2017 ArtNow and Creative Generation Catalogue

ArtNow

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ArtNow Pinnacles Gallery 9 September – 1 October 2017

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PUBLISHER

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

Gallery Services, Townsville City Council PO Box 1268 Townsville, Queensland 4810 Australia pinnacles@townsville.qld.gov.au (07) 4773 8871 © Gallery Services, Townsville City Council and the authors 2017

Pinnacles Gallery 9 September – 1 October 2017

Exhibition organised by GALLERY SERVICES

Gallery acknowledgements

Judith Jensen Acting Team Manager Galleries and Libraries Erwin Cruz Exhibitions and Collection Coordinator Louise Cummins Education and Programs Coordinator Rob Donaldson Digital Media and Exhibition Design Coordinator Carly Sheil Digital Media and Exhibition Design Officer Samuel Smith Digital Media and Exhibition Design Fellow Leonardo Valero Exhibitions Officer Jacquelina Jakovljevic Exhibitions Officer Sarah Monts Public Art Officer Sarah Reddington Education and Programs Officer Nicole Richardson Education and Programs Assistant Danielle Berry Arts Officer Wendy Bainbridge Gallery Assistant Jo Lankester Gallery Assistant Madisyn Zabel Gallery Assistant Chloe Lindo Gallery Assistant Jake Pullyn Gallery Assistant Rachel Cunningham Gallery Assistant

Pinnacles Gallery, Riverway Arts Centre 20 Village Blvd, Townsville QLD 4817 (07) 4773 8871 pinnacles@townsville.qld.gov.au www.townsville.qld.gov.au

/PinnaclesTCC Opening Hours Tuesday - Sunday: 10am - 5pm Monday Closed

Pinnacles Gallery would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance of Townsville City Council in realising this exhibition.

Thank you to all participating schools, teachers and student artists: • • • • • • • • •

Annandale Christian College Ayr State High School Kirwan State High School Northern Beaches State High School Pimlico State High School Ryan Catholic College St Margaret Mary's College St Patrick's College Townsville William Ross State High School

Cover image: Lauren Bozzetto Year 12, Ayr State High School Bowie - Evolution [detail] 2017 Acrylic paint

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ARTNOW is an exhibition of works by senior students from the North Queensland region; delivered as part of Gallery Services’ Creative Classrooms Program. This annual exhibition is the result of ongoing collaboration between Gallery Services and Secondary Schools across the North.

The exhibition is open to all students who are currently studying any creative arts subjects in Year 11 and 12. Students are given no restrictions on subject matter or mediums and the exhibition is inclusive of all art forms.

Participating students in the exhibition experience and employ some of the professional practices required in the art world. This includes areas like submitting work for an exhibition, preparing artwork for display and communicating the concepts and processes behind their work to a public audience.

ARTNOW recognises the creativity and diverse talents of young and emerging artists within our community. This year’s exhibition is no exception with 55 student works from 9 secondary schools on display. Gallery Services is proud to support and showcase the work of our latest creative generation.

Louise Cummins Education and Programs Coordinator

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Alyssa Greggery Year 11, Annandale Christian College

Metamorphosis Pencil

2017

This artwork was inspired by M.C.Escher’s Metamorphosis I, that features several seemingly unrelated subjects morphing together to form one cohesive artwork. In this piece, I made pebbles turn into lily pads turn into gears in an amalgamation of natural and man-made elements. Shape is key to this artwork, with circular objects featured repeatedly.

Mia Gale, Grace Cavuilati, Eliza Reeves Year 11, Annandale Christian College

Waterfall

Mixed media

2017

This is a work of social commentary, that speaks for itself.

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Raymond Smit Year 12, Annandale Christian College

A product of each other

Charcoal

2017

This self-portrait portrays the ability of others to influence one’s identity - from family members, and friends to the person you walked past on the street. The hands represent those people.

Some are shown pulling and grabbing. Others, encouraging and steadying as they mould my identity. Different people can have different impressions on you, influencing you in different ways, positive or negative. Be wary about how you might be moulding the people around you and who might be moulding you!

Erin Carlile Year 12, Ayr State High School

Self Identity - Li Cunxin Mixed media and collage

2017

The true identity of people is often overshadowed by past experiences. This work of Li Cunxin displays his strength of purpose and identifies with his cultural heritage. His solo career in dance particularly ballet grew from his determination and passion which enabled him to shape his existence and be true to his own identity and true to those he could inspire.

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Lauren Bozzetto Year 12, Ayr State High School

Bowie - Evolution Acrylic paint

2017

David Bowie is a legend and inspiration to many with his personal beliefs, talents and performances required consistent evolution.

The artist was never one to accept the normalcy of stage performance and took his creative genius to new heights through song and drama. Each time he thought the public knew him, he would change his style - a chameleon act. This evolution of self is reflective in Escher's Curl Ups as they roll across the canvas. Would the real David Robert Jones please stand up?

Katie Barnes Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Fragments into the Future

2017

Acrylic paint, fine point pen and fractured CD

Fragments into the future portrays insight into a life of a mother and a blooming daughter.

With its vibrant floral attributes alongside a contrasting map, shows the illuminating journey of a girl within a newer generation.

This is a representative piece of my upbringing as it displays both the positive and negative attributes in life.

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Kesheena Sullivan Barr Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Tongan Dreaming

2017

Gouache, acrylic and ink on canvas

My work explores the relationship between acquired synaesthesia and multimedia experiences. With influences as diverse as Michael Howard and L Ron Hubbard, new tensions are manufactured from both traditional and modern meanings. As momentary replicas become frozen through boundaries and academic practice, the viewer is left with an insight into Tongan culture.

Cara Teeling Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Reflective Pathways and Good Choices 2017 Acrylic paint on canvas

My painting is about the good and bad. Its meaning is perceived in many contexts but for me, it is a representation of how I recognize things at this time in my life and the path that I chose for myself. It can be very easy to take either path in life but this painting is about choosing the good in any situation and choosing to pursue what is worth pursuing, while turning away from negativity.

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Stella Hering Year 11, Kirwan State High School

Dreaming with koi

2017

Ink, watercolour and acrylic on canvas

Dreaming with Koi is a self-portrait that explores identity, imagination and my passion for the environment. This work is a self-discovery of innocent childhood memories and experiences and how they have contributed to my curiosity in caring for our marine environment.

Through the concept of "Artist Existence" I have discovered secret fragments of self and memory, exploring identity, and acknowledging great influential stories that made me the child I was to the teenager I am today.

Eirinn Haynes Year 11, Kirwan State High School

Overload

Mixed media

2017

Astral suspension between a mindset of peaceful freedom and the binding overload of emotional expectations; this work explores inner strength and release from the emotional overload that creates anxiety.

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Crystal Rose Franklin Year 11, Kirwan State High School

Mizuko; Beauty and Youth

Mixed media on card

2017

Inspired by Val Britton's use of colour and void this artwork is the second and final piece in the Mizuko palimpsest series, which is a tribute and thank you to my Japanese host sister. The intention of this artwork is to emphasise youth, beauty and harmony through the layering of traditional Japanese culture with contemporary art styles.

Emily Jones Year 12, Kirwan State High School

You, Like Me, Like No Other

2017

Acrylic, coloured pencil and watercolour

You, Like Me, Like No Other explores the relationship between sisters, the good stuff and bad alike. The girls are lost together in a bloom of carnations, surrounded by different symbols for sisterhood including the constellation Pleadies, quotes from the Brontё sisters and a poem of my own creation.

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Sirenna Manicaros Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Journey to Freedom

2017

Acrylic, gouache, oil pastels on canvas

During the growing years, young people go on a journey of self-discovery, that I am told never ends. This artwork crystallises my feelings of flight and freedom. The images represent the confliction between wanting to run away and being held back by responsibilities.

Sophie Boyce Year 11, Kirwan State High School

Untitled

2017

Mixed media on canvas

Connection and awareness is central to this succinct representation of environmental threats. Defined through the juxtaposition of single use bags and reproduced imagery this work is both a personal reference to my mother and an environmental statement that connects our everyday use of plastic bags to environmental threats both globally and locally.

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Sophie McConnell Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Triptych: Crystallised Insight

Oil crayon on paper

2017

My piece, Triptych: Crystallised Insight reflects upon my own emotions through adversity while adhering to my metaphorical, yet literal interpretation of crystallisation. The portrait morphs into crystals with complementary clusters on either side, contrasting the aesthetic.

Purposeful and symbolic colour palette; visually represents my insight through my own psychological/mental journey.

Jade White Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Meeting Halfway

Acrylic paint and oil pastel

2017

This artwork encompasses my personal struggle and growth in a harsh period in my life. Bold colours and strokes are used throughout this piece to symbolise the prominence of my feelings and the impact it had. The background is tied together with a foregrounding self-portrait to combine those two factors and colours to show how it has made me who I am today.

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Trinity Lambert Year 12, Northern Beaches State High School

Belinda

Digital image

2017

This is a portrait of Belinda, a fellow student from NBSHS who creates amazing pieces of wearable art. I wanted to photograph Belinda in her recent wearable art piece Nature’s Reclamation as it was an amazing piece of work. It took her hours to create, with every leaf and flower made by hand. I wanted the image to show the attention to detail that Belinda puts into her artwork, as well as being a tribute to her creativity.

Trinity Lambert Year 12, Northern Beaches State High School

Sugar Coat Digital image

2017

These photographs are about the way people sugar coat suicide or how people who have a mental illness think death is a beautiful thing. The flowers represent the happiness these people once had or are trying to regain, while the rest of them, and all around them, is gloomy.

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Renee Smith Year 12, Pimlico State High School

Caged and Crazed

Acrylic on canvas with wire

2017

This artwork raises awareness of the mental illness that zoo animals suffer when living in artificial enclosures. Although their zoo environment (represented inside the cage) may look like the animal’s natural habitat (outside the cage), the sad reality is that it’s still a cage, therefore the minimal and isolated space doesn’t allow wild animals to use their natural instincts and predatory skills. Consequently, zoo animals suffer boredom and depression (the tiger), frustration (wolf), desperation and sadness (eagle), and overall self-destructive behaviours.

Brooke Rankin Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Tortured Thoughts Digital print on canvas

2017

Tortured Thoughts explores an individual’s need to conform to pressures applied by society.

In our modern world, a person’s self-image is clouded by that of social media expectations and the perceived image of what is "normal" or "right". Through the use of symbolism and visual language, ‘secrets’ are revealed in an exploration of the concept "The Artist’s Existence".

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Dawn Henderson Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Go with the flow

2017

Acrylic and digital print on canvas

My self-portrait features symbolic aspects that are both original and based off some of my favourite movies and video games. I am featured riding on a Nausicaä glider (Nausicaä in Valley of the Wind by Studio Ghibli) within a Van Gogh appropriation of a wind vortex. This depiction symbolises both my love for Studio Ghibli’s movies and my ‘go-with-the-flow’ attitude. The floating islands and lamppost represent the video game Dishonoured and the alternate world within it.

Saige Quadrio Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Expression from Within Acrylic on canvas

2017

My self-portrait creates a visual representation of my personality and inner-self. The opened jacket is the "opening to the soul", it reveals aspects of my personality that may lay under the surface. Despite the jacket being painted with white and black, the hair is painted with bright pops of colour, portraying my creativity.

I imagine people’s personalities being black and white at first, however once you get to know them you discover their "colours".

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Harlee Ralph Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Distressed

2017

Graphite on canvas

These books are a hidden metaphor for the overwhelming stress of studying. Stress is the main issue in my high school life and it is part of my identity.

Teisha Cattana Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Split

2017

Acrylic on canvas

This artwork represents that the artist is a twin that seeks her own life. The artist wishes to be an independent rather than a conjoint person.

"Do you two get confused who's who?"

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Karla Destefani Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Rainbow Road

2017

Mixed media on paper over canvas

I created this self-portrait when looking into the concept of "The Artist’s Existence". I chose to show some aspects of myself that not all may know at first glance. These being my love of cars, in particular, the mk3 Supra seen taking up around two-thirds of the subject matter. The second aspect being synaesthesia; the ability to feel emotions in colours. This aspect resulted in the vibrant colour scheme.

Overlapping shards of paper have been used around the edges to create a dream-like feel, as it is a dream of mine to own a Supra.

Chloe Jeffery Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Chaos

2017

2D mixed media

This artwork represents my disorganised, chaotic life but it is also bright, happy and exciting like my personality. I like to create art that makes people smile.

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Emily Horn Year 12, Pimlico State High School

Sad Reality

Acrylic on canvas

2017

This artwork represents how I love the outback and the bush and it's where I wish to make my home. However, the reality is I'm living in the city of Townsville, trapped and controlled like the bridle on the horse. People should see a possible connection between not being where they hoped to be at this stage of their life.

Annabel Wright Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Future Self-Portrait

Acrylic on canvas

2017

Eager to leave the confusing time of adolescence, I find myself looking towards the future. What is it I see? Really, it’s nothing fancy. I’m standing at the kitchen bench chatting with my husband who loves me dearly, my children playing in the next room and the hope that our next endeavour, no matter what it is, will be amazing. The thought that there are people in the world who pray for something considered so basic in our society makes me grateful for my life.

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Sarah Wright Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Memories

Acrylic on canvas

2017

The prompt for this artwork was the artist’s "secrets" but the task was interpreted by me as sharing a hidden inner truth and realization.

The artwork depicts my twin sister and I sharing a milkshake, and is based on a real memory of my past. The prevalent cool blues are indicative of the nostalgic feelings that accompany this recollection, and the warmth of the wood represents the happiness and simplicity of the moment. Whilst the moment may end and the paint on the walls may peel, the memory will never be lost.

Nikita Tolentino Year 12, Pimlico State High School

The World’s Façade Acrylic on canvas

2017

Humans are jealous creatures; we constantly think that “the grass is greener on the other side”. We’re always lusting after the things we don’t have. We think that we have it so bad, that everyone else has better stuff, and we spend our lives wishing we could have it instead. But the thing is, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side; everything that we think is amazing has a dark side to it too.

After all, when something is hidden behind a façade, we don’t always see it.

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Georgia Badoino Year 11, Pimlico State High School

Badoino

2017

Acrylic on canvas

This artwork expresses who I am and things I hold close to my heart. The symbolism represented in this self portrait is my personality, my passion and my heritage.

Corey Kranz Year 12, Ryan Catholic College

Micky

Photography

2017

My work was completed during a unit examining the concept of metamorphosis. The work is a brief shot of what life is like on rural properties in Australia the way the land flows with the rivers and how cattle are worked, linking to my focus of Identity.

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William Loveday Year 12, Ryan Catholic College

Artist’s Interpretation

2017

Drawing

One’s inner self can be convoluted and secluded. The work attempts to present the personality of the muse in a physical form through colour, medium and style.

I focused on presenting people's inner self, personalities, and their identities as their skin.

This was done by using an art medium and art style that defines who I see them as. Their inner personality has metamorphosed into their external appearance.

Chloe Reid Year 12, Ryan Catholic College

Skeletons and Skins Photography

2017

My artwork is about going through that change from feeling so alone on the inside, but once we put our ‘skins’ on, we automatically appear to be fine. It’s about going through that change of realising these things, and deciding to work with other people to help end shaming and blaming.

Therefore, eventually being able to get rid of those insecurities and live your life how you want to, by being yourself.

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Anneka Bullen Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

Who Am I?

Acrylic on canvas

2017

Who am I? is a self portrait with different sections making up four corners of the piece. JeanMichel Basquiat's style was a main source of inspiration and appropriation. The work is rich in symbolism and has themes of family, death and the stress of after school pathways. The work tests the conception of beauty and art through appropriation of the Art Brut style.

Breanna McLaughlan Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

Untitled

2017

Audiovisual artwork

The artwork explores an ironic view of Australian identity through a series of pen and ink drawings and presented as an AV display. Australian identity is examined from a humorous perspective.

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Sarah Groves Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

See, Touch, Feel

2017

Pencil on paper

See, Touch, Feel diptych is a drawing reflecting the physical and emotional side on the artist identity. The heart represents the emotional side of how we feel and emotionally think about ourselves. The eye represents the physical side of how we physically see who we are and identify ourselves.

Tianna Ross Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

Getting There

2017

Acrylic and marker on canvas

Getting there is an appropriation of Hahan's The Journey.Through my painting I am welcoming you into my world and displaying many objects that make up who I am. This is revealed through the portraits of my family members, Castle Hill and the Sugar Shaker, all of which represent home. The St Margaret Mary’s College uniforms represent my journey through the final year of school whilst JCU represents my plans for the future.

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Emma Lodge Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

Body of Water/ Sun for Thought

Mixed media on paper

2017

Body of Water and Sun for Thought are diptych artworks exploring themes of physical make-up and psychological perceptions within human existence. The works convey both the biological and intuitive sides of the human experience. This exploration is revealed in the breaking down of real-life elements throughout these works.

Amber GrifFIths Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

Grow

2017

Graphite pencils and Copic markers on paper

This piece represents how one's existence is interwoven with time. It reflects how people start small, age, wither and die just like the lifecycle rose. The work is a portrait of idealised female figure surrounded by roses in multiple stages of life and death.

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Kimberley Rocky Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

My Journey

Vinyl cut print

2017

My piece shows a design that incorporates a mangrove seed. This is a significant memory for me as a girl, we used to use the seed to draw on the beach, and to race one and other. The seed only appeared when it rained, making the memories and the games even more significant.

Tayla Finemore Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

My Journey

Vinyl cut print

2017

This piece is representative of my "fingerprint", an image that is unique to me.

Symbols incorporated include crocodiles, the sun, river huts and mango leaves. All these elements combine to create an image that reminds me of my hometown Normanton.

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Caitlyn Goodes Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

My Journey

Vinyl cut print

2017

This piece shows the leaves that surround the "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" Tree that grew all around my home city of Durban. These flowers remind me of family and friends. The tree itself brings the message that what ever today brings life lessons happen for a reason.

Leshay Linden Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

My Journey

Vinyl cut print

2017

This artwork shows a stingray making its way through the sea. This can be a common site when at home in Mornington Island, and I wanted to show the fluid motion of the stingray as it makes its way through the waters. The image also incorporates design that reflects my personal 'fingerprint,' symbolism unique to me.

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Isobel Harris Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

Narrative Vessel Fauna Ceramic

2017

This piece is inspired by the Hermannsburg Potters of central Australia. I wanted to produce a piece that showcases some of the flora found in my region. The top of the vessel shows a flourishing meadow environment.

Leshay Linden Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

My Narrative Ceramic

2017

This piece shows a panoramic view of where I am from, with symbols, flora and fauna that represent Mornington Island.

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Manaima Au Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

Narrative of the Coconut Ceramic

2017

Coconuts are in abundance in my community.

I wanted to create a vessel that celebrates this aspect of Australian Flora and Fauna, by depicting the coconut tumbling to the ground, creating a common site.

Maya Johnson Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

Narrative Vessel with Curlew Ceramic

2017

This piece is inspired by the Hermannsburg Potters of central Australia, like this group I wanted to incorporate flora and fauna relevant to my home. The curlew features atop the vessel, reflects an animal found in the environment featured around the vessel.

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Year 12 VAP St Patrick's College Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

Our Narrative Ceramic

2017

This piece was produced as a collaboration. Each student produced their own ceramic narrative vessel, however we realised that all our stories intertwine, given our school experiences, growing up in our various communities and towns in NQ. As a result we realised our motifs we used on our individual pieces would work well as unified composition.

Samuel Onazi Year 12, William Ross State High School

Journey of my Childhood Spray paints on paper

2017

Travelling from Nigeria to Australia is a personal journey that I have taken. I have created stencils of images which symbolise my childhood from Nigeria. I cut out shapes of pictures then used spray paints to give it a rich, layered colour. I want the audience to see what surrounded me while I was a child and the situation that affects my country.

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Matthew Riondino Year 12, William Ross State High School

Isolated Substance Mixed media

2017

Being an introvert, I have noticed that the world has boxed itself in with its walls of technology and wireless communication. This lifestyle is so addictive, so dependant, so destructive, and it is a fact that this way of life is here to stay. The air around us is toxic in a sense that the way we live is decaying our insides. We rarely communicate face to face. Because of this, I created this artwork which is designed to reveal the journey of isolation consuming society. I want the audience to, on closer inspection, see the sinister and dark reality.

Lara Haar Year 12, William Ross State High School

Unlike the Rest Mixed media

2017

Unlike the Rest portrays the issues of personal identity and spiritualism as it shows the reversing of how you have to be a certain body type or shape in order to play a certain role.

With society having restricted expectations on how women should look, many women are self-conscious about their bodies; therefore resulting in the constant decline in self-esteem, however, still persisting to view their body in a positive manner. This work celebrates the female body.

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Laura Ingham Year 12, William Ross State High School

Discovering the Past Mixed media

2017

My artwork, titled Discovering the Past, is a fivepiece series of plastic 'microscope slides' with paintings of dinosaurs featured on each slide.

The series was created to represent a scientific journey, both of the evolution of prehistoric life, and of their rediscovery by scientists and palaeontologists 65 million years later.

Brooklyn keast Year 11, Kirwan State High School

A night at Busan

Mixed media on canvas

2017

Inspired by contemporary Korean poems this rooftop night scape layers a mix of contemporary and tradition Korean architecture as a metaphor for family and shared values.

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Holly Jones Year 11, Kirwan State High School

The Bubble of History Mixed media on canvas

2017

Inspired by a family relic handed down to my sister and I from our great Grandmother this nostalgic portrait connects generations of women through symbols of love and kinship.

Flip BOOK over for

North Queensland regional exhibition 2017 33

Catalogue North Queensland regional exhibition 2017

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Pinnacles Gallery 9 September – 1 October 2017

North Queensland regional exhibition 2017

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Publisher

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

Gallery Services, Townsville City Council PO Box 1268 Townsville, Queensland 4810 Australia pinnacles@townsville.qld.gov.au (07) 4773 8871

North Queensland regional exhibition 2017

© Gallery Services, Townsville City Council and the authors 2017 Exhibition organised by GALLERY SERVICES Judith Jensen Erwin Cruz Louise Cummins Rob Donaldson Carly Sheil Samuel Smith Leonardo Valero Jacquelina Jakovljevic Sarah Monts Sarah Reddington Nicole Richardson Danielle Berry Wendy Bainbridge Jo Lankester Madisyn Zabel Chloe Lindo Jake Pullyn Rachel Cunningham

Acting Team Manager Galleries and Libraries Exhibitions and Collection Coordinator Education and Programs Coordinator Digital Media and Exhibition Design Coordinator Digital Media and Exhibition Design Officer Digital Media and Exhibtion Design Fellow Exhibitions Officer Exhibitions Officer Public Art Officer Education and Programs Officer Education and Programs Assistant Arts Officer Gallery Assistant Gallery Assistant Gallery Assistant Gallery Assistant Gallery Assistant Gallery Assistant

Pinnacles Gallery, Riverway Arts Centre 20 Village Blvd, Townsville QLD 4817 (07) 4773 8871 pinnacles@townsville.qld.gov.au www.townsville.qld.gov.au /PinnaclesTCC Opening Hours Tuesday - Sunday: 10am - 5pm Monday Closed

Pinnacles Gallery 9 September – 1 October 2017

Gallery Acknowledgements Pinnacles Gallery would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance of the Department of Education, Training and Employment, Queensland Government; QSuper and Townsville City Council.

The Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art would like to thank Program Partner QSuper for their support and for supplying the Regional Encouragement Award prize.

A special thank you to Ebony Russell, Regional Coordinator for Creative Generation Excellence in Visual Art. Thank you also to all participating schools, teachers and student artists: • • • • • • • •

Columba Catholic College (Mount Carmel Campus) Kirwan State High School Pimlico State High School St Margaret Mary's College St Patrick's College Townsville Townsville Grammar School Townsville State High School William Ross State High School

Department of Education and Training

Introduction The Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art recognises and promotes excellence in senior visual art education throughout state and non-state schools in Queensland.

Now in its 27th year, the program has helped raise community awareness of the degree of sophistication in concepts, diversity of technical competence, and the high standard of visual art education in Queensland secondary schools.

This year 8 schools have entered artworks by 20 students that form the exhibition in Pinnacles Gallery. This publication features the artworks of the talented young artists who have entered the Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art North Queensland regional exhibition 2017.

MAYA RANKINE

Year 11, Columba Catholic College

Dance with me [detail] Colour print on paper

2017

As an Indigenous young woman, I believe that it is crucial to keep our culture alive. Through my work, I want to emphasise how important it is for young Aboriginal women to reconnect with their ancestors. A girl in my artwork performs a powerful movement. Her appearance is influenced by her cultural and spiritual identity. Hand movements represent the ancestors protecting her and supporting her body, mind and soul, throughout life. She has her elders nurturing her body.

LAWRENCE HARRIS Year 12, Columba Catholic College

Femininity [detail] Colour print on paper

2017

In my work, I have explored a notion of a human figure and its femininity, understood as "the quality of being female". With "womanliness" as my focus, I investigated disfiguration of various shapes and sizes of selected body types, and questioned various stereotypes of femininity. My goal was to incorporate perception of a female figure, in order to outline its masculinity and femininity.

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KACEY-RAE MURRAY Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Reef Fatality? [detail] Acrylic paint

2017

Through crystallising my knowledge and passions toward the future of Global Warming on marine life, insight was achieved. The confronting gradient from colourful to stark white corals created a metaphorical timeline which visually aims to express the future effects of global warming on our beloved reef ecosystems. The glowing feature represents my personal experiences snorkelling around the bleached corals in parts of the Great Barrier Reef and the reality faced, similarly having to be in the dark in order to witness the luminosity.

RAHNI MCCULLOUGH Year 12, Kirwan State High School

Adventure of a Lifetime [detail] Photography, textile and acrylic paint

2017

Wanting to capture the emergence of aboriginal values, belief, traditions and language from past to present, I have created an abstract, representational wearable art piece. Adventure of a Lifetime symbolically portrays the hardships and forgiveness our aboriginal elders endured for the future that we live today. With this piece bringing closer to my curiosity of my aboriginal heritage, there is still so much more to learn and change within society in relation to equality amongst cultures.

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LIBBY HAWKEN

Year 11, Kirwan State High School

Girl With The Red Rose [detail]

Mixed media on canvas

2017

Art reflects the never ending insight of those who lay their gaze upon a canvas.

This inspiration sparked from the artist Kei Maeguro and her piece Girl Without The Pearl Earring is her contemporary view of Girl With The Pearl EarringJohannes Vermeer (1665). This artwork was created as a continuum of a mysterious narrative. Girl With The Red Rose is a personal view of social issues that occur in our contemporary teenage society.

AMILY PHINEASA

Year 11, Kirwan State High School

Untitled [detail] Mixed media

2017

Inspired by street art, hidden symbols and meanings are revealed to those who dare to investigate. Encoded within our world and galaxy infinite possibilities reveal themselves through fragments of knowledge and creativity. This cluster of metallic planets lures viewers to turn on the black light torch and reveal the hidden layers, launching the imagination of infinite possibilities.

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JADE PAGÁN

Year 12, Pimlico State High School

Victim to Love [detail] Music video

2017

Victim to Love is a music video that explores the concept ‘Sites of Love’.

The artwork takes on the story of a young girl who meets her first love and experiences heartbreak. The video was created with the combined use of stop motion, slow motion, fast motion and real time, with the beginning, middle and end of the ‘love’ all occurring within 5 short minutes.

EDEN NEWCOMBE

Year 12, Pimlico State High School

Friday Night [detail] Video

2017

Friday Night explores the theme and focus of sites of personal comfort and solitude found within mundane moments and events. The artwork -to me- depicts an atmosphere of haziness and manifests a short scene of personal importance, as the site I have explored and depicted is one where I feel safe and relaxed. Friday Night depicts a scene, which almost feels as though -even if just for a few waking momentsreality is shifted and I am in a state of a lucid dream.

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ASHLEIGH MCCANNA Year 12, St Margaret Mary's College

Super Recogniser [detail] Acrylic on canvas

2017

A super recogniser has an above average ability to recognise faces. This work, Super Recogniser, explores this concept using CCTV footage and translucent eyes overlaid on the canvas. We are always watched in our Post-Industrial Age Society and through technology there are now individuals and governments who use this for surveillance.

My work explores the theme of identity as physical appearance.

ELLA HOEDT

Year 11, St Patrick's College Townsville

FLEETING 1, 2 and 3 Triptych [detail] High-Quality Digital Print

2017

The ocean possesses both turbulence and tranquility; flat as glass one day and a stormy tempest the next. These qualities are mirrored in the depths of human emotion and the rolling waves of thought. Both forces are constantly shifting, and as such the sea is both metaphorical and symbolic in the artwork. The ocean is a constant presence in the triptych, in the same sense that emotion provides the foundation upon which decisions are made.

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CHLOE CONDON

Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

The Nature Of Being Human’ [detail]

2017

Digital Photography

The Nature of Being Human is a series of portrait photographs. I wanted the audience to connect with the subjects’ soul. Her personal identity thus far.

The reason I have her body and head facing different directions is inspired by the philosophy behind ‘body and soul’. Philosophers, Plato and Descartes believed that persistence is our existence across time, that the mind can exist without the body, and we persist because we have a soul.

TONISHA LOGAN

Year 12, St Patrick's College Townsville

Gkuutharn [detail]

2017

Digitally Enhanced Mixed media painting

I am decendant from the Gkuutharn People. I have grown up around my great grandmother, grand mother and my mother sharing our art and culture and making artwork using the same symbols through our generations. My symbol in this art work is the human form both female and male. I have grown with my culture and carried my culture, I express this through my art work.

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PELISTA PILOT

Year 11, St Patrick's College Townsville

My Island Home Linocut Dress [detail]

Lino, paint and grass raffia

2017

This piece is a celebration of my identity, culture and heritage. I have created an outfit made using printmaking materials and techniques as this is a celebrated artform from my home in the Torres Strait Islands. My father is a printmaker, I wanted to honour the skill and techniques that I have seen him use to share our stories and traditions with the community. The central theme of my work is the flora and fauna found on and around the islands.

KATHRYN PANZENBOCK Year 12, Townsville Grammar School

Beneath the Fabricated Surface [detail]

Etching, ink, coloured pencil, paint

2017

Crippling anxiety, social pressure and failed demands have the ability to obliterate and overwhelm a person’s mental state, shattering the very walls of our existence.

Beneath the Fabricated Surface focuses on this mental torment within one’s mind, likening it to shattered glass. Mental illness, although not always evident on the surface to those we hold dear, appears in all shapes and forms and like ink, it leaves a stain on the victim’s psyche that can never be removed.

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MATILDA ROBINSON

Year 11, Townsville Grammar School

Masks [detail]

Oil paint on canvas

2017

Everybody has a mask that they wear, even if they don’t realise they do. They have things that sit inside, making them strong even when they are not, or things they do to make themselves have that little bit of extra strength. The mask that I have has carried me through most of my life, through the major roller coaster that my life has been, and it continues to give me strength through the grey uncertainty that surrounds me.

BLAKE FRANKCOM

Year 12, Townsville State High School

Beast of the Unknown [detail] Acrylic on Canvas

2017

I have been fascinated with the idea that there is so much unexplored space around us that we couldn't possibly be alone. This artwork depicts that fascination, as well as my interest of dragons. I decided to use the idea of a dragon, being that it's a mythical creature we do not believe to exist, with the very minimal amount of knowledge we have of what could be out there, it fits the idea quite well.

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LALAINE VILLANUEVA Year 11, Townsville State High School

Me vs Myself [detail] Mixed media

2017

My artwork as one, expresses the constant stress and desolation that I feel due to school and expectations. I wanted to show the power of the mind and how it causes internal conflict due to letting the tiniest negative thing overlap the positives to change my perspective to become entirely negative. School has always made me feel stressed and constantly judged, but I know I was the one who let everyone create high expectations of myself.

TEAGAN MCCUBBIN

Year 12, William Ross State High School

Journey [detail] Mixed media

2017

There are many journeys that occur daily.

We do not always pay attention to these journeys, but they exist nevertheless. My artwork focuses on these journeys, making them visible to the audience, drawing attention to them. Beneath the surface there is always things happening, both beneath the surface of the skin and beneath the surface of society. The smaller journeys, such as that of the ants, are also happening, always going on even if we do not see them. All of these journeys are important and they matter.

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ALISON COWAN

Year 12, Pimlico State High School

Lost in Transit [detail] Mixed media installation

2017

Lost in Transit encapsulates the human casualty of an airport. The artwork highlights the strain on businessmen and women separated from their families that have to travel for work, such as fly in fly out miners, soldiers and travelling business executives.

Airports hold thousands of people, making it a very chaotic location; people rushing, boredom, delayed flights, greetings and goodbyes of loved ones, dealing with the emotional cost of loneliness and misery of missed moments.

EMMA HIGGINS

Year 12, Pimlico State High School

Imprisonment [detail]

2017

Mixed media installation and photography

This photographic series was created as a means of exploring the concept of "Mental Imprisonment". The images aim to confront and challenge stereotypes associated with the idea of imprisonment that is so often singularly associated with criminals and prisons. Exploring a variety of contexts: socio-cultural, psychological and personal, this series aims to visually convey the destructive impact of imprisonment that is located within the mind.

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