HONOURS QUEENSLAND COLLEGE OF ART, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY
GRADUATES CATALOGUE 2017
HONOURS GRADUATES CATALOGUE QUEENSLAND COLLEGE OF ART GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY 13–17 NOVEMBER 2017
FOREWORD
Entering into an Honours year, artists and designers often begin with the end in mind, making assumptions about their studio processes and anticipated outcomes. However, what transpires is an unprecedented growth that no candidate can predict. Such is the experience of undertaking Honours—a year where practice reaches greater depths and where candidates embrace new levels of rigour and an understanding of their place in the contemporary art world. This year also marked the beginning of the new program architecture, designed to provide more meaning and value for each candidate. What has remained, however, are the age-old questions that drive innovation: What am I examining? How will I explore this? What have I learned from this inquiry? Why does this matter? Such questions are crucial to the vitality of art and design research. The works produced by our graduating Honours candidates represent their unique responses to these questions. They invite you to remain open to their responses, while asking that you raise your own. On behalf of the teaching team at Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University, I congratulate the graduating Honours candidates for their professionalism, enthusiasm, and commitment to practice, which will serve them well as they move forward. QCA wishes them every success in future endeavours, and welcomes them into the proud and acclaimed community of the Griffith alumni.
Dr Laini Burton Program Director, Honours Queensland College of Art Griffith University
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ANDREW GALL–KURINA 4
CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS ART kurina waypah rrala 2017 925 sterling silver 4 x 9.5 x 2cm Legacy of the Stringer 2017 925 sterling silver 6 x 4 x 1cm Photographer: Caitlin Boag
As a pakana (Aboriginal) from lutruwita (Tasmania), I create my artworks under my spiritual name kurina. Every piece I create tells a story of land and culture as well as my personal and spiritual past. My culture, like many Indigenous cultures of the world, relies on the storyteller who is the communicator of the lore. An instructor of tradition, they impart the knowledge and skills needed to maintain the continuation of culture.
HOLLY ANDERSON FINE ART hollyandersonart.com My Zen Garden 2017 oil on panel 34 x 25cm My Clover 2017 oil on panel 30 x 40cm My Mirage 2017 oil on panel 30 x 40cm
This work is part of research into how a contemporary spectatorship of retro images can be addressed in painting. A longstanding, personal spectatorship of female 1960s’ pop icons such as Brigitte Bardot, Francoise Hardy, and Audrey Hepburn opens questions about the legacies of these images in personal and cultural contexts. The potential of painting to open these personally experienced, strangely layered image interactions is explored.
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ANTHONY ELLIOTT BAKER 6
FINE ART artaeb.com It is OK to feel things 2017 steel, stainless steel, high tensile steel wire, concrete, humbucker pickups, faux fur, and loudspeaker variable
say ‘i steal off you’ repeatedly as fast as you can until it sounds like something else The sonification of these objects evokes an emotive reaction to create an immersive feedback loop between the participant’s consciousness and site. You can see, hear, touch, and feel the vibrations of the wires. My year has been spent researching how the clinical application of Ketamine can inform a recursive art practice.
VIVIEN BEDWELL FINE ART Moving Moments 2017 aluminium, silk thread 50 x 44 x 18cm
This research project investigates the space surrounding the human body and the embodiment of space where the experience takes on a form. The work aims to capture evidence of movement from the creation process and investigates the language that transpires, potentially translating perception of space and related ideas of place and time. The sculptural wearables support the investigation into an area I feel is fundamental to any visual language.
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DEBORAH EDDY 8
FINE ART deboraheddyart.com Going Grey 2017 cable ties and gutter guard variable Going Grey (detail) 2017 cable ties and gutter guard variable
This project has emanated from my experience as an ageing woman who has realised that I have become invisible and that I am not alone in this. Sculpture has been employed as a means to give visibility to older women. The materials, building supplies, and hi-vis safety equipment are important aspects of the work as they act as metaphors for the unseenbut-present male and the struggle women face to be seen.
REE HEGH FINE ART House/Hold 2017 installation featuring a broken domestic trampoline, mesh, damaged tent, work light, dowel, unfired porcelain, indian ink, sand, wool, melamine plate
My work explores complexities between the functionality of an object and a subjective interpretation we might assign it. Of special interest are objects no longer wanted or considered useful in a familial environment.
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PETER KOZAK 10
FINE ART peterkozak.com Bridge 2016 three channel HD digital video
Focusing on objects and phenomena that are often overlooked, my practice seeks to draw connections between their material qualities and human experiences, such as decay, vulnerability, and connection.
JULIE PURCELL FINE ART themodcon.wordpress.com A Harem 2017 oil on cardboard 45 x 21 x 1.5cm Severed Head, Fretwork Portal, Bird Cage 2017 oil on cardboard 26 x 65 x 1.5cm Spike Trap 2017 oil on canvas 60 x 85cm
Orientalism still operates in Western society as a popular form of escapism and a problematic aspect of identity construction. My experience of the ‘Orient’ is entirely simulated; I know it only through media. My project documents this simulation by revisiting and painting the Tomb Raider game space. I focus on signification, linking texture mapping in game space to the visual trope of the picturesque seen in nineteenth-century Orientalist painting.
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MANDY QUADRIO 12
FINE ART mandyquadrio.com.au I am not a pigment of your imagination 2017 bull kelp and velvet 28 x 11 x 9cm Holes in history 2017 steel wool and bull kelp 218 x 44 x 40cm Holes in history (detail) 2017 steel wool and bull kelp
My visual arts practice is process-driven and investigates general ideas of Aboriginality surrounding the visibility, control and containment of palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) people. I use visual representations and interventions to challenge and overcome stereotypical ideologies that have been falsely held about my people. I am asserting my sovereignty as a strong, proud, palawa woman.
SOPHIE REID-SINGER INTERDISCIPLINARY DRAWING clunkk.com.au The Cave 2017 interdisciplinary drawing
Drawn in thick black ink on paper and developed into a single-user computer game, The Cave aims to stimulate the audience by offering a narrative that avails a search for meaning. Navigable only by the eye’s journey through its snake-like structure, this space is devoid of inhabitants or life. Through ludic storytelling, I hope to examine the relationship between the self within the past and personal stories of the present.
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VENESSA WILLIAMS STARZYNSKI 14
FINE ART Three Female Adventurers 1803 2017 oil and graphite on linen 8 x 13 inches Irish Linen 1803 2017 oil and graphite on linen 8 x 13 inches “the fatal excursion” 1803 2017 graphite on linen detail (verso)
Archi’ve: the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (1803–1842) furthered my inquiry into the life experiences of my Aboriginal and Irish ancestors during a period when four successive colonial governors mediatised this newspaper. My final body of work is an immersive collection of paintings, drawings and historical objects. I have also incorporated symbolic sounds and sensory components to engage the viewer’s imagination.
KAREN STEPHENS FINE ART Heliocentric (Great Motor of the Sky) 2017 acrylic paint, oil paint, gold leaf on polyester 100 x 100 x 2.5cm
My practice investigates why the horizon is frequently missing from contemporary landscape painting of Western origin. I look specifically at practitioners who adopt the mode of a smartphone to gather source imagery for painting. In focus is the unstable and close range artificial horizon produced by the mobile interface device. If our sense of horizon is destabilised, then painting is well positioned to address the problem as we accelerate into the digital age.
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TOM BROADHURST 16
PHOTOGRAPHY @pure_gibberish untitled 2017 silver gelatin print and paper 28 x 35cm untited 2017 silver gelatin print, ink and paper 18 x 60cm untitled (installation view) 2017 silver gelatin print, ink paper ad found imagery 50 x 25cm
Using photography, collage and book making, this research investigates the anxiety that arises from the contemporary’s futuristic gaze and its manifestations in the everyday.
THOMAS OLIVER PHOTOGRAPHY thomasoliver.com.au Composition II 2017 inkjet print on Dibond 60 x 80cm
The ‘Re/Order’ series fragments and realigns my experiences of the everyday. It pairs together photographs I have taken in various countries over the last five years, highlighting non-consumable and inconspicuous movements. Narratives become strange jigsaw puzzles, fused from different yet related boxes. This is my personal way of creating meaning and order in a seemingly random world.
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TAHLIA STEHBENS 18
PHOTOGRAPHY cambiophotos.com Look at it this way... A social documentary project that counters the uses of stigma and shame on religious minorities in Australia 2017 archival inkjet print 22.5 x 22.5cm
Documentary storytelling is a conduit through which those who are rendered mute by powerful elites can be heard. It’s an honour to combine my voice with the marginalised and join a movement that seeks to make the world a better place. Through photography, I strive to inform our understanding of the human condition. Life has privileged me in many ways but with privilege comes a responsibility to have compassion and respect.
QUINN TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY quinntaylorphoto.com What She Said 2017 photography 2.25 x 1.5cm, 2.25 x 2.25cm
What She Said chronicles the effects and occurrences of rape culture through the stories of women it has affected. Through documenting this issue, I hope to subvert the assumptions and myths around it that are too widely held by society. I aim to give women the space to tell their stories in a way that can strengthen their personal agency and tell their account on their terms.
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HONOURS STAFF 2017
PROGRAM DIRECTOR, HONOURS Dr Laini Burton
SUPERVISORS Ms Bianca Beetson Dr Chris Bennie Dr Laini Burton Dr Sam Canning Ms Rae Cooper Ms Amy Carkeek Dr Beck Davis Dr Simon Degroot Mr Daniel Della-Bosca Mr Seth Ellis Dr Dominique Falla Dr Heather Faulkner Dr Julie Fragar Dr Eleni Kalantidou Ms Catherine Large Dr Chari Larsson Dr Mike McAuley Dr Louise Mayhew Ms Lorraine Marshalsey Dr Julie-Anne Milinksi Ms Kellie O’Dempsey Dr Bill Platz Mr Tristan Schultz Ms Elizabeth Shaw Prof Jay Younger
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Honours Programs would like to acknowledge the contributions to teaching in Honours from our colleagues in allied disciplines at QCA: Ms Bianca Beetson (Program Convenor, Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art) Prof Susan Best (Deputy Director, Research) Prof Andrew Brown (Program Director, Interactive Media) Assoc Prof Elisabeth Findlay (Deputy Director, Learning and Teaching) Mr Seth Ellis (Program Director, Masters of Interactive Media)
ADMINISTRATION STAFF Ms Sandra Kane, Fine Art/Art Theory Administrator and Team Leader QCA SLTC Ms Natasha Kershaw, Administration Officer, Gold Coast Mr Max Lloyd-West, School Administration Officer Ms Georgina Peart, Executive Support Officer Ms Aileen Randle, Project Officer
TECHNICAL STAFF
Ms Naomi Hay, 2017 Teaching Team Member
Mr Grey Hoy
Ms Caity Reynolds, 2017 Teaching Team Member
Mr Anthony Hamilton
Ms Therese Nolan-Brown, Visual Arts Librarian
Mr Dave Sawtell
Mr Rick Williams, Human Research Ethics Committee Manager Ms Carol McGregor, Cultural Advisor Mr Llewellyn Millhouse, Mid-Year Critique Team Member
Mr Andrew Forsyth Dr Brian Sanstrom Ms Katie Stormonth Mr Jonathan Tse Mr Andrew Willis