BYRON SCHOOL OF ART: 'TEN THIRDS' 2021 GRADUATE YEARBOOK by Byron School of Art

TEN THIRDS BYRON SCHOOL OF ART GRADUATE YEARBOOK 2021

TEN THIRDS Welcome to the Byron School of Art Yearbook of 2021 in which we celebrate and showcase the work and ideas of our graduating third year students. Established in 2013 the Byron School of Art (BSA) is an independently run tertiary art school situated in Mullumbimby, Northern NSW. BSA prides itself in providing rigorous inter-disciplinary, practice based programs for students wishing to explore methods and ideas in the visual arts. It is with great pride that we acknowledge our third-year students who have had to navigate another challenging year of disruptions due to the ongoing pandemic and resulting lockdowns. Despite these challenges they have forged ahead with dedication and perseverance, making great strides in their practice. In such difficult times, an understandable response would be to put art aside to focus on more pragmatic concerns. However it is in times like these that the artist’s role of re-interpreting the world takes on an even greater significance. Through the eyes of the thinkers and makers we can be reminded of what is essential and be shown alternative perspectives and ways of seeing. The images and text in the following pages show a diverse range of investigations, and demonstrates these students’ willingness to experiment, consider and push themselves into unexpected territory. The BSA directors, teachers and staff offer our warm congratulations to Anastasia Saphira, Jenny Schirmer, Cindy Alice, Elizabeth Dwyer, Priya C. Link, Shanti Des Fours, Susan Davidson, Tamara Lea Cox, Tiffany Gee and Bill Meertens. We have loved working with you and witnessing your development and we look forward to seeing how your work evolves in the years to come. Byron School of Art would like to pay our respects to the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and meet. We honour their elders and their abiding connection to land, waters, place and community.

2021 BSA YEARBOOK

Anastasia Saphira Roland Barthes: Hmm.. yes, language is never innocent. Orange funnel: What do they say? Pink rope: They talk about their art. Orange funnel: To have made art is not enough for them. Knock, knock. Pink rope: They have to talk about it. Who’s there? Marcel Duchamp: The creative act is not Dada. performed by the artist Dada who? alone; the spectator brings Dada Hugo Ball said gadji beri bimba glandridi the work in contact with the laula lonni cadori gadjama gramma berida external world by deciphering bimbala glandri galassassa laulitalomini. and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus Knock, knock. adds his contribution to the Who’s there? creative act. Marcel. Alois Riegl: Ja Marcel! Art is incomplete Marcel who? without the perceptual and Marcel Duchamp. Destruction is also creation. emotional involvement of the Lord Shiva: That’s what I said. Creation viewer. and destruction are attached. Ernst Gombrich: Ah! That is the “Beholder’s If something dies, another Share”! thing takes birth and Eric R. Kandel: Yes, we know now a everything between creation crucial principle of brain and destruction is your function: our brain takes the journey of life. incomplete information about Marcel Duchamp: But that’s long-winded, the outside world Lord Shiva. As soon as we that it receives from our eyes start putting our thoughts and makes it complete. into words and sentences von Helmholtz: And details are inferred by everything gets distorted, the unconscious mind to language is just no damn create a complete picture! good…We never understand Anil Seth: We don’t just passively each other. perceive the world; we Lord Shiva: actively generate it. Orange funnel: I don't understand. Pink rope: Use your intelligence, can't you? Orange funnel uses their intelligence. Orange funnel: I remain in the dark. Marcel Duchamp: Exactly. Merleau-Ponty: Language transcends us and yet we speak. Knock, knock. Who’s there? Pink. Pink who? Pink rope! Let’s make art!

anastasiasaphira.com

1 The Head of a Dead Code (digital print on paper) dimensions variable 2 The Path On Which There Is No Coming and No Going (installation) detail shot

3 Flowers Appearing In One’s Eyes (bamboo paper) installation 68 x 90cm stitch and oil paint on board) 61 x 48cm 4 My Original Face Before I Was Born (braided hair and rope, jewellery boxes) 14 x 42 x 54cm 5 The Path On Which There Is No Coming and No Going (installation) dimensions variable 6 My Mother, Not Born, Not Dead (wrapped objects, batik fabrics, string) dimensions variable 7 The Sound of One Found Object Clapping (installation) dimensions variable

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1 Monument (spray paint on drafting film) 60 x 45cm 2 Backyard Shadows (mixed media on board) 60 x 40cm

Bill Meertens Do you ever ask, what might happen if I try this? With this question I set out on a process of experimentation and discovery. I often start with a distinct idea of what I want the work to look like, however the outcome seldom resembles this starting point. I have learned to embrace this discrepancy. There is so much learning to be had in choosing a different path from the one intended, it creates a fluidity of mind and process. For me the act of making marks on a surface and feeling the physical movement of the hand, the arm and in some cases the whole body, is playful, like dancing on a wave.

@billm_makestuff

Shades of my life filter into my work. Memory fragments of growing up in Newcastle in the late 60’s, a city of natural coastal beauty and grimy industrialisation. This work is influenced by both the harbour-side industry and my love of surfing. During school holidays I would go to work with my father on the docks and steelworks, exposed to the austere machinery and buildings that cast dirty shadows over the rail lines and the oftensmudged skyline. In these works of shadow, light and movement I feel the contrast between the starkness of industry and the fluid nature of the ocean. The sense of movement is created using spray paint and glazes to build depth on the transparent drafting film and the vibrant colour of the shot silk on board. Both surfaces have a luminous quality that I have used to capture the mystery of shadow, light and unseen objects moving with changing weight and rhythm.

“I feel the contrast between the starkness of industry and the fluid nature of the ocean.”

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Surge (spray paint on drafting film) 60 x 84cm Cold Work Rolling (spray paint on drafting film) 90 x 334cm Beyond (mixed media on board) 80 x 60cm Expansion (mixed media on board) 80 x 60cm

2021 BSA YEARBOOK

Cindy Alice My wish is for increased resourcefulness in the world. For “waste" to be mindfully redirected. I’m drawn to gathering discarded materials and breathing new life into them. That has become the backbone of my art practice. Rescued items from tips and skips, combined with twine, plant materials, the photographic image and print, has formed the bulk of my works. Recovering and redirecting the discarded. Breathing new life where no more was expected.

@cindy_i_alice

Combining then paring back, often leads me full circle, returning to the original. I’m led, time and again, to thinking about what is enough. I’m humbled by handling and researching simple materials, into how they’ve been used throughout time in various cultures. In themselves, the materials in their traditional applications (weaving, paper making, carving) have become receptacles and record keepers. In my daily life, I’m moved into making, out of a need to find practical solutions to everyday situations. Similarly I believe craft was borne out of a response to practical need, often applied in combination with aesthetic sensitivity – thus fulfilling a range of needs – from the functional to the creative.

“Breathing new life where no more was expected.”

1 Whittlings (Coral Tree wood) variable sizes 2 Pierced I (wood carving pierced print on handmade paper) 30 x 22cm 3 Palimpsest I (handmade paper) 20 x 23 x 15cm

4 Fulcrum (handmade paper and twine wrapped rocks on found shelves) 40 x 56cm 5 Spraggle I (woven inflorescence frond) 40 x 34cm 6 Mobius (print on handmade paper) 30 x 22cm 7 Meiosis (Coral tree wood) 42 x 12 x 8cm and Conduit (Thneed) (knitted twine) 220 x 16cm

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Elizabeth Dwyer Forgotten memories What are photographs but the stories left behind and souvenirs from the past. Photographs form a connection between us and our shared histories. The subject matter of my work are places around the area where I live in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Old work sheds, run down structures, aged materials feature in the images. In producing my work I like to look at the photographs from a different angle, giving them an interest in themselves beyond the image they contain. Then through the process of using these images in creating a print, they take on another form.

@elizabethdwyerart

Some of the works involve sandpaper used as a substrate; a strong paper coated with abrasive material used for smoothing and polishing. Today we are saturated with photographs that show a perfect, filtered world. Images are smoothed and polished to show an ideal of life. However, I am interested in the old, the worn, the forgotten physical world that has persisted over the years, and the stories, memories, imagined and recreated, that remind us of a bygone era. I am drawn to the ability of a photograph to transport us to another place and connect us to our past. My work is a catalogue of the human stories that exist throughout time. An archive of memories that seek to provide an answer to the question of our own mortality. This human process is part of understanding who we are, where we have come from, what our place is, and what we will leave behind.

“I am drawn to the ability of a photograph to transport us to another place and connect us to our past.”

1 1 Just yesterday (photographic transfer on sandpaper) 23 x 28cm

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Cherished (photographic transfer on rag paper) 19 x 28.5cm Falling together (photographic transfer on rag paper) 19 x 28.5cm Simple pleasures (photographic transfer on rag paper) 19 x 28.5cm Turning point (photographic transfer on rag paper) 19 x 28.5cm Growing (photographic transfer on rag paper) 19 x 28.5cm

2021 BSA YEARBOOK

1 Chalk Messages on the Footpath (mixed media) 13cm x 24cm x 7.5cm 2 On the Washing Line Soft Linen (acrylic and polyfiller on timber) 18cm x 14.5cm 3 The Mint Grew Best on the Shady Side of the House (mixed media) 53cm x 58cm x 7cm

Jenny Schirmer As an emergency nurse I witness people responding with grace and resilience to extremely confronting situations daily. I’m inspired by the human capacity for empathy and our willingness to work together to care and protect the most vulnerable in our society. My work explores the relationship between a defined framework and the softness that can exist because of it. While moments of architecture and space are examined through considered shapes and scale, it is the balance between the safety of structure and a playful freedom that I am searching for.

@jennygillschirmer

I seek a connection between found objects and man-made materials where shape, colour or texture conjures elusive memories of time or place. The formal elements play together until I notice the moment when the familiar becomes something new – previously unknown. My love for discarded and unassuming offcuts relates to family and the spaces we inhabited that no longer exist. The space I enter when making, tangibly brings the past into the present. Clarification through the physical act of making has the capacity to solidify and resolve those experiences. Current investigations revolve around themes of institutional structure, authority, and science. My confidence in these is underpinned by the reverence with which I hold the knowledge and insights gained through formal education and research. High school was an important place for me, even before I attended as a student as it was my father’s (a maths teacher) workplace. This work reflects nostalgia towards my school, my hometown, and simpler times.

“While moments of architecture and space are examined through considered shapes and scale, it is the balance between the safety of structure and a playful freedom that I am searching for”

4 Sunny Side (mixed media) 22 x 17cm 5 Cuisenaire Rods and a Yellow Rain Hat (acrylic, timber) 5 x 17.5 x 14.5cm 6 The Ivory Tower (mixed media) 58 x 38 x 32cm 7 Moving Up, Looking Down (ceramic, found object) 27 x 24 x 9cm

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Priya C Link “Art is necessary in order that man should be able to recognise and change the world. But art is also necessary by virtue of the magic inherent in it” – Ernst Fischer When I received the diagnosis of a terminal lung disease four and a half years ago, I was catapulted into focussing on what is most important. I have never let bad news hold me down for long. Soon my positive nature emerged and I decided to focus on my love of creating and inspiring in order to leave something meaningful behind. Covid strengthened this desire and made me want to make a difference by affecting people’s consciousness. @priyaclinkbyronbay

At BSA I have learned the value of research and how it leads to unexpected investigations and discoveries. It has given my work a greater depth of meaning and introduced me to artists and ideas that have inspired and challenged me. At the beginning of third year we were asked to research an object. I chose toilet paper. At this time in history it seemed like an interesting metaphor to explore. I learned that one tree creates only 200 rolls and that production consumes 27,000 trees daily! This information prompted me to set myself the challenge of creating an installation involving 200 toilet rolls. Apart from hinting at climate change, peeling back the layers of these rolls reminded me about the fragility of life and the many psychological layers we all possess. I enjoyed the meditative process which gave me space to reminisce about my life and brought with it feelings of immense gratitude.

The paintings are informed by daily sunrise walks which I have been calling my ‘temple visits’. Walking on the beach in these times of divisiveness made me feel connected with the natural world and humanity, reminding me that deep down we are all the same. In my works I want to bring the viewer into the moment and help them glimpse that place within themselves where there is no separation.

"In my works I want to bring the viewer into the moment and help them glimpse that place within themselves where there is no separation"

1 Tree of Life Series (toilet paper, beeswax, Red Cedar wood) approx 15 x 26cm 2 Self Portrait (ceramic on wood)16.5 x 16.5cm 3 Gratitude (toilet paper) size variable

4 Prayerful Stillness (acrylic and mixed media on canvas) 91 x 112cm 5 Adagio (acrylic on board) 25 x 30cm 6 Solitude (acrylic on board) 25 x 30cm 7 Tender Rapture (acrylic and mixed media on board) 25 x 30cm 8 Essence Emerging (acrylic and watercolour on board) 25 x 30cm

2021 BSA YEARBOOK

1 Black Sea (acrylic, oil, plaster on board) 50cm x 60cm

Susan Davidson A Time for Stillness Years roll slowly by Unpredictable seasons pass A time for stillness

@susandavidson2480

Shaped by a seemingly geological process, leaving paint in folds and crevices whilst higher surfaces appear windswept and worn, this body of work speaks of unknown futures and distant pasts. The layering of different materials creates a palimpsest of visual language, leaving traces of earlier ideas and forgotten stories. Through this somewhat apocalyptic narrative there runs a thread of hope and courage or a gentle acceptance that time will present its own solutions. Evolution is inevitable. The notion of time as geological, a laying down of sediment later ravaged by weather; linear, a man-made construct that marches us collectively toward an uncertain future and certain death; vertical, as gravity and atrophy pull us gently toward the earth; and cyclical, the seasons, the days, the hours and the time pieces on our walls and devices, keeping us accountable and organised in our daily lives, is the underlying theme throughout this body of work. The viewer may be rendered uncomfortable or resistant to these discourses, experiencing a possible cognitive dissonance, feeling a need to explain things away or reject information that conflicts with existing beliefs. As journalist, environmentalist and Dharma meditator Catherine Ingram writes in her essay Facing Extinction:

“You may begin to experience anticipatory grief for everyone. Few people are even minimally prepared, emotionally or physically, for what is coming, perhaps especially those who are most privileged. But for those of us who cannot look away, we carry the anticipatory grief for those who cannot bear to look.” By juxtaposing dark moody tones with soft pinks and antique whites, the viewer is invited to consider the option of a meditative calm, and to hopefully experience acceptance and stillness when considering our conjunct and uncertain future. Indigenous elder Miriam Rose suggests, as she experiences the peace that dadirri brings, to bless yourself with the following thought: “Let tiny drops of stillness fall gently through your day.”

“Let tiny drops of stillness fall gently through your day.”

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History Repeating (acrylic, plaster, rope on board) 70 x 100cm What Lies Beneath (acrylic, gauze, hessian, linen on canvas) 50 x 75cm Calendar of Hope (acrylic, oil, plaster, ink, gauze on canvas board) 120 x 90cm Drifting (oil, plaster on board) 40 x 40cm

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Dawn (graphite powder on paper) 21 x 15cm The Stars, They Speak (photograph on metal) 61 x 41cm Steady (photograph on metal) 20 x 30cm Shadows Under Tired Eyes (photograph on metal) 31 x 46cm

Shanti Des Fours I’m Starting To Unravel Here When I was 10 years old I had a best friend who was 13. She lived in a house that resembled a small medieval castle. In hindsight, I think it was just a brick house with a fancy roof. At the time though, it was wondrous. We bonded over a shared conviction that magical creatures were definitely real. This was not a far-fetched notion for either of us. I was raised on the fringes of a small religion with a blue god. She was raised in a castle.

@shanti.desfours

Although clearly relevant in retrospect, it was not our shared faith in the mystical that set the course for this body of work. Instead, it was a comment my best friend made one afternoon while we searched for fairies by the creek at the bottom of my parents’ bush block. Casually, eyes trained a huge fern above us, she observed: “When you look at that you see it as green. But I could be seeing it as blue. How could we know?” My whole world stopped dead, suspended in a kind of shocked awe as the forest around us flickered from greens and browns to ... NEON PINK! After a moment, things slid into earthtoned motion once more. But my world was a little off kilter. It never really righted itself. I’m Starting To Unravel Here is a nod towards that childhood epiphany; one I am sure I share with many. How could we ever really know? I’ve spent the subsequent years clinging to and then discarding various versions of reality. Getting lost in questions of truth, faith and perception.

Lately, these questions play out in the quiet of my own mind while I go through the motions of an increasingly solitary and introspective home life. A life that has become unravelled in this new pandemic reality.

The domestic spaces I reference in my work have come to represent thresholds for me. I’ve spent my days trying to catch a glimpse of something beyond memory, belief or projection. But it’s as though my eyes are refusing to adjust to the dark. Instead of finding certainty, disparate truths converge and the reality around me becomes distorted. Forms become unrecognisable. Figures get lost in the dark. These works are an attempt to give visual form to this experience. Despite my constant urge to make sense of them, my works are deliberately indistinct. I’ve grown to love hearing people’s descriptions as though they’re gazing at Rorschach’s inkblots, giving me brief insight into their own secret histories. Each medium brings its own distinct quality and insight for me. Working with installation helps me to refine and clarify my ideas. I turned to water and light as a means to examine the tension between transparency and obscurity. The known and the unknowable. I work with oil paint for it’s suppleness and freedom. My paintings tend to be changing right up until the very end. They are dreamscapes, portraits of consciousness. And it was while I had the camera pressed up against my cheek, attempting to capture a ‘replica’ of the real world while simultaneously obscuring it, that I really began to understand what it is I am interested in. My work is concerned with the subjectivity of the real.

And The Dark Retreats (oil on canvas) 57 x 46cm

Night Visions I (oil on canvas) 122 x 90cm

2021 BSA YEARBOOK

Tamara Lea Cox "The highest level of expression is not to create something from nothing, but rather to nudge something which already exists so that the world shows up more vividly" – Lee Ufan

of growth and decay, in which nothing is ever lost or gained, only in a constant state of flux. This idea is represented as a continuous thread throughout my work, as is the space between the known and the unknowable.

Experimentation with materials is the main focus of my practice. Often working with found or discarded objects varied outcomes might include assemblage, sculpture, photography, video, site specific installation and painting in the expanded field. The documentation of these encounters, in both the natural and built environments, then also becomes the work.

@tamaracox_art

Chance and experimentation are intrinsically linked to my enquiries by allowing intuition, sensibility, and the innate properties of the materials to guide and inform this process. Each action leads to another; constructing and deconstructing forms and concepts to reveal properties of the materials themselves, often through juxtaposition. Within this state of flux, the work is often shifting, employing elements of balance, weight and gravity to find a harmonious and lyrical relationship between objects. Individual elements remain changeable and (only where necessary) objects are secured temporarily using methods such as wrapping or binding. While most enquiries are centred around materiality, the work occasionally reveals a glimpse of a memory or experience to the viewer. Drawing inspiration from my immediate surroundings, relationships and experiences, and observations of the natural world, I am interested in exploring the rhythm and poetics

“Nothing is ever lost or gained, only in a constant state of flux.”

1 Encounter (a spontaneous act cannot be repeated) (found objects, rope, cabbage, sump oil installation) dimensions variable 2 Affinity (digital print) 24 x 18 cm 3 Gravitate (found objects) dimensions variable

5 Mercurial (Cast Concrete, Glass, Stainless Steel, Copper Pipe) 110 x 90cm 6 Mettle (found object, string, tape, light) 195 x 80cm

2021 BSA YEARBOOK

Tiffany Gee “To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees” – Paul Valery My current work involves an acute attentiveness to “seeing”, or direct observation, which requests a definite concentration and patience. I’m interested philosophically in how art can initiate different states of being and develop capacities which bear fruit in other areas of daily life. The practice of art and the contemplation of the artistic process is a genuine spiritual practice.

@tiffanygeeart

Both my father and grandfather were architects and each of their personal styles have had a resounding influence on my work, both aesthetically and ideologically. I’m inspired by the principles of Classicism, Modernist Architecture, Bauhaus, as well as the work of individuals like Le Corbusier and Luis Barragan. I’m influenced by architects, philosophers and scientists, as much as I am by artists, such as Euan Uglow, Antonio Lopez Garcia, and Morandi. I carefully compose and notate the paintings using geometry and other mathematical calculations. In the still life paintings, I chose objects based on their design – an appreciation for the physical form, proportions, or colour. This will often determine all the design considerations of the painting. Other times, I choose objects that relate to my research and interests in the field of natural sciences, philosophy, ancient history, and spirituality. Research is a rewarding part of my practice where I always leave room

for serendipity. I derive joy from following coincidences which arise during research, and find it consistently surprising that these coincidences lead to real-life correspondences.

"I’m interested philosophically in how art can initiate different states of being, and develop capacities which bear fruit in other aspects of daily life"

1 Glass Vase (oil on linen) 84 x 87cm 2 Blue Bottle (oil on linen) 46 x 41 cm

3 Remedies (graphite on Stonehenge paper) 38 x 57cm 4 Bonzai Scissors (graphite on Stonehenge paper) 38 x 57cm 5 Flowers in Vase (charcoal on Stonehenge paper) 57 x 76cm 6 Arch and Bottle (plaster) 23 x 23cm 7 Assorted Works-in-Progress (photograph)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Byron School of Art gratefully acknowledges all of our sponsors and student prize partners for their generous support of the BSA Graduate Program, including this yearbook. YEARBOOK and GRAD SHOW SPONSORS Byron Arts Magazine, Baker & Daughters, Arthouse Gallery, Still @ the Centre, The Yellow Brick Studio, Rock of Ages, Stone and Wood, The Bucha of Byron, Brookie’s Gin, Three Blue Ducks, Blue Boy Studio, Harley Graham Architects, Creative Road, Pack Gallery, James Hardware Mitre 10 and Steve Waller. STUDENT PRIZE PARTNERS Northern Rivers Community Gallery for the Byron School of Art Graduate Award Byron Arts Magazine for the BAM Award Byron School of Art also thanks Diana Miller for designing this publication, Michelle Eabry for photographing the students’ work, Stephen Finlay at Fastproof Press, Jo Petrou for her assistance with sponsorship and editing and Emma Walker for coordinating the publication and photographing the students. BSA DIRECTORS AND TEACHERS Christine Willcocks Michael Cusack Emma Walker James Guppy Sarah Harvey

Michelle Eabry Admin Joanna Petrou Admin Kate Leggett Accounts TEACHERS OF VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH & PORTFOLIO (3rd YEAR) Emma Walker Michael Cusack Christine Willcocks Travis Paterson Chris Bennie Murray Paterson

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THANK YOU AND SEE YOU IN 2022...

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ISBN 978-0-646-85121-1