Serena Wardell
All That is Life
Oil on board, hebel
The body of work is a concept comprised of, what is given to the human race and what is taken advantage of by the privileged side of society. It is a visual interpretation of the contrast between first world greed and third world hunger that is known and acknowledged yet goes unnoticed in the flavor of food over buying and waste, pollution, materialism and the filthy extravagance in the name of the twenty first century. We as a society have lost touch with simplest forms of humanity, the things that make us human beings; emotions, our connection with nature, hard work and the art of taking every moment for what it is worth.
Rachel Mott
Anti-Matter
Acrylic on wooden board.
Conflict x: A Series is an artwork about different conflicts we face in our world, from racism and war, to mental health and suicide. I chose to create a body of work about a passion for change as it is something that is important to me, both witnessing different conflicts around me and within myself. The visual and conceptual aspects of this artwork are in juxtaposition; to illustrate the harshness conflict has both on people and on the world. The four panels are created in conjunction with one another, that being, Meat Grinder, the gruesome and inhumane acts of war, Anti-Matter, destruction of men because of colour and pride, Self-medicated, survival by being masked and drugged up and Conclusion; By My Own Hand, out of the barrel and into the cranium.
Saskia Peacock
Acrylic on Canvas
A Mother's Touch
Inspired by my environment, through my artwork A Mother’s Touch I wanted to express the energies of mother nature; to disclose how I see her, to amplify what she is and express her femininity.
In my artwork, A Mother’s Touch I have placed the woman, Mother Nature, in the position of power. She has the moon and the sun incorporated into her eyelids, and tree trunks sprouting from her hair. The man in the artwork depicts aspects of death, like the skull teeth on the jaws and the pale blue lips. She, Mother Nature, is almost pulling the man out of the woods into her light.
Wade de Bruyn
Pulse
Oil painting, acrylic paint, spray paint, cotton, wire, various
Pulse is a body of work made to represent the way I view myself, showing the different sides of me that people see and don’t see.
I have tried to show this by taking photos of myself and placing them on stands, that look much like trees, entangled in red cotton attached to a black wire sculpture of a head with the red cotton bunched in a ball on top of the head. The cotton symbolizes all the thoughts, emotions and memories that run through my head.
The oil painting of the heart represents my heart, it has a wire outline in matte black it is attached to the wood panel at the bottom and longer at the top. This holds it up, while making it lean forward over top of the sculpture and photos, it also has my own earphones hanging and tangling around the wire. This symbolizes not only how music is my heart and soul but, how it controls my mind and my thoughts. This is shown as the headphones look like they’re strings to my mind.
Kye Flodine
Travels
Oil on Canvas
This body of work has been defined by my experiences of traveling through Europe - my paintings are inspired by places I have visited such as Denmark, Italy, France and Norway as well as landscape artist like Claude Monet and Isaac Leviton. I have chosen to paint in oils in a realistic style as just as I looked out upon the landscape and experienced a range of emotions from freedom to awe, I wanted the viewers of my paintings to feel the same.
Daniel Bowen
‘Life’s Good” , Income Inequality
Mixed media on cardboard
Income inequality is one of the most problematic global issues to date. It is the difference found in various measures of economic well-being between groups of people. This sees masses left struggling under the circumstances whereas others prosper. While many of us are caught up in our lives of fresh coffee for breakfast, who's with which Kardashian and which Louis Vuitton bag compliments the outfit, we fail to pay tribute to an even larger group of people suffering under the pressure of the economy. The "Life's Good" series strives to make the voices of these people heard by bringing them out from the background in the comparison of wealth with high hopes of making a difference.
Harry Martin
Survival; Pollution
Acrylic paint on canvas
The artwork, Survival; Pollution conveys a similar message to that of Survival; Contamination as it again refers to the pollution and struggle for survival in today’s environments. The increasing waste and plastic added to the ocean has its affects. It shows a lonely turtle, swimming through a dark stagnant ocean of plastic and waste. The wearing of the gas mask implies further that the water is unfit for self-sustained existence. A plastic bag tugs at the turtle’s leg, another bottle not far from its head, inferring something it cannot escape from; a constant nagging reminder of what this planet has become, a trash can.
Harry Martin
Contamination
Acrylic paint on canvas
In the artwork, Survival; Contamination, the main message conveyed is that of the struggle for survival in today’s environments. With the increase in deforestation, a decrease in population of animals and their habitat. To convey this message, the Kangaroo, painted black and white for contrast and the message of black & white film (being a thing of the past) implies that the Kangaroo is currently being outlived by its surrounds; It too will soon be a thing of the past. Wearing a gas mask further implies their current situation and dependence needed for their survival, unable to escape as it is all a deserted wasteland of death. Furthermore, the tree evolving into a chimney shows how evolution plays an important role in survival; evolve, as the tree and kangaroo have, or be left behind.
Saxon Wood
“ Fade to Black”
Digital Photograph
Shot entirely on the Set of local War Film ‘Danger Close,’ this piece captures the brutality of war in a completely harmless yet harsh environment. Inspired by black and white Vietnam war photography, this photo encapsulates all the worries of war without showing it directly to the viewer. An insight into the issue of war without showing much gritty detail - only the rain, mud and brotherhood.
Jack Wiki
You are what you eat
Watercolour and pen on watercolour paper
Drug use and abuse leads to both mental and physical damage to the body but what is most concerning is that those who are taking part in drug use know what the long-term effects and outcomes are arising from their addiction. “You Are What You Eat” explores the dilemmas that intertwine with drug use and encourages the viewer to think twice, maybe even three times before they decide to experiment with drugs or continue their habit.
Cody Corbett
Reflection, Drive, Friendship, Mirror, Intimacy
Digital Photographic print x5
Through these images I am focusing on the idea of making people think differently through visually investigating an amputee and how the approaches to daily tasks and life are considered.
Harry Cox
Pain is Beauty
Acrylic paint on canvas
Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder… beauty is a construct formed by a society and a specific demographic, infiltrating the hearts and mind of every man, women and child from the moment they open their eyes. The 20th and 21st centuries are the most connected the world has ever been in human history, and with this connection comes the high accessibility of visual media showcasing what the perfect body should look like. With the introduction of social media platforms such as Instagram, motion pictures, and advertising came the commodification of the human body… every women petite with slender curves… every man with six pack abs and bulging muscles, subconsciously developing the idea in nearly everyone – that has access to these medias platforms – that this is beauty, and this is how I should look to be beautiful. With this commodification of the human body came the development of conditions such as: bulimia and anorexia to become small; bigorexia to become “cut, big, and massive”; and the need for men and women to modify the construct of their body with tattoo’s, make up, and ornaments. All the aforementioned issues fall under the banner of body image; all of these issues involve the destruction of the natural beauty of one’s complexion, the tarnishing of one’s individuality to look like someone, or something that is not them. On earth we appear to be the only organism that behaves in such a way, no other mammal, amphibian, or insect does this.
Dougal Coleman
School Stress
Acrylic paint on canvas
This artwork is about the stress teenagers experience during school. Under significant pressure, often a student becomes extremely overwhelmed with school work. It is under this pressure that a person truly expresses themselves. Does school make a difference to people’s personality?
Kai Robson
Dream Space
Digital photographs
This work combines three different photos presented to resemble a book/zine looking image to convey the idea of a narrative between the two images through their juxtaposition.
Having the female looking back at herself in both photos represents her having her mind in a different time and place, one in a dream space. In response to the concept of ‘Time and Place’ I wanted to explore how we are able to be somewhere physically whilst at the same time be elsewhere in our minds and the relationships between these two states of being. This duality that can coexist in our minds led me to question which then is the most real space, the physiological or the psychological, and the connections we make between places and dreams.
Tom Heran
Surface Inverse
Digital photograph
This work explores my thoughts on human perception and our grasp on reality. I feel that we see our reality in a limited blinkered way, usually from our own standpoint only, and are unable to view things from others perspectives. Our world is so complex and so many facets overlap increasing our inability to really understand it to any great extent. The overlaying of two images taken from an unusual vantage point in my work, conveys this sense of complexity beyond our seen reality. This view is as real and valid as a standard view of the same scene, and exists at the same time and place as an image from any other perspective.
Zac Simons
Bourgeois
mp4 Film
My film ‘Bourgeois’ explores peoples’ attitudes and the idea that how we react to our surroundings, what we do, shapes who we are and how our life will be. Our perspective to life therefore forms that life. If we don’t keep up with technological changes we will become disconnected and isolated. The punchline of the joke included, ‘a skeleton walks into a bar, and orders a beer and a mop’, meaning if the skeleton drinks the beer, he will need to mop it up, references the actions of the character who tries to do things he knows he can’t, and is disappointed when it fails. The story conveys how our ever advancing modern world has lost many traditional values we once cherished, and how the now technological ridden society in which we live, has trapped many people as prisoners of their technological devices, who are unaware of the outside world. The lack of soundtrack and colour, and the even pace of the unfolding story help communicate an overall effect of hypnosis, introspection and alienation.
Matilda Amor
Waves
Ceramic sculpture
My sculpture was inspired by the endless repetition of the waves rolling in along our shores, the waves forming and then flattening on the sands of the beaches. They vary in size and fullness and the timing between each differs and yet there is comfort in the relentless monotony of each following the other. It is like the earth breathing in and out, and represents for me the underlying natural forces that often go unnoticed by us due to their perpetual consistency. These cycles of nature and the interrelationships between them became the focus of my exploration of the concept ‘Time and Place’.
Asmeret Kesete
Reality in Mosob
Mixed Media Sculpture
Sometimes we think that we know something when in reality we do not, and most of the time some things are not what they are perceived to be. With this truth in mind I decided to appropriate a common object from my country, Eritrea. The Mosob is a traditional bowl used at celebrations such as weddings to serve food and snacks.
My work aims to lament the effects of war on my country at a time when everyone thinks all is well. Instead of celebration, my Mosob focusses on the theme of conflict with the contents being toy soldiers, bullets, sand and fabrics to inform the viewer of the plight of Eritreans.
By bringing in a blend of colour and not just any colours but the national colours, I aim to deliver a message of unity, to honour the memories of soldiers who fought for freedom by making a better Eritrea; something that the government seems to forget. With this work I seek to promote understanding; that even though the war in Eritrea is over, the people and the country are still suffering and the current government has done little to change things.
Lily Brightwell-Booth
Rooms
Mixed Media Sculpture
‘Rooms’ is focused around the disintegration of traditional childhoods of the past. Ten years ago children were outside spending their days playing on the street. In just one decade there has been a dramatic shift. Nowadays children are largely addicted to technology and spend their time indoors. I have represented this in the white doll house which symbolises the simplicity of the past. The interior rooms show a deeper meaning each representing a different scenario in a child’s life when connected. The rooms are intended to reflect bullying, social media, disengagement or unhealthy foods. Mirrors allow the viewer to realise that people’s realities are indoor and detached from the outside.
Thomas Isakson
Synthetic
Synthetic is an abstract sculpture formed to depict the abuse of performance enhancing drugs and the associated body dysmorphia in particular within bodybuilding. The colourful exterior symbolises the attractiveness of the health and fitness industry and the world’s sporting elite yet the black interior shows the truth of the dark side of using illicit substances to cheat in sport. The twisting and distortion are the effect caused by using drugs and how it cracks and peels the perfect shiny exterior to reveal the evil within. The use of empty pill capsules (approx. 10000) also symbolises the façade that these athletes build by using drugs to push the boundaries of their chosen sport.
Ruby Pagram
‘Fall or Float’
Pencil, acrylic paint, wool
‘Fall or Float’ draws light on to the way in which childhood trauma can have lasting effects through to adulthood. Banksy’s piece ‘Balloon Girl’ has been appropriated – in the original artwork the girl loses grasp of the balloon, however, in this version the she is holding on tight to the “balloon” to represent how victims struggle to let go of abuse. ‘Fall or Float’ allows viewers to question whether the lady is trying to escape her trauma or if she is falling, continuing to be tied down by her childhood experiences.
Jasmin Chan
‘In the Blood’
Acrylic on Wood
This self-portrait reflects my identity through symbols reminiscent of each culture that has impacted on my identity. The most influential Japanese presence is represented by the Rising Sun flag and Koi fish and my Chinese heritage through the Golden Dragon. Growing up in Australia is represented by the Southern Cross. The three cultures, presented in harmony, depict how my ethnicity mixes in unison to form my identity.
Mason Marshall
“Agent Orange”
Acrylic on Canvas
Both the Vietnamese infant and the orange are a strong symbol of the devastating effects of the Vietnamese War. From 1961 to 1971, the program Operation Ranch Hand run by the United States army, sprayed over 73 million litres of toxic chemical agents, the chemicals in Agent Orange are linked to birth defects and disorders in newborn children that have blood connected to the war. The Vietnamese baby is symbol portraying the many innocent lives that have been born into this world, consumed by the consequences of the chemical. The helpless child stares into a future impacted by this war.
Cooper Thiesz
‘Face of Death’
6 x A4 Graphite and Charcoal on Paper
Face of Death is a collection of severed animal heads commonly associated with the types of meat regularly killed and consumed by humans. Tying into the theme of Memento Mori, the heads remind us of the inevitability of death.
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