AND SO THE CYCLE CONTINUES explores the conversation between influence and identity. Experiencing life through memories and cultivating a persona based on superficial notions of nostalgia, identity can be defined in the 21st century as a reflection of the enmeshing
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
I acknowledge, pay respect, and pay the rent to the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands on which I live and work: the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations.
Loss of my assumptive world refers to a significant part of my grieving process, the expectation for a person to continue to be in your life and needing to adjust this assumption after their passing. I explore the changes that
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
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
ALPHA 60 AWARD WINNER VEILED REFLECTIONS – THE WARDROBE AS A LIMINAL STRUCTURE OF INTERSECTING IDENTITIES explores the healing potential of material manipulation and repetitive processes. My practice becomes a physical means of breaking down psychological barriers and confronting
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
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
Winner: The Fullstop Framing Company Award. https://www.fullstopframing.com/ Highly Commended: ACAE Gallery. https://acaearts.com.au/ My work emerges from a process that is both instinctual and uncertain, unfolding without a clear destination. I often don’t recognise what I’ve made until the end.
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
WUNDERKAMMER. Dissection of the mind and matters. Eclectic. Found objects. Curiosities. Undiscovered. Line. Boundary. Trashy. Tacky. Campy. Lace. Tulips. Bugs. Moon. Sun. Bears. Fish. Hearts. Stickers. Gems. Dolls. Teeth. Contemplation. Pearls. Apologies. Locket. Keys. Ribbon. Sequins. Ornate frames. Grudge. Pink.
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
WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE is an invitation to propel this object into motion. I ask you to feel my materials and to watch them turn over, in, and around, as I have. This work is about personal symbolism, transformation
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
PASS THE BUTTER is a self-portrait that unfolds across various mediums and techniques. This piece delves into the emotions I can encounter in the creative process as well as everyday life. I aim to capture how relentless my thoughts and mindset
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
UNRAVELLING is a textile-based work that uses both handmade and found materials to delve into the themes of women’s work, girlhood and personal history. Through weaving and patchworking, the work explores how textiles can hold memory and identity, much like
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
My art practice is closely connected to my life experiences, and this year, I focused on my relationship with my mother as a central theme. I explored the patterns of our communication and how our bond shifted due to the
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
UN-PACK EXPRESSION THROUGH MATERIALITY. My practice consists of expressing emotions through imagery and materiality, pent-up feelings using symbolism as such dog figures which have often seen as faithful, loyal animals. Use of facial imagery and materiality to convey depth within
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
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL AWARD WINNER fragments of deterioration. Betty’s work explores echoes of human presence, navigating the blurred boundaries between life and death. Her creations, influenced by ritualistic and macabre inspirations, feel like personal offerings, through various mediums:
The Grand Tour, A Contemporary Take. Solo travelling and backpacking has been a transformative experience for me. Following the isolation we all felt during the Covid years, I went backpacking through Europe during the winter break 2024. I only took
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
Unearthed looks at the hidden networks below the surface that create a complex, functioning ecosystem that is older than humanity. I derive my forms to represent the connections between mycelium and tree roots; these organisms infuse landscapes. My work aims
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
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,
THE MOAT AWARD WINNER CACHEXIA. A surreal exploration of the decaying body, born from the intersection of personal experience and the unsettling reality of transformation. This body of work reflects an intimate relationship with my own physical form, fusing surrealist
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
Celine Babet explores how a cultural lifestyle has influenced her sense of self by making works of multiple ceramic components. Through her conceptual research, she draws upon childhood memories and family relationships, which are deeply rooted in Italian culture. Babet
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
Megalo Print Studio Graduate Award MYCELIA – a venture into my past, honouring the previous versions of myself that allowed me to become the person I am today, as well as the people in my life who have shaped my
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
KIPPLE. Kipple pays homage to the object and its collector. This work’s nomenclature follows Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where ‘kipple’ refers to the clutter of useless junk that reproduces itself when your back is
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
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
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
Winner: Tolarno Hotel Award. UNIFORM: Autobiographical reflections on the interplay between conformity, gender and neurodiverse thinking. Uniform explores the intricate dynamics of identity, conformity, and neurodiverse thinking within the rigid structures of the schooling experience. The work examines the complexities
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
Winner – Koodak Award for Enamelling – Technical Excellence (presented by Koodak Jewellery Supplies) Haeng-Bok (행복 Happiness & Luck). As a fan of the K-pop group The Boyz, I aim to share the joy and happiness I have experienced
claire.mcvea[at]gmail.cominstagram: @clerliv
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
DUST PIECE. With everything packed into boxes, all that’s left is dust. instagram.com/ms.homunculus
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
The theme of my project is an imaginative exploration of unreal dragons: Dragon is Everywhere. The entire project reflects my ongoing exploration of materials and concepts. I focus on dragons, drawing inspiration from Chinese philosophy and the Five Elements (Wu
UNTITLED captures the idea of abstract ceramic forms that combines two textures. One with a fluid, glossy surface that reflects light and another that portrays a rough, matte texture that’s raw and organic. This creates a dynamic tension between the
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 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
FRAGMENTS AND THREADS. My art journey started in earnest five years ago. My daughter had just commenced her first year at RMIT studying a Bachelor of Art (Fine Art). Seeing how much she was learning and developing her skills in
SHEARED HAIR, SHAVED HEAD. I am a sculpture artist based on Wadawurrung Country with a background in textile art. My practice interprets a language that bears trace of family linage listening to the materials as a generative process. Sheared Head, Shaved
Garland Award for Innovative Storied Object. Highly commended: Chapman and Bailey. Searching for Light, The One Tree, and the Universe in a Piece of Quartz. Debra Higgins is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives, works, and studies in Naarm/Melbourne. Her recent
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
Winner: ACAE Gallery Award. In my practice, I weave together cultural influences, memories, emotions, and the subtleties of everyday existence. Observation is an inherent and fundamental way I interact with and perceive the world, exploring the hidden beauty of my surroundings.
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
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
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
Firestation Print Studio Graduate Scholarship MICROCOSM. Microcosm is a body of work investigating the patterns, convergences and linkages between life on earth. I am interested in the linkages of life and matter through coexistence, and this project is formed on
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
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
Winner: Chapman and Bailey Award. In this series of paintings, I am thematically concerned with creating intriguing geometric compositions of figures and urban landscapes. I seek to cause the viewer’s gaze to travel across a pictorial plane, not rest in
RABBIT OUT OF A HAT: AN AMALGAMATION OF THE FEMININE UNCONSCIOUS. My unconscious. Canvas & paper & oil paint & ink. Archives. Feminist theory. Religious imagery. Obliteration. Bodies. Heart patterned underwear. Balancing Elephant. Targets and foxes and performers. instagram.com/ellasimpsonartist
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
Nothing happens in a vacuum. “I believe that neurobiology can contribute to an understanding of aesthetics, but it cannot do so in a vacuum.” This quote from Siri Hustvedt’s Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women encapsulates the essence of
Megalo Print Studio Graduate Award AKIN explores the merging of printmaking and collage, alongside my investigating of different copper-plate making techniques. Print-making is a rhythmic artform, and can form multiple images from one matrix. It is a very cyclical process,
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
Masking tape, paper, and other bits and pieces: material exploration and jumping between tasks. Over the last year, my practice has focused on investigating and recontextualising a variety of materials – paper, masking tape, nails, canvas off-cuts, found lolly wrappers,
JOSEPH BEUYS CAFE AWARD WINNER THE MOAT AWARD WINNER ENERGY IN MOTION AND A ‘MOVING DRAWING’ – transformations of individual drawings expand into animated projections, manifesting through spatial investigations and sculptural installations. Lines and forms seemingly grow and shrink, sway
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
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
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 Anna Kouvelas for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgment I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to Elders
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 Holly Clark-Milligan for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgement I pay my respects to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations, Traditional Custodians of the land in Naarm (Melbourne) and wish to also acknowledge the palawa-pakana people, Traditional Custodians of lutruwita
Essay by Eugenie Gullifer-Laurie for Contextualising Practice Pain To experience ineffable pain, when it has no identifiable source and no external mark or visible causality, is almost like having hallucinated it. Pain, Elaine Scarry argues, is a form of suffering
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
The focus of this project continues themes I am continually drawn back to in my practice. Broadly, my practice comes from a curiosity for the human experience, and our attempts to explain it. My focus on the body as a
DREAM CATCHERS. Dreams are an essential part of the human condition, acting in the subconscious mind of every individual. Through sculpture, I aim to bring these subconscious thoughts to the forefront of one’s mind, forcing a confrontation between oneself and
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
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
44 Frame Factory Graduate Award GAME GIRLS. Game Girls is a project in response to the sexism seen in the video game industry. The portrayal of the feminine characters in video games is often hypersexual or helpless, diminishing their agency
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
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
My practice is greatly impacted by my experiences with undiagnosed neurodivergence, growing up queer, and grappling with mental illness. While these features of my life inflict themselves upon my work, I find myself experiencing the most joy when I focus
Winner – 2024 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Studio Prize ALL HAIL THE GIANTS – a wooden love story for old growth forests My work is concerned with the deforestation of old growth forests in Tasmania, I am motivated by
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
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
Here With Me is an immersive installation designed as a sanctuary for conversation and connection. Amid the overwhelming negativity and isolation we often feel, this piece invites visitors to step into a space of shared warmth and tranquility. Draped in
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
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
STEALING FOG is an exploration of concealment. I work in an expanded painting practice, with most of my works being concerned with the space between intelligibility and unintelligibility, working with themes of subtraction and obscurity. I often find myself following
UNTITLED is a large-scale nest-like structure that aims to provide a sensory haven of comfort and respite. By touching, holding and even crawling inside of the nest, viewers are invited to reflect on their relationships with their natural environments. This
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.
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL AWARD WINNER At last, You Become Me. At last, I Become You (2024) Through this project, I aim to visually reflect the process of exploring personal uniqueness while encompassing both tradition and modernity. Minhwa, as
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
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.
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
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
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
sixteen years away. My digital painting series sixteen years away, draws from my experiences being an expat until adulthood and the sense of distance in growing up. Each of my paintings, focuses on the coming-of-age journey, highlighting moments of self-discovery,
Heidi Kwong is an emerging ceramic artist currently completing her Bachelor of Arts in Ceramics at RMIT. Originally from Hong Kong, she found solace in clay as respite from her corporate career, using it as a meditative practice amidst the
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
Garland Membership Award. UNSETTLED LIVING. My grandparents said to never buy a house near a willow tree. They said its roots weep as the branches do. Tendrils seek the pipes, entangle themselves in the foundations. Fighting blindly for life,
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
Huihua Gu (b.2003) is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist who focuses on painting and sculpturing. He also explores tremendous areas and ideas, always maintains curiosity, and contemplates with everything and processes. Fascinated by history and events, he shares and discusses them
CONTENT NOTE: reference to gender-based violence. This work was created on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. I’m not the first, nor am I the last. In my lineage— I’m
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
LANDSCAPES AND TREPIDATION. Utilising a combination of oil paint on wood and paper, my works explore the complexities of human fear through a feminist lens. My practice, through alternative mediums and eerie subject matter, explores the anxieties associated with fear
JACK WILLET STUDIO VISIT AWARD WINNER A SLEEPWALK FROM ME TO YOU. When sleep becomes me, I dream of walking from me to you; how the sun kisses my eyes before I can kiss your cheek; I find my waking
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,
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
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
Print Council of Australia Graduate Award My practice explores the intersections of identity, culture, and landscape through the print medium. Inspired by the aesthetics of zines, pop culture, and historical art, my works aims to reflect the cultural narrative around
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
“Obscenity begins when there is no more stage […] A good illusion is a bad illusion, and a bad illusion is a good illusion” —Jean Baudrillard, Art and Artefact. My practice often plays with the associative pathways evoked by the
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
I make art to better understand myself and my place in the world. Belonging in the expanded field of ceramics, my practice aims to push material and process boundaries through material agency and experimentation. My current body of work uses
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
Troppo Print Studio Graduate Award FOR YOUR PLEASURE. Throughout my creative practice, I aim to challenge the traditional conventions of art and identity, often working with unconventional materials and imagery I intend to redefine the measures of fine art.
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
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
Beyond the Uncertainty is a mixed-medium animation project that explores the concept of uncertainty and the experience of having those feelings, while also searching how one gets out of it. This artwork is an autobiography that centres around my personal
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
WILD COMBINATION focuses on the act of ‘authoring’ and ready-made simulacra. Wild Combination reflects on the immateriality of memory, the arduous effort of capturing them and the difficulty and romance of remembering. Part installation, part sculpture, part confessional, part ‘screenplay’
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
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
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
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
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
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
HYPHENATED SPACE. As a print-maker and mixed-media artist, my work navigates the evolving relationship between heritage and modernity, shaped by my experience of living across cultural boundaries. With a focus on themes of identity, diaspora, and the sense of being
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,
Lost in Translation is an autoethnographic journey through the visual iconography of mid-century design and domestic space. Combining nostalgia with visual elements of uncanny disorientation, I aim to create images that appear decorative yet are charged with an underlying narrative
Creating Stuff out of Existing Stuff (2024). During my ever-growing multi-media art practice, my project embraces material exploration, intuition, instinct and ideas of overconsumption via the manipulation of sustainably foraged items and art assemblage. Working within a multi-media and sculptural
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
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
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
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.
Winner: Wayne Conduit Award. When I watch a coming of age film, I feel seen. When I watch an action film, I feel like I can do anything. When I watch a tragedy, I feel the sadness lingering. Film
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
Minerals is an installation characterised by mirror-polished bronze forms, placed in harmony with large natural stones. The work aims to reconnect viewers with their inherent relationship to nature by tensioning the delicate treatment and preciousness of bronze, against the solidity,
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
‘This shelter is always open, this shelter is always ready to receive, this shelter offers you the most precious gift.’ Kepsibel’s creative practice is characterised by a repetitive and ritualistic engagement with the material world. Unbound by a commitment to
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
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.
Winner – 2024 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Technology Prize (presented by Australian Jewellers Supplies) Lachlan Vasic is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, forming sculptures and objects through his practice of gold and silversmithing. He is inspired by day-to-day urban landscapes and
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
Winner – 2024 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Studio Prize Laura de Carteret is a French-Australian artist based in Melbourne, Australia. They started glass blowing in 2021 through the Ruth Allen Glass traineeship program and since then have incorporated glass
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
Technician’s / Studio Karma Graduate Award My practice is informed by research and concept and is constantly evolving as I lean into different modes of making, depending on my project. Currently, I am working with sculpture, installation, and print media
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
Redrafting Reality: Exploring Architectures through Memory and Fantasy In this project I explore the interplay of reality and imagination, combining strict architectural norms with fanciful elements. Inspired by my family’s experience of migration and their memories, I create works that
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
Winner – 2024 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Studio Prize Since 2020, Letitia has shown abroad, with her work exhibited in group shows at OCAD University in Canada, Dunedin School of Art in New Zealand, and another group show curated
So you know, I’m all yours… represents a devotion of love without shame, a dedication of my entire self to the interplay of queer love and sports. So you know, I’m all yours… is a love letter left unsent, a
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
Revolting. My name is Lillian Catriona Flügge. I am a silversmith in training studying BA Gold & Silversmithing here at RMIT. In my final work, the Revolting series pays tribute to the music and fashion subcultures that have shaped me.
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.
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
Lize Myburgh aims to capture that moment when the dust settles and the silence sets in—a moment of quiet devastation where the damage of flooding is still fresh and the weight of recovery feels overwhelming. For her Bachelor of Fine
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
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
FAMILIAR FACES. This linocut wallpaper will turn any room into a vibrant, artistic setting with its vibrant colours and captivating faces. The dynamic faces and the palette’s cheerful vitality infuse a space with personality, making it feel both artistic and
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.
ISQUARED GALLERY EXHIBITION AWARD WINNER ALLEGORICAL AND INNATE GESTURES OF THE HAND is engaged with intuitive modes of making and the symbolic possibility of images. I explore ideas with a multi-disciplinary approach. This encompasses drawing, painting, collage and fabric
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
Madelyn McKenzie is a ceramic artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her work is inspired by the decorative arts, traditions in particular Victorian-era wrought iron. She uses paperclay to create her structures and challenges traditional ceramic hand-forming techniques. Madelyn’s feminist perspective informs
Everchanging and Ephemeral: Exploration of phenomenological experiences in nature. In my practice, I’m interested in the study of phenomenology. I’m especially drawn to expressing my experiences in natural environments. I grew up in a small town on the South Coast
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.
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
Garland Membership Award. Fugitive memories: I’ve watched you my whole life, now I see you. ‘The fragments re-emphasise subjectivity, due to their apparent incompleteness. Fragmented, the self is able to appear and disappear. Fragmentation mirrors the way we experience the
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
I use polymer clay and metal combined with each other. Soft polymer clay is wrapped on the stable form of metal, or polymer clay is squeezed into the space of metal, and finally the polymer clay is hardened by heating
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
Print Council of Australia Graduate Award Michelle is a Melbourne based artist, specialising in printmaking, photography and alternative practices.Her work is deeply influenced by her experiences of traumatic memory. Michelle’s work is a profound exploration of her life experiences,
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
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL AWARD WINNER Reframing perception. As a proud Italian Aboriginal from the Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta people, I enforce change in the art world by reframing the perception of Aboriginal art. My acrylic paintings are my
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
‘where water and earth resonate; ජල තරංගා’ is inspired by Sri Lankan clay jugs that store water. This interaction between materials infuses the water with an earthy taste and scent. The inspiration for the work emerged from a childhood memory,
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
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,
The Un-gendered Object: An exploration of abjection and identity through art practice. “Human perception of the body is so acute and knowledgeable that the smallest hint of a body can trigger recognition.” —Jenny Saville (Gagosian, n.d.). Molly Baker (b.2001) is
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,
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
THE DIARY: EXCERPTS OF MOMENTS AND REFLECTIONS My studio practice revolves around self-exploration and healing and, with this project particularly, engages in the field of confessional art. Through the mediums of drawing, painting and installation, I create this project from
HIKIKOMORI (VR FILM) SHEAPPEAREDTOMEINMYBATHROOMDURINGANIGHTLYPERIODOFISOLATION. SHESENSEDSOMETHINGWASMISSINGFROMTHEHOUSEANDSHEWASRIGHT ITHASNTFELTTHESAMESINCE. SHETOLDMESHECOULDMAKEITALLBETTER. SHETOLDMETHATSHECOULDTAKEMESOMEWHEREELSE. ICOULDBEHAPPYALLTHETIME. SHETOLDMETHATIDIDNTNEEDTOBESOSADANYMORE. ANDILISTENEDTOHER. ILISTENEDANDIFOLLOWEDHERANDIWENTTOPLAYGROUND. YOUSHOULDJOINMEITSSOLOVELYHERE. IMNEVERGOINGTOLEAVE. ALLTHATSHITBACKHOMEISGONEANDIAMSOHAPPYANDICANBREATHEANDILOVEITHERE. WELCOME. TO. PLAYGROUND. You are a child again. Something is wrong in your home and you need to escape, you need to find somewhere safe,
Australian Print Workshop Award. CORRODED PERCEPTIONS is a response to pressing ecological concerns. Embracing corrosion as an artistic motif and a symbol of change, the series addresses a glaring void within traditional and contemporary landscape photography, where the harsh realities
GENESIS An exploration of materiality and mythology through the use of organic mineral materials and Ukiyo-e presentations. Oliver’s work explores the relevance of traditional forms in Japanese Ukiyo-e and Asian mythology, by exploring traditional media such as gold leaf and
EYE DROPS: A collection of works taking reference and inspiration from personal photos of a moment of significance, using bold colour and abstraction to visually warp. The chosen images are distorted in a way to hide a clear visual representation
I make work that anthropomorphises animals—namely pigeons—to showcase common negative feelings of anxiety and mental health in general. Watching and being watched, we are all judging without knowing it all. I create works that pose questions and have multiple meanings
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HIGHLY COMMENDED I went to the Underworld and when I came back Someone else came back with me I heard the wind whispering in them Where dreams have no end My practice is involved with syntax,
Recipient of the Tolarno Hotel Award. _________________________________ VIOLENCE AND INNOCENCE My artistic practice is an exploration of my identity and place within my family’s history in post-WW2 Australia. It is a direct response to my relationship with my family’s photographic
Echoes of Color. My work explores the subtle ways in which color affects human emotion and perception through the unique lustre and texture of enamel. The texture of enamel mimics the delicacy of porcelain and the lustre of gemstones, bridging
Winner – Koodak Award for Highest Academic Achievement (presented by Koodak Jewellery Supplies) The Whispers of Nature. When we feel saddened or troubled by the breath of life, we can open our eyes to discover the healing beauty around
BIG BAD WOLF: WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE Once upon a time, there was a pretty little girl who would always wear a red riding cloak, and everyone called her Little Red Riding Hood. One morning, Little Red Riding Hood
Mejia Group Exhibition Award excellence in drawing-based practices. THE RECURRENCE OF ACTION – EVENT. My practice, my artworks, my studio, and myself all exist as registrations of time—the limitations of it, the flattening of the past and the constant
FUTURE RELICS I am aiming to make ‘future relics’: items that imagine a distant civilisation finding the detritus of our consumer society, combined with remnants of nature, and being intrigued by these symbols of past riches. My pieces often begin
AN INBETWEENNESS OF TIME reflects that great feeling of loss, where time seemingly slips through our fingers. These ceramic sculptures reflect on the things we lose to time, and that grasping plea we hold within ourselves to make things, people
My artistic practice centers on printmaking, focusing on artist books and sculptural art objects inspired by the natural world and the dynamics of human-animal relationships. This project is inspired by my pet python, Plantbeetle, and the negative reactions I often
A SIREN’S CALL Conceptually, I see my work as framed by current gender power imbalances that exist in our world. My personal experience with sexual assault acted as a catalyst for the themes I now explore. My incentive for selecting
WALLS I am an abstract oil painter that lives and works in Melbourne. My paintings focus on colour perfection and fun shapes. I graduated high school dux in studio art, and am about to graduate with my Bachelor of Fine
DRAINS, WALLS. I paint in a subtractive way and flood the gaps with whatever annoying thing persists in previous work that I’ve erased or destroyed. At the same time I was thinking of connections between Wittgenstein’s rejection of a fountain,
On losing oneself, or the breaking and healing of the soul. There is memory in every fragment. A fragment of paper, a fragment of history. Pieces of myself left behind, gifted to every place, every person. There is grounding
PRASASTI KELUARGA, translated as ‘Family Inscription,’ is part of my journey to explore, relearn, reclaim, and reinterpret my Javanese culture and heritage. As a nomadic Javanese, I often feel detached from the core of my cultural identity. My family and I hail
TRANSIENT STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS explores the socialisation of beauty ideals, particularly in the context of girlhood, and how those values affect one’s perception of oneself and the world around them. There is a stage where a girl comes to realise
I explore the beauty in the patterns created in nature, aiming to reintroduce the often-overlooked sensation that nature brings to our daily lives. Although my jewellery is wearable, I am equally interested in how my jewellery can connect its wearer
Separating the Heavens and Earth investigates the basic elements that impress on us visually: pattern, shape, colour, story, and within all these things, balance. Printmaking as a medium creates images through what is taken away and what is left, making
BODIES TUMBLED INTO BODIES: Exploring multispecies entanglements Welcome to the rhizome, you can erase a line in the web but little spores still blow towards you in the wind. ‘Ecology’ is derived from the Greek word ‘oikos’, which is defined
DANCE MUSIC: RHYTHMIC EXPRESSION IN PASTEL AND SOUND I am an emerging artist and practising musician based in Ocean Grove, Victoria. My bold and fluid style, both in drawing and music, has emerged from a quiet self-confidence that allows me
QUIETUDE is an installation work that incorporates and melts into the surrounding exhibition space, the work documenting a play on light (natural and artificial) through an array of pinholes and enamel plique-à-jour windows, across a series of mild steel plates. Quietude
NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER My studio practice throughout this year has largely been an expression of internal dialogue and emotions translated onto canvas through a surrealist lens. My current project focuses primarily on the notion of infantilisation and
SUBTERRANEAN ARTEFACTS At the core of my artistic practice lies an exploration into trauma, memory, personal, and collective histories, mechanisms of healing and repair, and the relationship between body and space. This exploration is viewed through the intersection of existential
Winner – Emily Hope Award for Figurative Work (donor Professor AD Hope Endowment) Growing up on the Mornington Peninsula, I have always had a close relationship with nature; the ocean has long instilled a sense of wonder and contemplation.
Highly commended – Wayne Conduit Prize: Narrative is what drives my art practice. My most recent body of work explores the notion of visual storytelling and has been inspired by a personal mythology I have been writing. My paintings tend
Artbox Commission Graduate Award The Assembly Line is a series of figurative monotype prints on fabric, wrapped around handmade frames. The figures within are Australians and Afghans, farmers, soldiers, mothers and ravers. Through its diverse portraits, The Assembly Line depicts the
My project, (Un)filtered Acts, explores the paradoxical tension between smoking as both a symbol of rebellion and an abject, harmful reality. My feminist-oriented practice has long involved exploring the human body, now extending to a deep interest in smoking culture.
BLOCK HEAD MOVING FEET: Natural Solace or Escaping ‘I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees’ –Henry David Thoreau Embracing the traditional with a touch of modernity, I seek to delve into watercolour techniquesthat
YOU’VE STARTED SOMETHING IMPORTANT, AND NOW IT’S TIME TO COMPLETE IT encapsulates the art experience, and spans multiple mediums and projects. The conventions of structure and reason hold no ground on creativity. Agitation, as one can never truly be safe. Utilising
My artistic work began with an ache – an absence shaped by distance and the subtle weight of diaspora. Living away from home, I felt an underlying urge to adapt, blend, and reshape myself to fit in. Yet, through this
Recipient of the Koodak Award for Enamelling Prize for Technical Excellence— Donor Mr Gabriel Ripka. _________________________________ ACCOMPANYING IS NOT WAITING This project consists of a series of realistic, full-figure animal enamel portraiture forged using metal plates and enamels. The choice
Drawing Studio Award for excellence in drawing-based practices. SPIKE THE CANON – This body of painting re-enacts hyper-masculine forms of ‘play violence’ drawn from niche hobbies such as 90s table top and video games. It investigates the vying solipsisms of
Hillooo! Everybody, listen everybody beautiful artworks on the website uwu. w-well I love all things random, but I am inspire huge by music players named Britney smalls. Some people known me to say (sigh) *demands pats*. Of the other hand
Australian Print Workshop Residency Award WHAT A RELIEF. The phrase ‘chook scratches’ sometimes refers to ‘untidy, organic marks’. What a Relief is a humorous response to three years of printmaking studies. I have created layered photographic etchings using images from
Recipient of the Firestation Print Studio Graduate Print Access Prize.__________________________________ SETTING A PLACE I am an emerging, print-based artist living and working in Djilang/Geelong, Victoria. Having spent the last couple of decades raising my two daughters, I decided to return to
Koodak Award for the Highest Academic Achievement in Third Year Gold & Silversmithing — Donor Mr Gabriel Ripka. _________________________________ AT WHAT COST By focusing on the use of materials possessed with an honest simplicity, together with a deep-seated respect for nature and the environment, my
BRITTLE AND TRANSPARENT LIKE GLASS contemplates my mixed Japanese and Anglo-Australian heritage, exploring the abstract space that exists between these two cultures. Navigating this duality, I confront the intricate emotions of shame and pride tied to my cultural identity, often
WHAT’S IN MY ARSENAL explores the intertwined narratives of what it is like to be a woman who has given a life of service, in support of her country, within an historically male bastion. The resulting work is multi-layered, delving
DEMETER’S LAMENT. Demeter’s Lament is a sculptural composition of entwined material energy from deep ecological time reconstructed into an offering for the post-industrial age, where Ontology and the Anthropocene intertwine in an alchemical expression of materiality. Drawing from Greek mythology,
THE SPONTANEOUS WONDERING In the scope of this project, I conduct an in-depth analysis of human behaviour, juxtaposing it with the behaviours observed in the animal kingdom. This juxtaposition serves to elucidate the distinctions between conscious and unconscious behavioural patterns,
621 ARTSPACE EXHIBITION AWARD WINNER Suggestion. Records of emotion by Sean Leegel.
HIGHLY COMMENDED MOMENTS CALLING ACROSS AN EMPTY ROOM. A teacher once told me in a drawing class, that people are obsessed with time: “You ask someone if they’d like a cup of Tea, and they check their watch first.” This
Selena Xiao is an artist who has drawn inspiration from both China and Australia, capturing the elements of our world through her unique perspective. She not only explores traditional Eastern artistic techniques but also boldly experiments with new media combinations.
My studio work in this exhibition focuses on the grid and how it can be used to recreate an image, both accurately and abstractly. Using the grid as a method for tracing an image onto a different scale and surface
Learning Through Unlearning: The abandonment of Ideas and Embracing Process-Based Painting My work is guided by my interest in deepening the connection of the artist to medium relationship, investigating possibilities that are presented to me through intuitive methods. With a
CAVE LINES & TOUCHSTONES / LEY LINES & SHADOWLANDS This project references origins, cultural identity, and transference, based on an exploration of my Celtic European ancestry. It is designed as a contemplation of my colonist-settler heritage as an approach to
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. SAFETY WITHIN DIVERSE BODIES Sharon Xin Xu (b.2000), 徐欣, is an emerging Cantonese-Australian artist working on unceded lands of the Eastern Kulin nation, Naarm (Melbourne), and the Eora nation, Warrane (Sydney). Her work predominantly examines
A TAPESTRY OF THE MENTAL UNDOING Is an introspective exploration the way mental health challenges can give rise to maladaptive coping mechanisms, while also touching on the profound impact of intergeneration trauma through its selection of materiality. The work aims
HER VOICE. This installation artwork concerned with oriental feminism is inspired by the White Paper Movement in China which protested the COVID-zero lockdown. The white paper was blank in the initial development to reflect that anyone can express their voice
Sunshine Print Artspace Graduate Award Reflections of Light in Time is formed through the combination of traditional copper plate etching and experimental photographic techniques. This work stemmed from viewing reflections of car brake lights on a wet road; this fleeting
LIQUID CHAOS Sienna Mensch (She/They) is a Geelong/Djilang based queer abstract artist, who lives and works on Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri country. Sienna’s work is an exploration of how different colours and forms interact with one another to evoke emotion from
SLEEP METAPHYSICS How is sleeping an unaware pause on our conscious control over our body? The project explores the conceptual framework that shapes our perception of the world through the observation and reinterpretation of everyday human behaviours. By representing sleeping
A DELICATE CONFLUENCE. My practice explores the place where polar forces converge, where light and matter meet, the immaterial and material, the ethereal and the structured; where destructive harshness and soft delicacy exist in the same space. My multimedia works
BOTANICAL CHIMAERA Sirui has a strong passion for exploring how aesthetic forms in nature have inspired the development of her jewellery project in creating its unique aura or atmosphere. She wants to evoke her unique feelings of the vitality in
Through the series Dream States, Sofya investigates the relationship between dreams and reality, as well as mental and physical states. She uses distortion and exaggeration of colour and proportion, in combination with contrast between vivid and clear, and hazy and
Recipient of the Megalo Graduate Residency Program and Open Bite Student Association Travel Award. _________________________________ WHERE THE OCEAN IS THE SKY I & II My practice for the last decade has been in graphic design. However, after moving to Melbourne from
WET CAPSULES/SOFT-GORE My work employs the basic internal and external structures that mammals belonging to earth are made up of. Skin, muscle, organs and bone are the physical elements that highlight the simple yet interesting organisation of our bodily systems
My practice takes up space, it exhausts itself emotionally, and tears its own heart out. Obsessions and emotions are pinned down temporarily or cut up and recreated. It is a way of finding my voice and looking back before moving
A GESTURE OF GRACIOUSNESS is an exploration of the relationship between fractal formations, symbiosis and our relationship with all other members of the biosphere. I see fractal patterns, including their healing, connective and structural properties as essential to life, underpinning everything
From embroidering the earth’s mantle to embodying the earth’s core: a note to the spinner. While it is wedged often in discomfort, it, like us, is the product of stellar aspirations; one of a time long ago. I rest here
PEACOCKING is a ceramic exploration into sexuality and the reproductive systems of animals and humans. This year I focused my investigation on the courtship displays shown by certain birds-of-paradise and the seductive body language shown by humans. My research has led
Offcuts and Fragments is a series of assemblages exploring the beauty found in remnants, including the leftover metal material found by me around my space and in the shared studio spaces. This material often goes unnoticed in creative processes. The
TO CARRY A PIECE OF HAPPINESS Χαρά – the Greek word for Joy, a feeling of delight. I am a second-generation, Greek-Australian artist living in Naarm. My ceramic practice utilises a combination of walking and play to get into creative
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” –Georgia O’Keeffe. My painting series, Thoughtful Chaos, delves into the joyful physicality of painting, embracing spontaneity and instinct
ONCE MY FLOWERS FELL INTO THE OCEAN. An exploration of lost connections to the maternal and biophilic, a project of stories and solace. Through Victorian botanical language, I narrate the resurgence of my maternal line from patrilineal control. Complex surfaces
Elements of thought relating to the passage of time circulate with a focus gravitating towards human connection, relation and experience. In recognising the connection and collection of moments we share through solidarity and commonality, an exploration of mark-making, materiality and
ILLUMINATE ME. For this body of work, I am interested in marrying mixed media with ready made domestic objects through a camp lens as a means to materialise introspective philosophies and the queer self. The choice of lamps is a
HIDDEN AND CHANGE Yeung was born in China, grew up in Hong Kong and is studying in Melbourne. Yeung is a contemporary artist who combines wheel throwing, carving and the ceramic process to create sculpture and functional pottery. He is
SWALLOW is a single-channel experimental short film created as an exploration of the cinematic psychological thriller and horror genre to engage with the discomfort of the self, exposing the deafening fear of being alone. The film blends the horror of
COMING ONTO ME: AWAY FROM ME. I want to write you a love letter. This project considers desire, and discomfort. ‘Often it is the desire between us and the object of desire that fills the space in between with
BENEATH THE SURFACE Tahlia Diaz’s artworks reference nature expressed through the experience of mourning and grief. She has devised a unique form of coil rolling that creates a deteriorated and heavily textured clay surface by carefully assembling the repeated stretched
BLIND FAITH. Walk through the desert for 1000 miles. Feel the steps of your body as you do, the shift of your clothes as they brush against your body. Your truest protection against the beating sun that betrays no cardinal
RETURN INTO THE ARMS OF YOURSELF – A SANCTUARY is a biodegradable instillation intended to create a space of comfort and respite. The work aims to emphasise the need to check in on personal well-being, both physically and mentally. People get
My creations are the machinations of my subconscious, I never know what I’m doing when I do it. I simply start and keep on going, it doesn’t feel like I’m making work, rather that it’s making me. I have been
RMIT Ceramic Student Association Award, Stockroom Ceramic Award, & R.L Foote Design Studio Award: VITAL MATERIALITY Tatt’s interest in New Materialist theories informs the technique of assembling multiple porcelain tesserae or cut and refined ceramic tiles. The physicality of individual
A World We Left Behind Do you remember your dreams upon waking? What is the earliest memory you can recall? This project is intently concerned with memory, but doesn’t aim to depict any type of overt imagery related to existing memories.
MY MOTHER’S SILENCES COME TUMBLING OUT OF ME A documentation of moments and memories I never existed within or remained a part of, through exploring the significance of our finite existence and the unpredictability of memory. Engaging with the opportunity
‘Sew, what’s wrong with you?’ is a large-scale soft sculpture installation work, using humour and the Pop Art style to engage with topics of pain, disability and medical spaces in a light-hearted way. I am a multi-disciplinary artist working in
Timo Walters is a sculptural artist whose work explores the imaginative potential to reconstruct human subjectivities and narratives by investigating the interconnectedness of things. As humans become increasingly connected and knowledgeable, the absurdities of our interpretations of reality are brought
Exploring the notion that materials are imbued with memory, my practice investigates the affective power of objects when included in figurative and still-life imagery. Collecting and preserving objects that once sat as quiet backdrops to our daily lives has become
THE STAIR, AND THE STAIR is a sculptural installation that mimics the shape of an RMIT staircase. The work is a presentation of a section of the stair through the eyes of the artist’s mode of thought. The stair is
WHAT LURKS IN THE DARK Enforcing the innate fear of the dark and what hides within, Tyler’s painting depict various unappealing andunsettling entities alike. A collection of over thirty different artworks shrouded in darkness in a semi-interactive experience for the
TO GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE A series of multimedia works exploring the tradition of storytelling With a deep passion and love for storytelling, my series of works are the result of my constant rumination on the topic as I ponder on the
Valentin Ostrom is a French-born jewellery artist whose Mediterranean countryside upbringing defines much of his identity. Valentin’s sensitivity to the natural world and previous science background play out his exploration of biology, botany and natural phenomena in an artistic context.
SUBLIMINAL DREAMSCAPES Subliminal Dreamscapes is a series of works that aim to explore the fragility of mortality, nuanced morality and the essence of life. Through dark aesthetic choices and compelling
Recipient of the Kayell Digital Print Award. __________________________________ THE SPACE BETWEEN Propelled by an endless fascination with the natural world and our relationship to it, my work is often site-responsive, based on my own engagement with the urban and natural
Walkers Ceramic Award & Stockroom Ceramic Award: FACETS OF A CHANGING LANDSCAPE This body of work reflects the different facets of the changing Australian landscape. Drawing inspiration from controlled burns and wildfires, I blend and contrast the devastation they cause
Tolarno Hotel Painting Prize. CANDID: AN APPRECIATION OF MOMENTS THAT ARE OFTEN OVERLOOKED Vittoria Cugno (b.2001) is an emerging Melbourne based artist who specialises in oil portrait paintings. In the past year, Vittoria has focused on capturing candid moments in
MODERN DAY ROMANTICS – an exploration of hook-up culture and the modern dating scene. With online dating being at the forefront of the modern dating scene, this print-based research project investigates hook-up culture and the impact that the cyber
THE LAND YOU STAND ON SHAPES WHO YOU ARE. Vivian has lived and studied across three countries: China, Australia and Sweden. Each culture changes her ways of seeing and making. Vivian interweaves the essence of different cultures, while exploring her
Recipient of the Print Studio Experimental Print Award. __________________________________ This project is an investigation into how I can create a more sustainable printmaking practice by making a relief block that is infinitely recyclable. A lino block is a thick
MY SOUVENIRS FROM MELBOURNE This project is based on observations of buildings in the City of Melbourne. I employ digital illustration and animation to create a series of sketches, combining my Asian background with further city exploration while on my
Winner: Trocadero Art Space Exhibition Award. http://www.trocaderoartspace.com.au/ Highly Commended: ACAE Gallery. https://acaearts.com.au/ I lift my heart with my hands into the night sky, Hanging it on the crescent moon. The heart feels soft and fluffy, almost weightless. Looking down, I
My research is related to memory, and I collected many memories and images from my childhood and recollections. My collection reveals around ‘dreamcore’ and desserts from my childhood, the millennial generation, there were very many drink and dessert shops, and
RIBS AND STARS is a series of painting works that bring together abstraction, figurative work and symbolism to explore contemporary ontology, spirituality and existentialism. This body of work considers the questions: ‘What knowledge, intuitions and instincts have outlived all traditions, institutions
I Squared Gallery Exhibition Award for excellence in drawing-based practices: ADORATION: DROWNING INTO THE PAST. This practice involves a process of a gradual transition from affection to an attachment, ultimately an obsession. The symbolic space, objects, and colour repeat and
MIRROR AND ILLUSION Xiaoyou Fu is a contemporary artist. By exploring photography and mixed media, I looked at other ways to communicate emotion and depict ambience. I also exhibited certain ethereal aspects of Eastern culture in an abstract form. Through
BY THE POND is a series of works in response to the pond in Carlton Gardens. These paintings draw from my experiences of this place and the duck’s impressions on me. Over the past year, I have been visiting the
TRANSMUTATION AND INTERTWINING HUMAN – ORGANIC STRUCTURES is an exploration into the themes of home, loss, and regrowth. This project investigates the profound connections that bind humanity’s subconscious thoughts with our intrinsic ties to the natural world. These works are
PERSONA I have slowly slipped into the life of an immigrant since 2017 when I started studying in New Zealand—then attending university in Melbourne from 2020 to 2022, where I will be graduating at the end of the year, and
Highly Commended ACAE Gallery. Highly Commended Tolarno Award. _________________________________ The Unseen Energy. “Non-be-ing (wu) is the beginning of the heavenly and the earthly; 無名天地之始 Be-ing (you) is the mother of all myriad things. 有名萬物之母” My creative exploration delves into the
DYING BUT ALIVE IN THE FALSE WORLD Reborn—Can The Cyber God release souls of Bionic Ghosts from purgatory? This project focuses on cyberculture and contemporary beliefs regarding spirits and ghosts, expressed through the medium of an immersive space.
BDS Sculpture Prize for outstanding folio I SAY I HAVE BEEN A STRONG LOVER explores the paradoxical experience of desire and its effects on the lover. Encompassing at once absence and presence, pleasure and pain, desire is described for
RMIT University Library Art Prize. Joseph Beuys Cafe Drawing Award for excellence in expanded approach to drawing. MY LAWYER THE BUS STOP: a discussion of the unseen, exploring contextualisation through spaces and realms. Currently, in my practice, I have been
Project ILLUMINATE Documentation of the ancient Jewish ritual of Candle-Lighting on Friday night before sunset, as well as on the eve of Jewish holidays. The custom is for women over the age of three to light a candle (married women
UNSTILL My work engages with ideas relating to inspiration and influence. Our perspective on everything doesn’t come naturally, we learn how and what we see. Unstill is a series of non-narrative, still life oil paintings, made using multiple layers where
THE MAGICAL JOURNEY: CORAL AND PHOENIX is a fictional story about the magical adventure journeys of Princess Coral and Phoenix. The five metre long mixed media painting is divided into twelve storylines. The stories reference Western and Eastern myths, religious stories,
FESTERING DESIRE – A LONGING FOR THE MAKE-BELIEVE you are what I drown myself in, a virus, my obsession. This series of work culminates as a result of years of therapeutic abreaction – bringing forth repressed emotions of fear, guilt,
AN UN-COMING OF AGE The still-life object acts as a vessel in the exploration of the beauty of the everyday. Its accessibility and familiarity allow the bowl, the vase, the cup, to resonate universally. The stylisation of the vase becomes
CHAMBER: HEARING THROUGH SILENCE Musical scores document my rhythmic thought processes, with spheres and lines fulfilling the composition. This personal visual language is paired with figures which serve as emotive, or tempo markings. No visual hierarchy is given
海洋污染一直是人类面临的严重问题。海洋覆盖了地球表面的70%。随着社会经济的发展，人们的工业对海洋造成了严重的危害。我的项目与海洋污染有关。我收集了关于海洋污染及其对海洋生物的影响的信息。在我的项目中使用的主要材料是塑料。我订购了一些废塑料，并试图重新利用它们。
