorphic and metaphorical narratives. This body of work encompasses a year-long project contained in a single artist’s book. In what often
SLACK, refers to the looseness between taut stitches, alternating between moments of tension and relief. This is a project where fields of expanded painting and craft practices collide, to create works that occupy a hybrid space between painting and textile.
QUIET OBJECTS My Practice is a continuous cycle of making and material exploration, approaching each new work with curiosity and play. This body of work consists of various painting-and-textile wall works that sit alongside small-scale ceramic sculptures. Through the juxtaposition
REALITY IN THE FANTASY How to convey and present a world in ten seconds? There may be different physical laws, different creatures, different geography in this world – the point is, it’s not the world you’re familiar with.
WE WILL BE YOUR HERO BABY An exploration of the painterly as a visual language for creating playfully critical narratives across a variety of historically loaded material surfaces. My studio based practice intuitively draws from a personalised painterly vocabulary
Recipient of the Robyn Beeche Award. _________________________________ OF STRANGE WEATHER Born of the 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism, ‘Breton demanded that a work of surrealist art should be a window through which the viewer could look upon some inner landscape of
UN… DERR.. STANDING… COMMUNICATIVE DRAWING INSTALLATIONS This project looks at the busy mind as author—in the dialogue between the author and the viewer, between the internal and external. The work functions as a gateway between the two, as a means
AI in Museums I have written a research essay on the current impacts and future potentials of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the museum space. As AI has been quite widespread in museums in the last couple of years. It has
WHAKAPAPA BLEEDS RED a material exploration of blood quantum discourse in a decolonial context Ko Ngongotaha te maunga (Ngongotaha is my mountain) Ko Rotorua te roto (Rotorua is my lake) Ko Te Arawa te waka (Te Arawa is my
The Bold and the Beautiful Award. DRIFTING STARS: The sense of alienation seeing through self, objects, place, and community. My work captures and expresses the isolation and the anxiety of self-identity experienced between life in Korea and Australia while
I want to express a highly free modern aesthetic work beyond the pictorial framework of orthodox painting. The project explores the formal and conceptual aesthetics of Minhwa paintings in a nuanced way through material explorations. For me, these paintings
EUDAEMONIA: A rebellious approach to expanded painting Osborne-Snell’s practice encompasses functional art displayed on the body as well as textile wall pieces. His emphasis on unconventional, wearable art creates multidisciplinary parallels between art, fashion and design. Snell works with a
Traversing Girly ✩ Through the act of painting, I traverse the thematics of ‘girly’, a murky term unto itself, and cultivate a dream-like world that subtly reclaims and elevates traditionally trivialised, overtly feminine symbols. My practice is a playful
RESEARCH PAPER: The Value of Inheriting Chinese Traditional Landscape Painting in Shaping an Individual’s Identity. Abstract This paper’s discussion is built upon the significance of identity conveyed by traditional Chinese landscape painting. By applying Stuart Hall’s thesis on cultural recognition,
WHAT CAME FIRST; THE GIRL OR THE BODY is an exploration into what makes us who we are. It is an insight into my own personal being, an answer to the question; ‘am I my own person, or am I
WHAT A PRETTY YOUNG GIRL My artwork in the 2023 Graduate Exhibition is about feelings of anger and conflict about being a woman and wanting to embrace femininity but knowing how tightly that is linked to a capitalist and misogynistic
I AM, I WAS. I was, I am is a textual and painterly exploration of neurodivergence and queerness. The ideas of facets of one’s being are always present, inseparable from childhood to adulthood. I was, I am utilises striking text,
Recipient of the Liquid Architecture Prize. _________________________________ MISCEGENASIAN My practice is interdisciplinary and includes audio-visual media, performance, installation, and publication. Conceptually, my creative work is focused on critical discourses around white supremacy in gay culture, which forms via exaggeration and
Born in 2002, I am a multidisciplinary artist growing into a woman during the age of social media. I am inspired by the ‘trash’ aesthetic of blogging culture and how unrestricted internet access as a child has affected my growth
Spiralling outward from the central practice of drawing, my work covers a number of mediums and practices from drawing to photography, performance and installation. Drawing is often overlooked within the artistic cannon as an approach that is preparatory, or incomplete,
SEX ME UP Ivry Elisabeth is currently creating paintings and tufted tapestry works that explore gender—particularly limiting perceptions of the female identity. Within these works, she has a tendency towards the incorporation of figurative or symbolic elements and kitsch aesthetics
KITTEN HEEL FANTASY Ivy Rose is a multidisciplinary artist working between drawing, print, photography, sculpture and costuming, revolving around themes of queer expression and gender performance. Obsessing over camp, kitsch and the excessively extravagant through their diverse practice, and always
DISTANT RAYS Thermoformed acrylic, citrus dichroic film, a dedo light, a turning mechanism, fishing line, brass eyelets, a speaker and a looped 10-minute soundscape (a recording of the artist playing a rain stick she made and Tibetan bowls). Jade’s work
Recipient of the Perry Summers Sculpture Book Prize. _________________________________ RELOADED LANDS I am a sculptural installation artist located in Wathaurong Country, Ocean Grove, Victoria. Throughout my practice, I explore environmental themes and eco-activist art. I am influenced by my intrinsic
PUNK FAKE-LORE A multi-media project examining the relationship between Central Asian invented traditions and folklore. This project takes messages and themes from Central Asian folklore and recontextualises them to fit into a modern Central Asian narrative as a means of
Recipient of the Artbox Commission Graduate Award. _________________________________ PAPER DETECTIVE is an exploration of non-destructive collage, digital reproduction, and the symbiotic nature of culture and media. Clippings from 90s comic books and fine art books are recontextualised to create modern stories
IMAGINATIVE EXPLORATION OF CREATIVITY is an interactive video installation that explores the potential of our imagination and the human ability to think. Through the use of video projection, sculptural objects and audience participation, I invite my viewer to join the
I’LL NEVER LOVE ANYONE AS MUCH AS I LOVE YOU… OR YOU… OR YOU… OR YOU… This body of work is as an exploration of self and is a love letter to the many characters I have loved across my
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Honours). The Emily Hope Prize- Professor AD Hope Endowment Award. SOMETIMES I CAN’T EVEN SLEEP BECAUSE I LOVE SOMEONE SO MUCH: AN EXPLORATION OF DEVOTION, LOVE, AND CRAFT THROUGH FANDOM
Kings ARI Award. BLINDNESS: A MODE OF ABSTRACTION My practice harnesses my lived experience as a legally blind artist to explore and develop a pictorial language around perception itself. Conceptually, this project is concerned with destabilising the notion of blindness
Northcote Pottery Supplies Award: “LISTEN TO THE WILD BEASTS OF THE ISLAND, NIGHT BIRDS AND WITCHES.” These are all terms that have been applied to women who did not conform to a male dominated society. There is a present and historical
WHAT’S THEIR STORY? The whole thing started with a dusty dilapidated cardboard box at the back of the cupboard under the stairs. It almost went straight into the skip, but B had had dementia and we’d already found a roll
THE HEART THAT BLEEDS IS THE HEART THAT GROWS. A series of illustrative works exploring the essence of healing in solitude. The story-like depictions present a lonely and treacherous process of healing and understanding one’s inner conflict. The objective nature
RMIT Ceramic Student Association Award: My practice revolves around material interaction, with a focus on ceramic-based processes. Driven by experimentation, my work is a continuous exploration into the interplay between material, process and space through mutual exchange. Jasmine Tiger
واﻧﮕﮭﻨﺎ (Light Sleep)
SKIRMISH springs forward, embellishing the gallery space with contemporary allegory. Jazz Duncan’s figures breach the confines of dreams in lively gesticulation. Each evoking curiosity, revelation, and gestalt shift in the onlooker. JAVELIN, the first work in this series, envisions a
Recipient of the BDS Sculpture Prize. _________________________________ COMFORT IN THE FEAR is a work exploring the relationship we, as humans, have with our childhood, and how as we grow into adults we change to see what was once a familiar
LIMINAL In the summer—weather permitting—I tend to sleep with my bedroom window open. Recently, I have been alerted to the presence of ringtail possums by the tell-tale scratching sound of their tiny claws as they run up and down the
MARRIAGE Everyone has a different interpretation of marriage at different stages of their lives. Different cultures and family backgrounds also shape people’s view of marriage. Based on her culture and background, Jennifer presents her unique views and interpretations of marriages
Recipient of the Northcote Pottery Award and the RMIT Ceramic Student Association Club Year 3 Award. _________________________________ CLAY, CONTROL AND I. Jess Dybing’s work explores the changing states between flow and matter on the pottery wheel. Whilst the process of
TRUSTWORTHY WEBSITE is an online interactive installation. It responds to the user’s actions by presenting satirical content through retro graphics, images, and rhetorical texts. These features contain misinformation to arouse suspicion and existential questions on the nature of internet navigation
NOT SO JELLY This project explores the the existence of jellyfish, specifically Peach Blossoms and their current endangerment, through the form of intaglio prints from copper in order to investigate their form and also processes of preservation. It delves into the
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. TOTAL RECALL: IN UNDERSTANDING THE SELF FROM ONEIRIC FRAGMENTS I used to have this recurring dream when I was younger. I would be lying on a conveyor belt in a warehouse by myself, in
YOUR BODY IS NOTHING is an exploration of the abject female body. It is a personal project that began as a way to process my own bodily trauma. I wanted my work to focus on the experience of living
Liquid Architecture Award. ECHO is an immersive installation of reflection and revealing. Named for the Oread, one’s reflection is infinitely duplicated and fractured upon entering the work, as they are simultaneously aware of invisible onlookers who can see clearly through
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NAVA Ignition Prize. 75% MORE FLAVOURFUL: Exploring Thing-power and Trauma through multidisciplinary practice. This Master’s project uses installation, text-based works and image prints to negotiate trauma, self-hatred and shame through accessing the aesthetic possibility of material agency. Through the techniques of collage and
We already live in a world surrounded by information technology, which provides a powerful driving force for the digital economy. There is no industry that is not affected by digital technology, and this certainly includes the art industry. Information and
Recipient of the Sculpture Workshop Prize. _________________________________ ✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿ ╭(′▽`)╯╭(′▽`)╯╭(′▽`)╯╭(′▽`)╯╭(′▽`)╯╭(′▽`)╯ My name is Jiefei Chen. I was born in Sichuan Province, China, and moved to Adelaide, Australia, with my family when I was fifteen, and live in
Dean’s Award for Excellence, Master of Arts (Arts Management). ARTS EDUCATION PLATFORM: BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Korea, a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) agreement has been forged.
COMING HOME My art practice explores my deep relationships to people and places. I create artworks that raise questions and expand my perspective in understanding the complexity of an environment, as well as the fragility of life and memory. ‘Coming
BETWEEN PERSONAL AND THE GENDER POLITICS: THE SYMPHONY OF MATERIAL SUBSTANCES, ACTIONS, AND BODY MOVEMENTS Through creative practices informed by ceramic processes, this practice-led research project explores gender identity within the context of contemporary Chinese society, delving into narrations, experiences,
PLANTS & PLAY DATES Through this series of temporary installations, I utilise intuitive, experiential art making to explore themes of agency and communion. By engaging with living plants and multimedia, I inhabit new and unfamiliar spaces in an open and
THE FOUNDATIONAL MYTHS OF NATIONHOOD The Foundational Myths of Nationhood is an exploration of the myths and practices involved in nation-building. It investigates the commonplace narratives of national identity and it is constructed and directed through the specific design of
DUBBININ is an abstract video work that explores the cyclical, interdependent relationship that video has to sound. The piece employs abstraction and psychedelic imagery to capture the spirit of the similarly spacey soundtrack. This inseparable combination culminates in unfamiliar, interplanetary
EAT YOUR HEART OUT This body of work focuses on the often contradictory and complex nature of the human psyche that manifests in surreal depictions of the human form and anatomy. I view my practice as a means of exploring
QUEER IDENTITY: GROWING UP IN REGIONAL AUSTRALIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ONE’S EVERYDAY LIFESTYLE My creative research investigates the impact on queer people of an upbringing in rural Australia, examining their understanding of identity, community and connections between themselves and
MY BODY, MY POETRY The focus of My Body, My Poetry is the exploration of my Chinese culture with a focus on themes relating to loneliness and gender empowerment. The work employs photographing and capturing video footage of body movement
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. FLOATING I am obsessed with excavating my inner self. My art practice and my life experiences cannot be separated. I am experiencing the ongoing reposition of my cultural identity and collective unconsciousness between my home
Velling Award. My multidisciplinary practice deals with the surreality of the everyday and endeavours to celebrate the beauty of the mundane through my personal lens as a Hungarian-Australian artist living in Naarm/Melbourne. My paintings and objects eschew the making of
SUGAR RESTRICTION This object is made of 9 x 9cm plastic board, interspersed with red and white thread as decoration, capsules containing red and white cotton thread are collaged on the bottom plate. This work is intended to express the
SAFE ZONE SAFE ZONE—an exploration of psychological healing through a performative multimedia installation—explores my everyday emotional struggles, dreams, and memories during the years spent in Covid lockdown. By using a methodology of documenting and sharing, I aim to create an
The Bold and The Beautiful Award. INTO THE CAPITALOCENE “Shower him with all earthly blessings, plunge him so deep into happiness that nothing is visible but the bubbles rising to the surface of his happiness, as if it were water;
NARRATIVES OF THE SUBTLE BODY Based in Melbourne (Naarm), my current practice investigates the subtle body as a spiritual-physical system via the framework of Tantra and Hatha Yoga. Through the process of lost wax casting using non-precious and precious materials,
Mejia Group Exhibition Award for excellence in drawing-based practices: ON MY WAY HOME Is our home irreplaceable? Could our ‘home’ be a specific color, language, people, scent, or a sense of nostalgia rooted in childhood memories? This project undertakes an
WAVE DYNAMICS: an interweaving of wave phenomena, becoming, and geometric abstraction. Waves appear in many forms: in the warmth of sunlight, in colour, in the swell of the ocean, in music, and in our heads and hearts. They are fundamental
TRANSCENDING TRADITIONS is an exploration of personal identity, cultural heritage, and reconnections with the bygone. I am inspired by events that happened but were not documented, embarking on a journey through my untold family history. I uncovered many stories, beliefs,
Nearly Mary Oliphant Prize. M(O)THERED MEAT Inez’s work interrogates the monstrous feminine within Malaysian folklore to challenge the oppressive patriarchal systems held together by tradition and culture. This rebellion against the systemic misogyny that plagues the Malayan society manifests as
DYSTOPIA IN THE WORLD OF FLORA I’m Kasandra Hendy, and I’ve lived here in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia my whole life. I’m 22 years old (b. 3/8/2000), and I’m almost at the end of my study of Fine Arts at RMIT University
UNTITLED looks at the how our experiences pre-colour our perceptions. Wielding the ceramic medium in a way to deceive the viewer’s perception of material reality, the work explores how one might try to intervene in how they are perceived.
THE LOUNGEROOM AFTERSCHOOL IN 2010 A large installation of personally nostalgic pieces brought together to form an emotional bond for the viewer. The installation consists of several old objects from Kasey’s childhood that connects viewers with their own personal entanglements
THEATRE OF OPERATIONS Kat Rae’s work explores how place, memory and experience layer and mesh, and who and what is forgotten after a war. Kat served in the Australian Army for twenty years before deciding to become a full-time artist
Recipient of the Kayell Digital Print Award. __________________________________ MONUMENTS OF PAPER AND SHADOW I am an emerging print-informed artist who draws on my experience as a contemporary female Australian Army veteran and war widow to investigate a tense and problematic
INVITATION TO A MICROCOSMOS is an experiment into the documentation of singular experiences, moments and people in my everyday life. Images are built from photographs of friends, family and environments. This form, a kind of self-portraiture, captures elements of celebration and
Recipient of the Alpha60 Prize. _________________________________ NO ONE TOLD ME I WAS LIVING IN A BRUTALIST NIGHTMARE My installation No One Told Me I was Living in a Brutalist Nightmare seeks to question the impact of growing up in a
BODY AS MACHINE THOUGHT: Human as mechanistic component in a network, human as network, networks within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within networks, within
Composite Award. CYBERROT: CORPOREAL DECAY INSIDE LIMINAL TECHNOLOGIES CYBERROT CYBERROT CYBERROT CYBERROT CYBERROT ROT ROT ROT ROT ROT IT’S ROTTING DECAYING SPREADING DISTORTING GLITCHING ENDLESS
This series of works explores the intersection of intimate quotidian moments and unworldly places through the language of paint. Focusing on figuration, my work investigates how an imagined scene speaks to the human condition and evokes a sense of memory.
Through painting, I find it is extremely important to be drawn to the piece, as the maker, to learn something new and be a part of the work. Ethnicity is very personal and I’ve drawn aspects of my tradition in
FAULTS IN THE BREAKROOM I am Keisha Yan/ Fed, a narrative artist based in Melbourne and Singapore. Currently, my interest is in exploring the overlap between the natural world and the industrial one through absurdist and surrealist scenes. These explorations
Recipient of the Walkers Ceramics Award. _________________________________ Kerrin Samuel is a multimedia ceramic artist who creates artworks that explore the human experience. She draws inspiration from observations of contemporary culture, politics, geopolitics and religion which she sees as powerful vehicles
ABOUT THE ARTIST In the most recent last two years, I have been exploring several themes and ideas in my investigations. My projects from the last two years have been strongly focused on transitioning personal memories and inner feelings
Utilising the expressive qualities of paint, my creative practice intertwines realistic portraiture with abstracted Farsi and Arabic calligraphy to raise insights into the spiritual reality of the human condition. Drawing on the writings of the Baháʼí Faith, a religious minority
FOREVER n EVER This series uses formal values within still-life photography to examine environmental degradation and waste. The project is site-specific; beach plastic waste was gleaned from Port Melbourne Beach over six months in 2023. Staged contemporary Ikebana arrangements of
Recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence, Master of Arts (Arts Management). _________________________________ THROUGH PRACTICE (A RESEARCH PROJECT) This research project examines practice-based research as a topic within a contemporary arts context. In it, practice-based research is recognised as a
Recipient of the RMIT Ceramic Student Association Club Year 3 Award. _________________________________ Hello! I am an emerging Melbourne-based sculptural ceramicist. I have an expanded ceramic practice utilising hand building, modelling techniques and using emotive surface colouring and treatments. My work
GOBLIN STUFF “A mild amount of tomfoolery” Inspired by the aesthetics of children’s picture books, and the playfulness of childhood itself, Goblin Stuff seeks to inject an element of life, joy and humour into the contemporary art space. Working partially in
LIE DOWN This project uses the concept of confessional art and play to aid my broad exploration of the feminine, medical inequality, the infantile, the hereditary, and ultimately the urge to grasp and dictate self through three-dimensional and two-dimensional mediums.
TO THE SKY WITH HOPES AND DREAMS: IMAGES OF RETRACING THE PAST PRINTED ON CERAMICS In this project, I use different art techniques like printmaking, collage, pottery, and ceramics to explore my personal experiences and connect them with broader
Recipient of the Kayell Digital Print Award. __________________________________ HOLY MARYA (MARY) I was born in Iran, where, for the past four decades, a compulsory hijab has been a means used by religious authorities to suppress women. Since arriving in Australia
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. TO LOITERING TO ARRIVE explores the role of vitality in the realm of art and human life. I intend to use animal figures as vehicles, and incorporate my feelings and thoughts about vitality into them. By
THE NATURAL PROGRESSION This is a body of work initiated with the intention of depicting the fish in the tanks at a Chinese Restaurant as a homage to my childhood memories of gazing up at the tanks filled with living
RMIT Ceramic Student Association Award: Working predominately in ceramics, Lauren uses ideas and experiences around trauma, beauty, and men in her ceramic forms to explore and challenge ideas about these topics within society. Using wheel thrown, sculpting, and glaze techniques,
PUNKTURED explores ways in which a contemporary jewellery practice can translate the energy of punk music culture into the 3-dimensional, focusing on ways in which music can both inform and reflect one’s identity. Jewellery has an innate connection to identity
NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP Drawn from ceramics-based processes, my creative practice forms via constituent and material relationships as an exploration of metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the free space of transition outside of notions of containment, restraint, and inhibition.
Leon Zhan is an artist currently working across painting and sculpture. Born in Melbourne to Chinese immigrant parents, Zhan’s highly finished pictorial practice is heavily influenced by his own diasporic experience. Negotiating the orient and the occident, his work articulates
The Moat Bar Awards for excellence in Video and Drawing. THE BEAUTY & THE TERROR My practice marries cinematic and illustrative elements in the pursuit of elevating both, as I explore communication, storytelling and an interrogation of modern romanticism. I
THE HUNT This body of work explores personal identity and societal structures through visual narratives and metaphors. Raised in rural Australia, I utilise the ceramic form to create artworks that subvert contemporary notions of value, creating silhouettes that reference working-class
A CONSTANT SHIFT is a collection of artworks that simulate movement. Each line is placed one after another in methodical motion – a method that comes to me in the moment, a method that compels me to fill the blank. These
I CAN’T STAND IT: A MULTI-MEDIA EXPLORATION OF MEMORY AND EMOTION My drawing practice focuses on themes around memory, sentimentality, and individual disposition, framed via a conceptual representation of personal experience. This is shown through soft gestural graphite and coloured
Dean’s Award for creative accomplishment Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art). EMBRACING YOUR VANISHED SHADE is an exploration of memory, nostalgia, and the intricate interplay of emotions through an interdisciplinary lens. My project blends photographic prints on fabric, poetry, sound, and
Everything casts a shadow, but you can’t always see it. Maybe the shadow is what is left behind. Cat hair on a jumper, bike grease on your shins, food stuck in your teeth. Or maybe the shadow of an object
Recipient of the RMIT Ceramic Student Association Club Year 3 Award. _________________________________ Lily Lindsay is a ceramic artist who makes both functional and sculptural artworks. Her figurative work uses myth, symbolism, and motifs to express personal memories and lived experience.
PIMP MY RIDE: DELUSIONS OF FOUR-WHEELED GRANDEUR Inspired by an upbringing surrounded by enthusiastic car modifiers, aberrant working-class hoons, and an absurdly exuberant TV program dedicated to ‘pimping’ out derelict dregs of cars, Pimp My Ride: Delusions of Four-Wheeled Grandeur
THE TWENTY-FOUR FORMS OF TAI-CHI Tai Chi Chuan is a physical practice which is rich in traditional movements and sequences. Tai Chi Chuan refers to movement that is derived from the philosophy of Tai Chi and utilises the concept of
Addressing the challenge of audience homogeneity in Australian arts organisations The homogeneity of arts audience in anglophone countries has been an issue for arts organisations for many decades. This current research brings an organisational behavior approach and examines the organisational
MADAME BUTTERFLY—a highly distorted interpretation of Puccini’s opera by the same name—is a short film revolving around Madame Butterfly, who is living in self-imposed exile inside a magical cocoon on the top of a faraway mountain. The heroic knight who
REMEMBER ME I am a multimedia sculptural and installation-based artist living in Naarm. I will soon be graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Sculpture from RMIT. I have been a part of many group exhibitions in Melbourne and regional Victoria
Recipient of the School of Art Honours Travelling Grant. _________________________________ NISAM SPAVALA ALI SAM LEŽALA (I WASN’T SLEEPING BUT I WAS LAYING) Looking, touching, being; my research-based practice is an investigation of these three elements in relation to my position
Firestation Print Studio Access Prize. AUTOCRYOSTHESIA From the Greek: auto (referring to the self), kryos (frost, cold, ice), esthesia (sensation, the capacity for feeling). My project, Autocryosthesia, began as an exploration of FOMO (the fear of missing out, as exacerbated
AWAKENINGS ON HIGHLANDS I was born in China and immigrated to New Zealand with my parents at the age of 14. I then spent my university years in Australia. The multiple locations confused the formation of my sense of personal
USE/LESS I am an emerging sculptural artist located on Wurundjeri Land, Melbourne. In my practice, I typically explore childhood and comfort, often using glitter and iridescent materials to recreate the childlike excitement that fades in adulthood. Sewing is also an
Recipient of the School of Art Honours Travelling Grant. _________________________________ SOMETIMES I WRITE SO CONFIDENTLY I START TO BELIEVE MYSELF My practice-led research uses queer ecology as a framework to explore phenomenological spaces of encounter/occupancy. My practice constructs both metaphorical
SELF PORTRAIT WITH OMA (‘Grandma’ in German) is based on an old photograph taken during a visit when I was a young child. For the occasion we got to visit a local waterhole that I would frequent as I got older.
RECLAIMING INSECURITY Stemming from my own insecurities caused by unrealistic beauty standards present in modern media, these works directly challenge conventional beauty standards. Women’s bodies are scrutinised, our organs for eating food and birthing life are subject to beauty standards
TALE OF TIME: EXPLORING THE POETIC EROSION OF 35mm CINEMA FILMS My work explores the remnants of cinematic histories, while also considering its connection to today’s digital landscape. I seek to prompt reflection on the enduring significance of analog methods
A MOMENT IN NATURE reflects upon the Arts and Crafts movement of late nineteenth century in its response to the industrial revolution. Combining textile art with natural dye and eco print, this piece emphasises the qualities of nature and handcraft
UNSTILL LIFE My painting practice forms as a way of gently unpicking assumptions about the way we see and think about the world. In exploring the tenuous state of human disturbances during the Anthropocene, each work sits in a place
Recipient of the Mary Oliphant Best MFA Tutorial Presentation Prize. _________________________________ THE RESONANCE OF A TANGLE engages with bodily agency and constraint through an interdisciplinary practice of painting. By employing material experimentation and improvisation, this project seeks to record an
MAMA SAID (SERIES OF FORMS) Using a combination of textile processes and mixing materials, Maisie creates textural and fluid forms to discuss the body’s many-faceted existence. The artist combines materials such as fabrics, latex, plastics, inks, mirror, wire and the
GROWING UP This series shares my study journey as an international student in Australia and the first time that I was separated from my family and friends in Hong Kong. It documents my psychological status around expanding my comfort zone
Recipient of the Sunshine Print Artspace & Open Bite Student Association Graduate Award. _________________________________ STRATA reflects on the relationship between place and identity as a means of reconciling my immigrant experience. Utilising stone lithography and installation, I explore the concept
Matilda Kate Mourant is a multi media artist with a focus in printmaking. Her work examines printmaking, using various types of copperplate etching. Past explorations have involved screen printing, monotype, cyanotype, and frottage, also experimenting with drawing, written word, collage, and painting. Matilda’s work examines grief, love, and belonging through the examination of landscapes that are significant personal sites, carrying and shaping memories and exploring grounded existence. She explores the interconnectedness of the subconscious and the conscious state through interaction with landscapes en plein air as well as the interpretation of memory.
HER HOME ON CHICKEN LEGS: an interweaving of feminism, folklore, and sorcery My creative practice examines folklore and fairy tales via a contemporary, feminist lens. The working method that I employ involves researching fables to locate stories that may have
PEOPLE, PLACES AND PICTURES explores friends, family and environments, all of which have brought me joy and inspired my artistic practice. These positive connections have been investigated through vivid colour, familiar symbols and organic shapes. The vibrant symbols, created by
HAVEN Colour, pattern, aesthetics, and the home – my oil paintings on canvas capture interior narratives devoid of time but full of nostalgia. My pieces reflect on the human experience and highlight the trivial things in life that mostly go
Mayah Eden Lasky, also known as ‘Melasko’, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm. Primarily exhibiting photography, film, and video installation, her work deconstructs stereotypes and misconceptions by employing a socially-engaged documentary practice. Recently, she has delved into topics such
Print Residency award for high academic achievement in Third Year. WOMAN, WAR AND BEYOND is based on the Japanese military’s forced sexual enslavement of adolescent females during World War II, known as ‘Comfort Women’. This term refers to the Imperial
HOLD AND RELEASE An exploration of causality and trauma therapy through performance, kinetic energy and handmade sculptural elements. This work embodies the instance of trauma tethered to an individual until met with the tools to
SCUM ANGEL is an ode to the symbology of the bat. In a collaboration with artist and peer Anna Pearl, we created an installation which imitated a bats lair. Cages, poetry, paintings and objects in combination with screens
SURRENDER TO A DREAM Large scale installation, sound, sculpture, & video. I have reflected on my experience of a reoccurring fever dream experienced in my childhood. The dream entailed me as a child, in miniature scale, in my parents’ basin,
My work relates to aspects of Pop Art and incorporates elements of painting, drawing, photography and collage through the subject matter of portraiture. My practice approaches aspects of traditional portraiture, such as the materiality of oil painting and coloured pencil,
Recipient of the Australian Print Workshop Award. _________________________________ MIGRATIONAL DISPLACEMENT Ongoing complexities that surround the possibility of a posthuman period bares witness to generational migrational displacement and the breakdown of psychological and cultural identity. The aim of this project throughout
GOD’S FAVOURITE is an ongoing drawing-video project that explores concepts of the human body and its interface with technology. I developed my themes of futurist body modification, sickness and spirituality using my body as the ‘host subject’. My approach to this
GIVING AND RECEIVING AND GIVING AND RECEIVING is a visual exploration of the relationships between people and their societal, interpersonal and internal environments, asking the questions: What do we give to society and what do we receive from it? Can we
TO THE SOUTH OF HOME is a video essay that depicts an imagined conversation between my father and I, as his sudden death left us no chance for a final conversation. Through this work, I attempt to confront my childhood
Recipient of the NAVA Ignition Prize and the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence and contribution to the program, Master of Fine Art. _________________________________ HOW WILL I REMEMBER explores my Chinese-Australian bi-cultural identity by examining the concept of loss and grief.
Recipient of the Tania Doropoulos Prize. _________________________________ ATTENTION ON PERIPHERAL MOVEMENTS Attending to materials and material determination. Shifting, transforming, sliding. Contained and coming undone. Un-restricting materials and re-contextualising the everyday through transformative processes. Transforming material narratives. Taking the functionality of
The ADFAS (Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society), Yarra Branch award. FROM THIS ANCIENT LAND TO THE RIVER DELTA is an experimental interdisciplinary project that combines five mixed-medium banner paintings ranging in size between 70cm x 170cm to 200cm x 210cm and five
AT THE LIMIT OF SIGNIFICANCE is a body of paintings developed through subtle collections from what Bernard Spolski calls the ‘public linguistic space’, where the advertisements, graffiti, and overlapping voices of strangers combine to form the public linguistic landscape of
TIME HEALS OLD WOUNDS is a ceramic installation that comments on the ritual practices found in contemporary Greek culture as a form of belonging. This research stems from family narrative and personal experiences experienced through Greek/Australian transnational identity. The body
URBAN ANIMALIA: Exploring the human-animal relationship within the ever-growing urban scape of Australia. Urban Animalia engages the subject matter of birds, insects, reptiles and mammals as devices to explore the adaptation of animals to the Victorian landscape. I engage in the
COMEDIC MELANCHOLY (Urban Metamorphosis of the Animal Body and Landscape) The artworks I create consider the relationship between animals and humans, within the Anthropocene. Emphasis is placed on understanding the animal experience. My work further considers themes of urbanisation, symbiosis,
Highly commended – Wayne Conduit Prize. NOCTURNAL FLUX – A DIARY OF THE NIGHT My work explores the vitality of the space of night through the influence its atmosphere has upon perception. The work is a dive into the complexity
Using the yielding yet resilient qualities of clay with a playful and intuitive approach, untitled (blue) explores the concept of perception and the way that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Monica is an artist who uses the qualities of
CONFESSING ANIMAL: WATCH ME WRITE BUT NOT WHAT I’M WRITING. A personal exploration in self, extracting as many thoughts from my mind as possible, nothing left unsaid, or unexplored in my conscience. This works takes paper that I have written
Highly commended for Chapman & Bailey Award. Through painting I aim to capture the essence of consciousness by exploring the delicate balance between mind, body, thoughts and feelings. By utilising the juxtaposition of haptic and meticulous paint and drawing techniques,
Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence and contribution to the program, Master of Fine Art. RESTITCH THE FAMILY TIE. My practice uses contemporary enamel jewellery to explore emotional states related to childhood trauma, self-protection and family reconciliation. It alludes, in particular,
Recipient of the BDS Sculpture Prize. _________________________________ THE WASHING is an installation that documents a performance in a natural landscape. A daily act of washing and walking but in absurdity, and the tension of vitality. A nihilistic and Sisyphean portrait
Recipient of the Print Studio Experimental Print Award. __________________________________ REWILDING THE GALLERY SETTING: Nurturing connection with the natural world Rewilding, as a general term, refers to the reintroduction of flora into spaces from which it has become absent. Through print-informed
On a cold snowy night deep in the Canadian forest, a converted yellow school bus stood. Inside, a blow-up pool with my young New Zealander mother and Welsh father, as they watched me come into the world. This bus continued
TRAPPED is a series of three installation works that draw on my own recent and reoccurring situations that make me feel trapped, producing a body of work that emphasise things that I and others struggle with internally and silently, which are
THIS IS SO FUCKED UP My current work comes together through a combination of observing my everyday and my inner thoughts and then turning them into oil paintings. I do this by capturing my surroundings with photos taken on my
