Essay by Jade Cargill for Contextualising Practice The topic of this essay and my art is imagination. Within a world that prescribes narratives and frameworks to understand ourselves that lack depth, openness and personal connection, how can we create art
Essay by Ella Simpson for Contextualising Practice Every work of art is a child of its time, while often it is the parent of our emotions -Kandinsky (1911:9) Writing about the creative process of making art is difficult – specifically,
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 Gina Corridore for Contextualising Practice Needlework is a multidimensional discipline that has historically served as a socialised cultural tradition, an artistic practice, and a form of feminised domestic labour. Needlework has been co-opted as a device to propagate
Essay by Sylva Storm for Contextualising Practice Content Warning: this essay discusses abortion, reproductive rights and queer trauma and contains images of scarification RAW: Nobody who loved me saw it happen (2019 – 2024) (Figure1, 2) is a performance documented
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
Essay by Grace Rokesky for Contextualising Practice ‘Appearance and Behavioral Observations: Throughout sessions, Grace presented tidy and well-groomed. She had short stature, appeared to have a healthy BMI, and mobilised independently. Grace was reliably polite, friendly and cooperative. Grace initially
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 Emily Song for Contextualising Practice Introduction The tendency to overly control and calculate the result of an artwork during the process of making is something that I have relied heavily on in the past, and is a habit
Essay by Timothy Walters for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgement I would like to acknowledge that I live, work and study on the unceded lands of the Bunurong, Woi Wurrung/Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past,
Essay by Maree Nikimaya for Contextualising Practice Content warning: This essay discusses domestic violence, suicide, violence, and trauma From 1995 to 2000, my mother, father, and brother journeyed from South Sudan, which was on the brink of civil war,
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 Angelique Ogierman for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgement I would like to begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations, whose unceded land I live, study and craft on. I pay my respects to Elders past and present,
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 Sahla Safia Arundati for Contextualising Practice In a globalised world, art can powerfully critique societal pressures of conformity and the experience of diaspora. This essay examines how fragmented identities address these issues, using my art practice as an
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 Stephie Ng for Contextualising Practice ‘So, we can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change and it has to start today’ – Greta Thunberg, 2018 In
Essay by Eliza Baker for Contextualising Practice Foreword In 2024, the deaths of several people close to me marked a point of rupture in my life and my art practice. These losses destabilised the systems I had internalised, systems
Essay by Tallulah Ainsworth for Contextualising Practice Building a person is no easy task. There are many parts of a human being that all intersect with one another, and are incredibly delicate and prone to failure (Gray 1858). It is
Essay by Melanie Sky for Contextualising Practice Acknowledgment I acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung, Woi Wurrung, and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the lands on which I live, work, and study. As I
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 Millie Hopton for Contextualising Practice Positionality Statement I am a white, straight, cisgender woman born in 1999, who has spent their whole life in Australia. I come from a stable, middle-class background; my parents remain together, and
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 Sebastian Nuttney for Contextualising Practice This essay aims to detail my approach and methodology for photographic collages. This framework, presented as a manifesto, was developed alongside a body of photographic Collages completed in the early half of 2024.
Essay by Shing Hei Nathan Man As a queer Hong Kong immigrant residing and working in so-called Australia, I navigate the affective residues of displacement, repression, and racialised hyper-visibility. “Clinical psychology tells us that trauma is the ultimate killer. Memories
Essay by Indigo Ripper-Stranieri for Contextualising Practice Introduction / Acknowledgment I offer my respect to the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waterways on which I conduct my research, study, and art practice, the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Worung
Essay by Toni Vallance for Contextualising Practice The requirement to write about my work fills me with a small amount of dread, as I suspect it does for many artists. It is not that I do not like writing
Essay by Sara Jajou for Contextualising Practice ‘The gaze…appears as an adversary, a knife, the evil eye…’ (Neugebauer (eds) et al 2021: 2) The gaze is a knife pointed at my body. It seeks to dissect and dismember bodies
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 Zosia Slifirski Duckett for Contextualising Practice Prologue Two years ago, on a cold wet afternoon in early September, in a moment of strange clarity after a shower, I took a photograph of my reflection in the foggy bathroom
Essay by Anna McCauley for Contextualising Practice ‘Living money and dying humans, metal as tender as skin and skin as hard as metal, taking hands, and dancing round, and round, and round, with no way ever of stopping; the
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 Luke Jones for Contextualising Practice Material > Inertia > Entropy > Becoming In contemporary installation and sculptural practices, the artist’s role is increasingly seen as that of a facilitator of dynamic relationships between material, process, and
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 Alicia Crowhurst for Contextualising Practice Introduction Transmutation is the action of changing or the state of being changed into another form. This essay argues that theatre grants you the faculties to forge transmutative capacity and, thus, engage in a practice of continual
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 Michelle McLachlan for Contextualising Practice In an era where visual information is incessantly mediated, edited, and curated, the question of what constitutes ‘truth’ in perception has become increasingly complex. Artists working with responsive and interactive materials —those that
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
Essay by Christina Rankin for Contextualising Practice This essay explores the connections between textile, memory, and trauma, focusing on how my artwork (pictured in Figure 1) Uniform incorporates these themes both individually and in conjunction. When utilised in art-making, textile
